SC

Linkdown: 5/28/14

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– Here’s What You Need to Know About North Carolina Barbecue according to Southern Living

– Buxton Hall is getting ready:

– The Pit Durham, who have a sign that reads “No Weapons. No Concealed Firearms” on its front door, was unfortunately  robbed at gunpoint by three men a few Sundays ago, luckily no one was injured

– Garden and Gun Magazine’s recommendations for finding barbecue in NYC includes Mighty Quinn’s, BrisketTown in Brooklyn, and Arrogant Swine

– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Brooks Barbeque in Muscle Shoals, which he would “happily rank Brooks alongside Brick Pit in Mobile as the two best barbecue restaurants in the state, and top ten in the country.”

– A short profile on Garland and Amanda Hudgins, a SC couple who teach barbecue classes and compete (and occasionally win) in competitions

– Myron Mixon, never afraid to mince words, believes that most cooking shows on tv are too complicated (h/t bbqboard)

Barbecue is not that way. There’s fire and smoke and you can take some ingredients out of your pantry and then you’re cooking. It’s a style that relates so much more to common people.

– La Barbecue tops The Austin American-Statesman’s Matthew Odam’s list of best barbecue in Austin

– Big Wayner’s got some great photos from this year’s Memphis in May

– Well, this certainly is a list: CBS Local’s list of best barbecue in Charlotte

– Another week, another confounding barbecue list: Nashville is Travel and Leisure’s best city for barbecue in the US. Plus, there are no NC cities on the list, but it does include such barbecue meccas such as Denver, Providence and Orlando in the top 20 list.

Linkdown: 5/21/14

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– Texas really isn’t taking TripAdvisor’s list that listed them #3 behind Georgia and NC barbecue very well; no really, they aren’t taking it well at all

– The Charlotte Observer Archive Twitter account (@Observer Archive) has this archive photo about Stanton’s Barbeque and Fish Camp Fly-In Restaurant in Bennettsville, SC (across the NC/SC state line from Laurinburg) that is still in existence today:

– Trucking Info is definitely not my usual source of barbecue content, but here’s an article entitled “I Came to an Engine Teardown and Learned About Barbecue”

Inspired by Shell’s relationship with the BBQ Pitmasters show on Destination America, the barbeque pit will be used for industry and customer events. The pit, which can cook enough barbeque to feed 100 or more people, was built by champion barbeque grillers, Pitt’s and Spitt’s.

Houston-based, Pitt’s and Spitt’s has more than 75 years of combined experience designing and fabricating custom competition barbeque trailers, grills, pits and smokers. The Pitt’s & Spitt’s World Champion Cooking Team has won over 30 barbecue and cooking awards, and Shell Rotella is a sponsor of the team this year.

– “The Best Barbecue I’ve Ever Had Was Made by a Bunch of Damn Yankees”

– Alex and Zoe Ranucci of Ranucci’s Big Butt BBQ, Grand Championship-winning team of the 2013 Q City Championship, were featured in the first issue of a new magazine called Barbecue America

– Bill Spoon’s is featured on this list of “great barbecue restaurants” from USA Today as part of their National Barbecue Month coverage

– Both Rodney Scott and the SC Barbecue Trail get a mention in this article entitled “SC barbecue business gets a boost from social media” (h/t bbqboard)

– The Blue Ridge BBQ & Music Festival is looking for between 300 and 500 volunteers for June 13 and 14

– Elliot Moss’ previous barbecue concept, Buxton Hill, is dead. Long live his new concept, Buxton *Hall*

Moss’ thing is whole-hog, wood-fired barbecue. “He’s bringing a really artisanal, traditional approach to barbecue that he feels has been missing from a lot of barbecue in the south,” said Irani.

Many Asheville barbecue restaurants, including 12 Bones, Luella’s and Little Pigs Bar-B-Que, use smokers fired with both gas and wood, a system that makes it easier for cooks to control time and temperature while cooking.

– Charlotte-based food writer Keia Mastrianni accompanied two restaurateurs from San Francisco on an epic Carolinas barbecue tour (research for their now-opened barbecue restaurant Smokestack) which included Lexington #1, Wilber’s, B’s Barbecue, Scott’s Barbecue, and several more; part 1 and part 2

– The Charlotte couple behind The Great NC BBQ Map gets interviewed in Charlotte Magazine this month and shares a few more details about the map coming next month

AA: You promised to be comprehensive. That’s a big statement.

AAF: We have talked about the national chains and statewide chains and things like that. And definitely statewide chains are going to be on there, but we’re leaning toward not doing the nationwide ones because that feels a little different and it’s not so much about North Carolina history and heritage and everything.

Pappy’s Old Fashioned BBQ – Spartanburg, SC

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Name: Pappy’s Old Fashioned BBQ
Date: 4/5/14
Address: 1982 Chesnee Hwy, Spartanburg, SC 29303
Order: BBQ plate with red slaw, hush puppies, and sweet tea; “white velvet” cake for dessert (link to menu)
Price: $11.75

Monk: Well, I’ve hit a first in my barbecue blogging experience. Something I had heard dirty rumors of but never thought I would see myself. This past weekend I encountered a modern convenience which has revolutionized home cooking but has no place in a proper barbecue joint. Yep, I’m talking about a microwave.

Speedy: But was it an old fashioned microwave? (Sorry, I had to…)

Rudy: Was it at least a dirty microwave that could be considered “seasoned”?

Monk: Not even close, guys. Pappy’s Old Fashioned BBQ started out promising enough. It’s housed in a small roadside shack in Spartanburg, SC with a standalone smokehouse and a sizable woodpile out back. Order at a counter and you’re set. Or at least that’s what I thought.

Now to say that it was a slow lunch hour for a Saturday would be an understatement. There was one family who ordered takeout before us but once they left we were the only customers dining in the restaurant. However, for some reason our order took awhile to come out.

As I went to refill my sweet tea I noticed one of the owners shoveling barbecue out of a large aluminum pan into a paper boat and warming it in the microwave. And this had to be done 4 times for our group. A few minutes later once our plates were finally brought out to us, I noticed that the warmed over barbecue had good chunks of bark and smokiness but was really dry. I can’t understand why the owners would go the trouble of splitting logs and cooking over wood but storing the barbecue in large aluminum foil pans in the refrigerator. Based on the bark and smokiness, I can only guess that had the moisture and tenderness matched it I would have been impressed. Instead, I could only guess. There was a variety of sauces – vinegar, mild sweet, medium hot, and hot – and even that didn’t help too much.

Rudy: Any chance the logs and smokehouse were just props to lure in suckers (if so, it worked)?  Because I would agree there is no use in going through all that work for just a microwave.

Monk: I don’t think so – the bark on the pork was too smoky for those logs to just be for show. Though you never can tell in South Carolina…

The red slaw was a nice surprise on the menu and was passable. The hush puppies were a favorite of my in-laws, who said it reminded them of a joint called Bob Petty’s Oakwood Drive-In in Greensboro that went out of business many years ago, and I thought they were pretty good myself. There was a “white velvet” cake on the menu that was made that morning, so my curiosity got the best of me and I ordered dessert. It was a decent sheet cake, but I was a little disappointed based on the name.

Had Pappy’s Old Fashioned BBQ done some things differently, I could see it being a hidden gem of a joint just off 85 in upstate South Carolina. Too bad that didn’t turn out to be the case.

Speedy: I have nothing more to add other than to say the only reason to waste our time on this review is to warn people not to go. A microwave is completely and utterly unacceptable. Speedy’s rating: 0 hogs.

Monk (whispering): Shhh, don’t anyone tell Speedy he doesn’t really get his own ratings…

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 hogs
Pork – 1.5 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 2 Hogs

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Pappys Old Fashioned BBQ on Urbanspoon

Linkdown: 4/9/14

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– The first three reviews from Marie, Let’s Eat!’s epic NC barbecue roadtrip last month have been posted: Red Bridges in Shelby, Wink’s King in Salisbury, and Lexington #1

– As beef prices rise, more and more Texas pitmasters are turning to pork

– Ranucci’s Big Butt BBQ, Grand Champions of the 2013 Q-City BBQ Competition, is hoping to crowdsource a portion of their new food truck

– Thrillist’s list of best barbecue in Atlanta

– The latest Carolina ‘Cue Restaurant featured in Our State Magazine is Bum’s Restaurant in Ayden

– JJ’s Red Hots is having a Bacon Beer & BBQ dinner on April 24 as part of NC Beer Month

– A short article on SC’s Barbecue Trail (via bbqboard)

– Mission BBQ, a military and first responder-focused Baltimore-based chain created by an Under Armour founder, opened earlier this week in Wilmington

– Another (more promising sounding) coastal barbecue restaurant, Southport Smokehouse BBQ, is opening sometime this month:

Natives of Lexington – a town some would argue is North Carolina’s barbecue ground zero – the Hemphills’ restaurant specialized in pork shoulders cooked over hickory logs “imported” from Davidson County. The pits, Elaine Hemphill said, were modeled after those at the famous Lexington Barbecue along Interstate 85 Business.

…

A trio of restaurateurs, Troy Knight, Jim Sparks and Ryan Salley (who will serve as pitmaster) has taken over the spot and are returning it to its roots. They’ll offer brisket, ribs and pulled pork with both Lexington-style and vinegar sauces cooked over hickory. Salley said he’ll mostly be smoking shoulders, a hallmark of the upstate variety, but would occasionally go whole hog, the more traditional method in the Eastern region.

– Scott’s BBQ is having their annual picnic on April 19 and oh how I wish I could make it back down to Hemingway for it