The Great NC BBQ Map

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.

Linkdown: 3/27/14

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Bonus linkdown? Bonus linkdown!

– You have until Friday to eat at the original Clyde Cooper’s location in Raleigh before it moves a few blocks away onto Wilmington Street the second week in April (via bbqboard)

– Colbert Pulled Pork Rant Pulled Too Hard, says Esquire’s Eat Like a Man Blog:

This seems a bit much. On the one hand, I applaud Colbert for taking on a sacred cow, or rather a sacred pig. They can’t say the guy doesn’t have balls. And he’s right in a way. It’s true that a lot of Carolina barbecue, not just in North Carolina but also in Colbert’s home state of South Carolina, is mediocre at best, and sometimes almost as bad as he makes it out to be. But the best of it is transporting, unique, and irreplaceable. No barbecue tradition in America varies so much from good to bad. I just came back from Raleigh and Durham and experienced both. At Cooper’s, I had a finely chopped barbecue sandwich that was simultaneously soft and somehow also firm, tightly packed but giving up every bite without resistance. It was porky, and a little smoky, and its vinegar just set off its fat. It was basically perfect. Later in the day I went to The Pit, one of the state’s best barbecue restaurants, and it was even better. The barbecue was fresher, and even when coarsely chopped, was still tender. Moreover, the vinegar was judiciously spiked with hot pepper, so you got three things on your palate at once: fat, acid, and heat — a kind of holy trinity of American meat.

– By the looks of this tweet, it appears Our State Magazine has hired a new barbecue writer

– As of 9:24am this morning, The Great NC BBQ Map Kickstarter has been fully funded! Congrats to them!

Only 5 Days Left to Pledge to The Great NC BBQ Map!

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The Great NC BBQ Map’s Kickstarter ends this Thursday, March 27 and they are a little over 60% of the way towards their $10,000 goal. Let’s get on this, people! 

This is one Kickstarter I am particularly interested in (for obvious reasons), so I’d really like to see it come to fruition. They’ve announced more details on their launch party at NoDa Brewing in June, and it looks to be a really fun time.

  • NoDa Brewing will have a special release, barbecue-themed beer – a “spicy, smoked amber ale with red chilis, in honor of NC’s BBQ tradition.”
  • Other barbecue-themed activities, including a hush puppy eating contest.

So let’s get those pledges in and push them over the edge before Thursday. I want my maps!

-Monk

Only 5 Days Left to Pledge to The Great NC BBQ Map!

Linkdown: 3/12/14

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– So there’s this: The 10 Best Barbecue Chains in America

– Big Wayner checks out Whispering Pines, a hidden jewel of barbecue joint that still cooks over wood in Albemarle

– Fervent Foodie has the lowdown on the new brunch menu at Elwood’s Barbecue & Burger Bar in Ballantyne

– TMBBQ’s Austin barbecue guide for those in town for SXSW (jealous)

– There are two ways to win a ticket to the NC BBQ Map launch party at NoDa Brewing this summer

– Bob Garner is having a book signing for his barbecue book March 19 in Pittsboro

– Taste Trekkers offers up Five Unique Barbecue Experiences in Atlanta and an interesting perspective on barbecue in the city in a post guest-written by Grant from Marie, Let’s Eat!

One of the meanest things that has ever happened in the last forty years of people writing about regional food was somebody, somewhere, up and decided that Atlanta, Georgia was not a barbecue city. Since then, scores of misinformed food writers have made the poor decision to give the Peach State short shrift and focus on barbecue in other places. Make no mistake, I bow to nobody in my admiration of the awesome barbecue traditions of Texas, Memphis, North Carolina, and all points in between. But this nonsense that Atlanta’s not a barbecue town, that Georgia’s not a barbecue state, has gone on long enough.

– The newly-formed NC BBQ Association is hosting a cooking school next Saturday at Mac’s Speed Shop in Charlotte.

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