Linkdown: 1/28/15

– Check out The NC BBQ Map’s Top 5 Most Adventurous Charlotte BBQ Restaurants on Charlotte on the Cheap; we even lent them our photo of 10 Park Lanes to use!

Ask a North Carolinian about their favorite BBQ, and you’re likely to incite a great debate. Everyone knows exactly where to find the “best” BBQ, and The Great NC BBQ Map will help you track down your favorite style around the state. But we believe that even the most ordinary things can be turned into an adventure with just the tiniest shift of perspective. Above all, that was the goal of our map. These top five highlight some of Charlotte’s most unique BBQ joints and are a reminder of our motto: “Every Day Is an Adventure.” #EDIA

– Snooks BBQ has reopened in Davie County as of last Thursday; its hours are 11-7 Thursday through Saturday

– Q 4 Fun reviews 521 BBQ and Grill’s Tega Cay location

– Garden and Gun Magazine check out Hite’s Bar-B-Que in West Columbia, SC in their latest issue

– Robert Moss goes even deeper on chicken mull

– Also from Moss, slaw or pickles: who ya got?!?! – there’s even a poll for you to weigh in

– Rep. Robert Pittenger paid off his Panthers playoff bet with Washington state representatives with barbecue from Mac’s Speed Shop in Charlotte

– Our State checks in at Grady’s this month

Linkdown: 9/3/14

– This posted just after last week’s linkdown so is a little old by now, but The New York Times spends 36 hours in Charlotte and gives props to Midwood Smokehouse

8. ‘Cue & Brew | 7 p.m.

Charlotte has never been known as a big barbecue town, but Midwood Smokehouse’s pitmaster and executive chef, Matt Barry, seeks to change that with this noisy, popular restaurant. Mr. Barry cooks his chicken, pork and turkey over North Carolina hickory in a computer-controlled smoker. His hand-pulled, chopped pork is lightly covered with a vinegar-based sauce. The chicken is tossed with a delicious house or mustard sauce. Texas-style brisket is smoked for 12 to 14 hours, and is delicious dry or slathered in sauce (barbecue plates run $8 to $15). Pair with collards and baked beans and chase with a Red Ale from NoDa Brewing Company ($5).

– Speaking of Midwood, they are bringing barbecue into the 21st century with its new online ordering app

– The folks behind the Great NC BBQ Map have 5 tips for planning a barbecue tour

– Marie, Let’s Eat! visits Wiley’s Championship BBQ in Savannah, GA

– This showed up in our timeline recently even though the original article is from July 2012, but in any case here’s Rodney Scott’s BBQ Mixtape featuring a mix of rap, hip hop, and funk

– Here’s how to make the Korean-Southern ribs a la Heirloom Market BBQ

– Eater Austin spends a day with John Lewis of la Barbecue (via)

Short interview on barbecue and grilling tips with Hugh Mangum of Mighty Quinn’s BBQ (via)

– The NC Barbecue Trail is in good company on this list of other trails worth visiting which include cheese, bourbon, and beer

– The NC BBQ Association is looking for judges for the Q City Charlotte Championship in October:

– Slaw is the most distinctive food in North Carolina, according to this infographic:

What you’re looking at isn’t the most popular food by state. It’s the food that most distinguishes them from the rest of the pack.

From Co.Design

Wilber Shirley quote slaw

I won’t even sell someone a barbecue unless they get coleslaw. If they want a barbecue and they don’t want coleslaw, there’s something wrong with that person. It all goes together.

Wilber Shirley, owner of Wilber’s Barbecue in Goldsboro (source)

In honor of Barbecue Rankings stop by Wilber’s, I figured this was as good a time for this quote as any.

Linkdown: 6/25/14

– While the newest incarnation of the Hornets opted not to use Alexander Julian as a free consultant to help design their new uniforms, he designed the original ones in exchange for barbecue

Julian was already a standout in the design world because of his “Colours” collection of men’s clothes when Shinn asked him in the 1980s to come up with the Hornets’ original uniforms. Julian said he would do it if Shinn would ship five pounds of barbecue to his house in Connecticut every month – “Carolina caviar,” as Julian called it.

“I had no idea that an expansion team uniform was going to sell as much as it did,” Julian said. “I was really dumb. I didn’t know what I was giving up. I normally get a five percent royalty. The reports I saw was that they sold over $200 million worth of stuff. So I traded $10 million for some barbecue. George got rich, and I got fat.”

– Stamey’s was featured on the Cooking Channel show “Man Fire Food” (via bbqboard) yesterday

– Well this sounds promising:

– Yet another list of best barbecue joints in America, this time from Smart Travel list (via Huffington Post). At least it’s pretty accurate for NC, both in the description of east vs. Lexington styles as well as the joints they choose

Where to Get It: Our resident North Carolinian editor says Allen & Son in Chapel Hill is quintessential, with large brick pits out back and telltale checkered oilcloth on the tables inside. Skylight Inn in Ayden earns Southern Living‘s high praises for its whole-hog approach. Locals laud Lexington Barbecue‘s wood-smoked, ketchup-laced pork shoulder; a roll to heap it on will cost you $0.17 extra, and some Cheerwine (a super-carbonated cherry soda native to the area) is the only proper accompaniment.

– From a few weeks back, Daniel Vaughn (aka bbqsnob) had the good fortune to explore whole hog barbecue through tasting it from Ed Mitchell, Samuel Jones, and Rodney Scott at The Big Apple BBQ event earlier this month

– Robert Moss explains smokers across the south in this article for Serious Eats (via)

– 8 Things to Eat at a Charlotte Knights game includes two barbecue items from Queen City Q – a pulled pork potato and a pulled pork sandwich

– Q4Fun figures out which beers from NoDa Brewing pairs best with various barbecue dishes

  • Pulled pork
  • Mustard sauce – Ramble on Red – counterbalances the acidity – competing flavors 
  • Vinegar sauce – Ramble on Red or Cavu 
  • KC style sauce – Hop Drop ‘n Roll 

– This Fourth of July, feel free to go with slaw as a side dish at your cookout

“Slaw is universal,” says John Shelton Reed, author of “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue .” “Slaw is part of the deal unless you ask not to have it.”

– Well this looks amazing: John Lewis of la Barbecue and Rodney Scott of Scott’s Bar-B-Que to smoke barbecue together in Charleston; too bad its on a Sunday and during the World Cup Final