Charlotte Quarterly News Roundup from July through August 2023

Monk: Better late than never, here’s all the Charlotte-area barbecue news you may have missed from July through September of this year

July

7/14 – Noble Smoke makes Axios Charlotte’s 25 best restaurants in Charlotte right now at #25

7/29 – A reintroduction to Garren and Kelly of Jon G’s Barbecue

August

8/8 – The Runaway Charlotte Longhorn Bull saga began, which I recapped in a linkdown

8/10 – Meet Pit Boss Natasha of Firehawk Brewpub

8/13 – Meet Miss Angie of Sweet Lew’s Barbeque

8/20 – New Charlotte-area barbecue joint Firehawk Brewpub does an explainer on their unique way of doing ribs

8/29 – Slash of Guns N’ Roses is the latest celebrity to stop by Midwood Smokehouse; here he is with pitmaster Matthew Berry

September

9/9 – Sweet Lew’s Barbeque announced they will be doing “Whole Hog Sundays” during NFL season

9/11 – We published our review of Firehawk Brewpub

9/12 – The Pitmaster Experience at Noble Smoke was announced as coming back

9/15 – The 92nd Annual Mallard Creek Barbecue was officially confirmed as on for 2023 but as drive-through only

Linkdown: 8/29/23 – The Taylor Swift x Barbecue Festival Edition

Featured

Monk: Did you know that Taylor Swift played at the Lexington Barbecue Festival in 2006?

Here’s a brief Tik Tok about it:

There’s some very grainy pre-iPhone concert footage available on YouTube.

Here’s some audio of Swift’s song “Tim McGraw”:

Anywho – this year’s edition of the Lexington Barbecue festival will be in downtown Lexington on Saturday, October 28th. Chances that the next Taylor Swift will be playing there this year…?

Native News

Slash from Guns N’ Roses visited Midwood Smokehouse while the band was in Charlotte for a concert

As a PSA, Jon G’s is closed this Saturday

Non-Native News

Maybe Texas barbecue isn’t all that expensive, comparatively-speaking

City Limits Barbeque in West Columbia, SC has a great to-go option for football tailgates this Fall

Thoughts or preferences?

John Markus of “BBQ Pitmasters” fame gets a positive Zagat review for Markus Hilltop BBQ in Hudson Valley

The TM BBQ Fest will be November 4-5 in Lockhart; ticket information at the link below:

Houston-specific coverage on the festival

Good advice this: