Country Barbeque – High Point, NC

May 21, 2013August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / 2 Comments

Name: Country Barbeque
Date: 5/10/13
Location: 3921 Sedgebrook St., High Point, NC
Order: Chopped barbecue plate (with red slaw, hush puppies, fries) (link to menu)
Bill: ~$7

Speedy: Recently, I’ve been doing a fair amount of work in Greensboro, NC. As this is “home turf” for the Barbecue Bros, I look forward to eating ‘cue in the area because the places in the area are where I learned the way and the truth of barbecue. So imagine my surprise when I see Country Barbeque nestled on Highway 68 (note: there’s also one on Wendover) just a couple of miles from my client site. Of course I had to give it a try.

Monk: I believe that I’ve been to the Wendover location, and remember being pleasantly surprised considering I believe that it was a gas/electric joint.

Speedy: When you walk into Country Barbeque, it looks the part of a true ‘cue joint. You sit where you like, and a waitress comes up to take your order. Of course I went with the chopped barbecue plate – a standard for any Lexington style barbecue restaurant. Service was super quick, which I’ve come to expect at places such as this, and the volume of food brought was more than I could eat for a very reasonable price.

The pork itself was good, but not great. It wasn’t dry, but I did find myself adding more dip, which was provided on the table. I also couldn’t really taste the smoke, and I generally like a little hint of it on my ‘cue. However, it was tender, chopped fine, and more than passable. I would’ve liked a little more outside brown mixed in (though I didn’t ask for it), but overall, I was pleased. The slaw was very good, and tasted like a typical red slaw should. There wasn’t really any spice, so I added some Texas Pete (also provided on the table) to cure that. The hush puppies were good, though they could have been a little sweeter, and the fried were your standard crinkle fries.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal, though there wasn’t anything to distinguish Country Barbecue from some of the other restaurants around. I definitely prefer Stamey’s and probably Carter’s in the area, and it doesn’t compare favorably to most places in Lexington (and doesn’t hold a candle to #1).

Monk: So the real question is, should I think about heading there next time I am back in town visiting my folks?

Speedy: I would say it’s worth checking out, though I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there. It’s convenient location (close to the 68/I-40 intersection) is a big draw that means it will probably serve as a quick, convenient meal for me sometime in the future.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 hogs
Pork – 3.5 hogs
Sides – 3.5 hogs
Overall – 3.5 hogs

Blackstrap BBQ – Montreal, Quebec

March 6, 2013August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: Blackstrap BBQ
Date: 2/13/13
Location: 4436 Rue Wellington, Verdun, QC, Canada
Order: Brisket place with a side of pork. Coleslaw, fries (link to menu)
Bill: CAD 15

Growing up in the south, I had never really associated Montreal with good barbecue. Actually, I had never really associated it with anything other than snotty french people. But I’d like to go on record and say I was wrong. I learned on one of my first trips to Montreal about the famous smoked meat, which I’ve grown to really love. So when one of my co-workers told me about Blackstrap BBQ and swore by it, I decided it was worth giving a try. I’m glad I did.

Blackstrap is about 3 miles (excuse me – 5 kilometers) from downtown Montreal in an area of town that I’m not at all familiar with. It’s relatively easy to get to via the rail system, so I was excited to check it out.

Upon entering, you see the order counter and a small dining room. You can also see part of the kitchen (but not the smoker) where the food is prepared. I was happy to find out that the cashier spoke english completely fluently (you never know up there), so I inquired of her what she thought I should order. She quickly responded that I should get a brisket plate with a side of pork, so who was I to argue? She also recommended the fried mac and cheese, but due to my intolerance of dairy, I opted for the fries. The meal also came with slaw. As an aside, slaw in Montreal is a frequent side dish and it is ALWAYS vinegar based and awesome.

When I went to sit down, I was excited to see a wood pile, making me suspect a stick-burning smoker. I was also excited to see one of the workers slicing the beef brisket in a meat slicer. I prefer brisket to be sliced, but for some reason have been getting pulled or chopped brisket when I’ve ordered it lately.

I sat down and the food was brought out shortly. I must say, I was pretty pleased. The brisket was tender with just the right amount of tug. The pork was also tender and had a bit of bark in it, which is how I like it. I will say that both meats seemed to have been prepared without excessive rub or sauce, which is nice, but I did find it necessary to apply some of the sauce provided on the table. I used the spicy sauce, which was vinegar based and seemed to have a good bit of red pepper. The mild sauce was more ketchup-y and probably a little sweet for my liking.

The slaw also was good and the fries were fine, but it really was the brisket that stole the show for me. This is likely because I rarely get good brisket in NC, while the pork (which I did enjoy) wasn’t really anything that I couldn’t find in a dozen places back home.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. If you ever find yourself in Montreal and are homesick for some good southern barbecue, you could do worse than going to check out Blackstrap BBQ.

-Speedy

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance: 3 hogs
Pork – 2.5 hogs
Brisket – 3.5 hogs
Sides – 2.5 hogs
Overall – 3 hogs

Recap: The First Barbecue Bros Super Bowl Super Smoke-Off

February 18, 2013August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Monk: In Super Bowl parties past, the electric smoker that Speedy owns and is now permanently kept at my upstairs patio has served us quite well. We’ve smoked ribs and/or wings for the past couple of years, and our guests have chimed in how much they have enjoyed them. This year, we decided to step things up a bit and do both pork butts and wings. However, the kicker this year was that it would be a SUPER BOWL SUPER SMOKE OFF between the two of us – Speedy and his electric smoker versus me and my Weber charcoal grill. Winner gets Barbecue Bros ultimate bragging rights and buys the other dinner at the next barbecue restaurant. So yea, pretty high stakes.

Speedy: We decided we’d have everyone at the party vote on their favorite wings/pork. To avoid any bias, the voters wouldn’t know which of us prepared which meat. We prepped our meats at Monk’s house the night before. For my rub (MADE FROM SCRATCH – WHAT!), I used a paprika base and added equal parts sugar, brown sugar, ground cumin, chili powder, and a black/red pepper mixture. I then added a bit of cayenne pepper for a little heat. For my wings, I used a spicy teriyaki marinade (not made from scratch) with the idea that I would sprinkle on some of the red/black pepper mixture (note: this is made by McCormick’s at is called Hot Shot and I use it on almost everything) the next day before cooking.

Monk: For my pork butt, I started with a rub I bought at a farmer’s market in Charlotte about 5 years ago and has served me well in past barbecues. I stirred in some brown sugar, ground mustard, freshly ground black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Similar to Speedy, I rubbed the pork butt the night before and kept it wrapped in the fridge overnight. With the wings, I opted to go for a dry rub as opposed to Speedy’s marinade. Not having a lot of experience with wings, I simply searched for and found a rub on the internet and it called for black pepper, onion powder, chili powder, garlic powder and seasoned salt. After mixing the rub, I added it to a Ziploc bag with the wings, spread it as evenly as I could and also set it in the fridge overnight.

Speedy: I arrived back at Monk’s early the next day with Bojangles biscuits in hand for breakfast.

Monk: Talk about clutch!

Speedy: I wanted to show my sportsmanship so Monk wouldn’t take the defeat so hard. Monk had graciously already taken the pork butts out of the fridge, so I went upstairs and turned the smoker on to 250. I want to point out here that of course I’d prefer to have/use a charcoal or wood burner, but the electric smoker actually does a decent job and is super convenient. However, once I move to a place with a yard, a ceramic charcoal smoker will be among my first purchases. Anyway, I used cherry and white oak wood chips to create my smoke and after heating up, my pork was ready to cook.

Monk: The tricky part for me was that while I had used my charcoal grill plenty of times, I had never set it up it as an indirect cooker for smoking. Thankfully, a quick Google search brought me upon this great Instructables site that detailed step-by-step (with pictures) how to set it up and cook. This was my bible for the day. Unfortunately, getting the charcoal briquettes lighted was a bit of an adventure and while I had bought a charcoal chimney, I didn’t have any newspaper to get the fire started (noted for next time). With Speedy’s help, we ghetto-rigged a fire and got the coals lit. Once I had that, I added apple wood chips to get the smoke going. Alright, game on (albeit a good 30 minutes after Speedy flipped the switch on his cooker).

