The Barbecue Joint Is Moving

According to the Independent Weekly Online , the Barbecue Joint on Weaver Dairy Road in Chapel Hill is moving to the Village Plaza Center into the storefront vacated by Branch's Book Store a couple of years ago. Since the bookstore only sold coffee and pastries, the premises needs significant remodeling to add a full kitchen. The Barbecue Joint has always been one of my favorite bbq joints. They're going to have more seating at the new place. Lunch at the current location is always crowded while school was open, because of the proximity to East Chapel High School. The new location will not have that problem, but the high school crowd will miss the place. Expect a new review when it opens in September.

Chowhound

Chowhound is one of the best dining forums around. I've been using it as a source for barbecue news, information and links for some time now. Anybody interested in restaurants and eating should try it out.

Bon's in University Square is Closed - Again

Bon's Home Cookin' has lost its lease from University Square and closed June 29th. She hopes to reopen somewhere, but there is no news of when or where. I never did eat at the University Square location, but had an acceptable meal at the old Carrboro location. Bon is the daughter of Chapel Hill restaurant legend Mama Dip.

Acceptable - Bar B Q King, Charlotte

Address - 2900 Wilkinson Blvd
Style - Drive-in Web-site

Bar B Q King was featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It fits in the last two categories. You order food via a speaker attached to the tray table hanging from the menu. It takes me back to old A&W drive-ins I grew up with, much more so than the modern Sonic Drive-in. The place is ancient, as are the car-hops that serve your food. There's a carryout window, if you don't want to eat in your car.

On TV, the emphasis was on the barbecue chicken, which is slathered with sauce and then deep fried, but I had to try the pork. I was on a roadtrip, so I wanted a light lunch. I orderd a pork barbecue sandwich, hushpuppies and a milkshake. The pork was a little bland, but adding a little dip made it a nice eat. The hushpuppies were large and heavy, so I ended up eating just a couple with lunch and took the rest along on the trip as a snack. The milkshake was homemade and well worth ordering.

It's a good stop for the nostalgia, and second for the food.

Rub' Smokehouse Has Reopened as Smokey's Barbecue Shack

Rub's Smokehouse in Morrisville closed in August 2007 due to an irreconcilable business disagreement between the partners. Some of the partners reopened the restaurant in December 2007 as Smokey's Barbecue Shack. I'm going to have to check the restaurant out.

Recommended - Holy Smokes, Raleigh

Address - 335 Tryon Road, Raleigh NC Map
Style - Counter service, Sit-down Restaurant Website

Holy Smokes is a a caterer/carry out operation which is inside a restaurant. You order the food at the counter in carry out quantities. If you want to carry out, you get the food in a bag. If you want to eat in, you get the carry out containers on a tray, along with a drink and eat in the restaurant. Everything is ala carte, in 5 oz, 8 oz, 16 oz, etc, containers.

The restaurant is really neat. It is a shiny diner, probably a replica, with an embossed ceiling and neon tubes running along the ceiling. The booths are thickly upholstered with vintage vinyl. I love this place.

The food is fabulous. You pick out your sides at the beginning of the counter. These include the usual suspects, including potato salad, fried okra, hushpuppies, banana pudding. You then move along to the cutter, who serves your meat. He cuts brisket and ribs on order. Meats include North Carolina chopped pork, Texas chooped beef, beef short ribs, St Louis style pork ribs, smoked turkey breast, pork loin, smoked sausage and chicken.

The pork barbecue is traditional eastern style with a good smoke flavor and character. The beef brisket is made with a thick peppery rub. I had an end piece with a good chunk of the rub, which I loved. The sides were fine. I found the hushpuppies to be a little heavy for the downeast style.

Other customers who were in there at lunch time would order lunch on the tray and also meat to take home for dinner. I'd recommend either chopped meat for lunch and brisket or ribs for dinner.

Update: Holy Smokes has now closed.

Taste of Country in Warsaw and Wilmington Are No More

According to the web and Google satellite photos, Wheeler's Taste of Country restaurants in Wilmington and between Warsaw and Turkey are not more. The Warsaw building has been bulldozed and is now part of a cornfield. The Wilimington name has been transfered to a cafe in a new location without the country barbecue. These traditional country restaurants had a killer buffet, with pig pickin' and seafood. I miss the desserts already.

McCall's in Clayton Reopens with First Responders Meal

The McCall's BBQ and Seafood heavily damaged by a plane crash last year is reopening Wednesday, April 23. The restaurant had a pre-opening celebration, where it honored First Responders, including EMS, police and fire fighters. During the meal, the fire department received an alarm on its pagers, so they had to leave the free meal behind, alarms blaring.

The management promised that the restaurant would reopen and it did. This is a happy conclusion to this incident that was covered in the blog.

Allen & Son in Esquire Magazine

Allen & Son has been featured in The Best Sandwiches in America in the February Esquire magazine and on the web.

"Chopped Pork
Allen & Son Barbeque, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Famous among the vinegar-based smoke pits of North Carolina for its tart, smoky sandwiches. The owner, Keith Allen, still splits his own hickory in the backyard, fueling the fires that cook your meat."

