Monk: YouTuber and horse racing announcer Jason Beem documented his road trip from Richmond down to Ayden, NC to visit both Skylight Inn and Sam Jones BBQ.
Description: I took the short drive from Richmond to Ayden, North Carolina to try a few famous barbecue places I wanted to try.
Name: Sam Jones BBQ
Date: 10/16/21
Address: 502 W Lenoir St, Raleigh, NC 27601
Order: Jones Family Original BBQ Tray (link to menu)
Pricing: $$
Monk: Long time readers know that Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC has been on my to-do list for years and sadly it still remains on my to-do list in 2021. Regardless of the fact that I am not in that part of NC pretty much ever, I’ve thankfully been able to try the Jones family barbecue a couple of times in Charlotte over the years. The first time was at Midwood Smokehouse in 2013 when Sam Jones smoked a hog for a Midwood Smokehouse Sunday Supper even that also included an airing of the SFA documentary on Skylight Inn. The second time was at Free Range Brewing Pig Picking in 2017 that doubled as a viewing party for his Order/Fire documentary. Both times, the whole hog was life changing.
Since then, Sam Jones opened his first namesake restaurant in Winterville before opening a second location in Raleigh late last year. It was to be part of Raleigh’s supposed barbecue boom that was short-circuited by the pandemic. Thankfully Sam Jones BBQ persevered along with Prime Barbecue, Longleaf Swine, and Lawrence Barbecue.
After visiting the NC State campus with Lady Monk and the Monkettes, we made the short trip downtown to Lenoir Street. Though the lot for the restaurant is not very big, we found street parking right in front of the restaurant fairly easily. We waited in a short line and ordered at the front and not before too long a Jones Family Original BBQ Tray was placed in front of me.
Which I quickly turned into this to mimic what they do at Skylight Inn:
By now, everyone knows about the legendary whole hog with crispy bits of skin chopped in the way that the Jones family does it. The pork at Sam Jones BBQ in Raleigh lives up to that standard, although the skin could have been just a tad crispier. Just a minor nitpick in otherwise flawless whole hog barbecue.
Going in, I had wondered most about the corn bread. Theirs is a denser, non-sweet version that likely won’t ever be my favorite version of cornmeal served with barbecue. However, I can respect that its serving a different purpose than the sweeter corn meal in the hush puppies I’m used to in the Piedmont.
The mayo-based coleslaw was sweet and paired nicely with the cue and some Texas Pete.
It’s looking like 2022 will be the year I am able to finally make my pilgrimage to Ayden and I’ll likely stop by the original Sam Jones BBQ in nearby Winterville as well. Sam Jones BBQ’s outpost in Raleigh only made me anticipate that upcoming trip even more.
Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3 hogs
Pork – 4.5 hogs
Sides – 4 hogs
Overall – 4.5 hogs
Campbell won the inaugural BBQ Bowl against Gardner-Webb this past Saturday, pulling ahead late in the fourth quarter after recovering a muffed punt before scoring the go-ahead touchdown. They would go on to tack on another touchdown making the final score 42-28.
While the initial image of the trophy (which was likely a mockup instead of the real trophy) roused the ire of Iowa fans for allegedly being a copy of the Floyd of Rosedale trophy between Iowa and Minnesota, it turns out that the actual trophy was something much more cuddly.
Initial mockup:
Floyd of Rosedale trophy:
Actual trophy:
Back to barbecue matters…after the game the teams were treated to a post-game dinner of Red Bridges Barbecue as a result of Gardner-Webb losing the barbecue bet. Better than the White Swan that would have been served had Campbell lost.
More details of the game here
The NC State Fair starts this week
Clark’s Barbecue in Kernersville was the last stop on John Tanner’s barbecue tour of the piedmont
At Mac’s Speed Shop, beef ribs and bacon-wrapped jalapenos are two of the prep-intensive items that are being taken off the menu for now
Whole-hog continues to catch on in Texas
Tales from the Pits tries to guess the next Texas Monthly Top 50; the list is published later this month
Roegels is expanding to Katy
Hecho in Texas is a Cameron, TX joint trying to feed its locals the best way they know how
Blood Bros. BBQ in Bellaire, TX , Eem in Portland, and Jones Bar-B-Q Diner in Marianna, AR make The New York Times’ Restaurant List
Congrats to the Red Bridges Barbecue family! Lyttle Bridges Cabaniss (aka “Mama B”), who was the wife of “Red” that took over the business after he passed in 1966 and served as the matriarch of the family until she passed in 2008, was posthumously inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame at this past weekend’s American Royal in Kansas City, MO.
Lyttle Bridges is considered to be the first woman barbecue entrepreneur in North Carolina and while her husband Red is the namesake of the restaurant, she was the guiding force behind it, reportedly working from 8am to 9pm nearly every day before handing over the restaurant to her daughter Debbie Bridges-Webb and then her grandkids Natalie Ramsey and Chase Webb at the age of 80. Those three all accepted the award on her behalf this past weekend, which surely must have been a blast.
Congratulations to Lyttle Bridges Cabaniss and the rest of the 2021 Barbecue Hall of Fame inductees!
More on Bridges at the following links:
Noble Smoke announced its second location will be a stall at the Optimist Hall food hall
More coverage on the stall from Axios Charlotte
The Redneck BBQ Lab announces Mercedes Harris as its new CEO of its food truck and catering arm
Grady’s and Wilber’s gets a mention in this article on Goldsboro from WRAL
Picnic has one of the best burgers in the Triangle according to Eater Carolinas
After its North Charleston sister restaurant closed after 67 years, the Orangeburg Duke’s BBQ affirms that it is “not going nowhere”
The Tales from the Pits crew unveils #20-11 in their Texas barbecue rankings
NC whole hog in Maine? John Tanner investigates for The Smoke Sheet