Speedy: On the electric smoker, the cook is pretty easy. It’s really just a matter of adding wood chips every hour or so to keep the smoke going. Otherwise, I try to keep the door closed so as to not let out any heat.

Monk: Whereas the hard part for me throughout the day was regulating the temperature of the Weber grill. The site I mentioned above said to simply adjust the vent at the top to regulate the temperate (closing to cool, opening to heat), but this was a little hit or miss for me and the temperature swing between 225 and 315 (I was aiming for around 250). I ended up playing with the bottom vents (which I hadn’t expected to touch at all) and adding some coals and that helped, though the temperature wasn’t as stable as I would have preferred. However, outside of adding wood chips and checking the temp on an hourly basis, I was mostly on cruise control. Speedy and I cracked our first beers of the day (Deviant Dale’s in a can) at 10:48. God I love smoking meat.

Speedy: About three hours in, it came time to baste the butt. I used apple juice with a bit of added sugar, as I wanted it to caramelize on the meat a bit in order to get some nice outside brown. I used a turkey baster to apply it. Additionally, with about 2.5 hours to go on the cook, it came time to put in the wings. Both Monk and I used the electric smoker for the wings. They also don’t require much attention – it’s really just a matter of letting them cook for a couple hours.

Monk: For my mop sauce, I just simply applied apple juice with a basting brush on the hour for the final 3 hours of the cook. Nothing fancy, but I just wanted to keep the meat from drying out while complementing the smoke from the apple wood chips and also getting a nice bark on the outside. After about an hour-and-a-half, I took the wings out of the smoker and dredged them in a mixture of honey, barbecue sauce, and apple juice from this recipe. I was going for the sweet-with-heat approach, and that recipe seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. I then put the wings back in the electric smoker for the final 30 minutes.

Speedy: With about an hour to go in the cook, it came time to make the dip. My dip recipe is (I think) the actual Lexington #1 dip recipe, which consists of water, apple cider vinegar, ketchup, sugar, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. As Lexington BBQ is the best on Earth, I thought this dip would cruise me to an easy victory. Unfortunately, Monk had similar ideas.

Monk: For my dip, I just simply made the Piedmont-Lexington style dip found on the NC Barbecue Society website, which ended up being more or less the same recipe as Speedy. Clearly, this wouldn’t be a distinguishing factor in our barbecue.

Speedy: My pork was ready to come off the smoker a little sooner than Monk’s. So I took it downstairs in a aluminum bin and started chopping. First, I cut out any pieces of fat that didn’t render into the meat. Initially, I was going to chop, but since I didn’t have a proper chopping board, I really ended up pulling the meat. I was really happy with the tenderness and flavor of my pork. Again, using the turkey baster, I basted on my still piping hot dip, though I’m not sure I used enough in the end. The wings were simply brought down and placed on a tray to serve.

Monk: I was definitely feeling the heat with Speedy already being done and guests starting to arrive. This must be exactly what the cooks experience on BBQ Pitmasters as the clock runs down. I chopped and shredded the pork in an aluminum bin (although not as finely as I would have liked), added in the dip and finally, we were ready to serve to our guests and get the voting going. One thing that I would have done differently is that I took the dip off the burner and let it cool so when I added it to the barbecue it cooled the meat off more than I would have liked. Next time, I will keep it on a low simmer right up until I add it to the pork.

Speedy: We each named our meats using Super Bowl themed names and had everyone pick their favorite of both wings and pork by placing cards into a ballot box.

Monk: In a tight vote, I ended up winning both wings and barbecue by a count of 6-4. I tasted Speedy’s barbecue and it was very good, as all of our pork butts had been in the past on the electric smoker. I probably could have used maybe another hour for the meat to increase the tenderness, but as was it was cooked through and still tender. And I liked his wings, though I can see how maybe they were a little too spicy for some folks. In any case, I was very fortunate to win against damn fine meat.

Speedy: I also tasted Monk’s food and have to say it was quite good. I knew my wings were in trouble once I tasted his, but I thought my pork was still going to win. I had a little more time on the cooker and (I thought) was a bit more tender, but I suppose people at the party did not agree. People have asked me – Speedy, are you disappointed? Of course. Speedy, are you bitter? Extremely. Speedy, do you think you should have allowed amateurs to judge the contest? No. Speedy, do you think you should have allowed Monk’s wife to tally the votes? Definitely no. Speedy, will you be able to bring yourself to cook again? Yes – and it will be better than ever.

Congratulations, Monk, on winning the first (but not last) Barbecue Bros smoke-off.

Smiley’s Lexington Barbecue, Inc. – Lexington, NC

November 2, 2012August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / 1 Comment

Name: Smiley’s Lexington Barbecue Inc.
Date: 10/20/12
Location: 917 Winston Rd., Lexington, NC 27295
Order: Chopped BBQ plate with hush puppies, slaw, fries, and Cheerwine (link to menu)
Bill: $12

Monk: Recently, Speedy and I made a decision to try to visit as many barbecue joints on the NC Historic Barbecue Trail that we could over the next year or so (hopefully one or two with Rudy in tow when he is back in NC for the holidays). So with an engagement party for a friend of the blog held in Greensboro a few Saturdays ago, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out Smiley’s in Lexington on our way up.

Smiley’s is less than a half mile from Speedy’s in one direction and not too far from Lexington #1 (aka the promised land) in the other, so it’s in pretty good company. And they do things the old school way, cooking barbecue low and slow over a wood pit for several hours (hence why they are on the NC Historic Barbecue Trail in the first place). But oddly enough, on a Saturday night at 6pm it was damned near empty.

Speedy: Pulling in – Smiley’s looks exactly like you’d expect an old school ‘cue joint to look like. One twist I did like – as we pulled into the parking space, a waitress started to come up to the car. Apparently they have curbside to go service – bonus. However, we were there to dine in, so we went inside and sat at a table of our choosing. There’s not much to say about this place other than it looks the part. You could see scenes from Andy Griffith being filmed there. Nothing really stood out, but it was homely.

Rudy: Homely or homey? Because when a girl is described as homely, it’s usually not a good thing. Maybe it is for barbecue though.

Monk: Speedy, Mrs. Monk, and I all ordered the same thing – a chopped BBQ plate with hush puppies, slaw, and fries. Although, to try it out for the first time (and to make me feel more like a local), I ordered it with extra outside brown. And it was very, very good. I enjoyed having the extra bark in the barbecue, and will probably order it this way at the next Lexington joint I visit. One thing for me, however, was I felt like I noticed that the barbecue dip was a little sweeter than the other Lexington-style spots that I have been to. Not a deal breaker or even a bad thing by any means, just something that I think I noticed.

Speedy: I didn’t really notice too much extra sweet, but I do think a lot of these places add sugar to the dip to taste, so I imagine it’s not always the same. Monk may have a more sensitive palate than I do. But I thought the ‘cue was really, really good. The portion was pretty big (probably enough for two meals), the pork and (red!) slaw were great, and it was just a great meal. There is quite a bit of variety of food on the menu, but we paid it no attention – a decision I’d make again and again.

Rudy: You guys tend to get a sampling at most places. Why not here? Sounds like it wasn’t a mistake though, with the chopped BBQ being good.

Speedy: Well, most of the other stuff wasn’t barbecue. The rest of the menu had burgers, sandwiches, chicken tenders, and other diner type food. Frankly, I just don’t have time for that garbage.

Monk: Agreed – definitely made the right call. So, one more notch on our NC Historical Barbecue Trail belt (note: this belt doesn’t actually exist, but it would be cool if it did). We had a solid plate of barbecue at Smiley’s, but it’s hard to imagine we’d choose this over Lexington #1 in the future.

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance: 3 hogs
Pork – 4 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 4 hogs