A Disappointment - White Swan, Smithfield

Address - Hwy 301 South, Smithfield NC Map
Style - Sit-down Restaurant Website

White Swan has been around Smithfield for decades. This is the central location, a group of buildings that contains a small bbq restaurant open for lunch, a separate steak restaurant that is open for dinner, the smokers and the catering offices.

The web-site has a full lunch and dinner menu, but there was no sign of it in the restaurant. There was a single card menu with a few entries. These includes a barbecue sandwich, chicken and ribs. Since the only option to try the barbecue was to get a sandwich with hushpuppies and tea, that's the way I went. It is hard to judge barbecue from one sandwich, but it at least was edible. The hushpuppies were edible, but I have to reserve judgment for later.

White Swan lists six locations, including two in the immediate Smithfield area. These two are in gas stations, so obviously the barbecue is made at the main location and brought over. If I get to one of the White Swan's with a full menu, I'll do a full review then.

Recommended - Stamey's, Greensboro

Address - 2206 High Point Road, Greensboro NC Map
2812 Battleground Avenue, Greensboro NC Map
Style - Sit-down Restaurant Website

The only negative to Stamey's is the restaurant locations. The main restaurant is right across from the Coliseum, Greensboro's entertainment arena. The other is on a busy section of Battleground (US 220). At both locations, you almost can't make a left out of the restaurant's parking lot at lunchtime. Then making a U-turn takes blocks, if not miles. The food makes the hassle worthwhile.

Stamey's has a simple menu, with just chopped and sliced pork and barbecued chicken. The pork is quite tasty. A tough of sauce adds a little spice, but is not needed to taste the meat. The plates come with hushpuppies and slaw. Both sides are better than average.

Lexington Barbecue Festival This Saturday

If you can get there, this is a good day's fun. I may drop by late. More info at their web page.

Recommended - Jackson's Brothers, Sanford

Address - 2440 Jefferson Davis Hwy. Sanford NC Map
Style - Carry Out and Drive through

For years, the barbecue sign for Jackson's Brothers has been a landmark for me along US 1 in Sanford. The building is a tiny carry-out only restaurant in the middle of a huge gravel parking lot, nestled between Jackson Brothers Produce and a manufactured home sales lot. They only have carry out, but there are a few picnic tables under a tree across the parking lot in front of Ted's Wire Art Museum and Gift shop. The place has personality and darned good barbecue.

My lunch was just a sample, a sliced pork sandwich and a dozen hushpuppies. Except for a chunk of cartilage, the pork was excellent, reminiscent of Fuzzy's. The hushpuppies were great, typical of central North Carolina style.

The business has a web-site for all of the different businesses that Jackson Brothers run. It is a relic of old farm-based Southern living.

I'll definitely be back.

Plane Crashes into McCall's BBQ & Seafood, Clayton

About 10 am this morning, a single engine plane crashed into the front entrance of McCall's BBQ & Seafood on US 70 in Clayton NC. The restaurant was not yet open, so there was nobody in the dining room. About 20 employees were working in the kitchen and got out safely with no reported injuries. It appears that the pilot was killed in the crash.

Weather conditions were not favorable at the time. There was a low ceiling, fog and scattered rain showers. Eyewitnesses report that the plane came in low, apparently out of control, clipped some trees, tried to land in the parking lot, but crashed into the building.

Coverage on WRAL is here.

It is to be hoped that this excellent BBQ restaurant will rebuild and reopen.

The BBQ & Ribs Co. Chain May Be Gone?

According to Sue Stock in the business section of the News and Observer in the article, Strategy: smaller, subtler states that the BBQ & Ribs Co. in Raleigh is closing. Then in Taking Stock, she adds more detail, that the Chesapeake location is also closing and the Graham restaurant is being sold to an employee. After subsequent investigation, she reported that the Siler City location had closed in February.

The chain's web site is down as well.

This is not good news. BBQ Ribs & Co. is my favorite fast food barbecue chain, beating Smithfield hands down in restaurant decor and quality of food.

Update: As of 09/06/2007, the Graham location is still in business as BBQ & Ribs Co, with the same decent food.

Acceptable - Backyard BBQ Pit - Durham NC

Address - 5204 Hwy 55 Durham, NC 27713 Map
Style - Counter service, sit down restaurant

Backyard Barbecue replaced AW's, which replaced Lewis's in the same building. The interior of the restaurant and the basic menu has not changed through the transitions.

I ordered the barbecue plate with potato salad and brunswick stew. It came with a handful of hushpuppies. The potato salad and hushpuppies were okay. The brunswick stew was decent tasting, but a smaller serving than I would like. The barbecue was much better than what I have had here. However, there was a mild aftertaste that caused me to not want to finish the plate.

I have heard that even though the ownership has changed, the barbecue master has stayed the same. This is great for continuity, but, in this case, the barbecue has not improved over time.

"Pig Out", from the Columbus Ohio Dispatch

"Pig Out" in the Columbus Ohio Dispatch is a northerner reporter's view of North Carolina barbecue. Steve Stephens visited three stops on the NC Barbecue Historic Trail: Bridge's in Shelby, Lexington #1 in Lexington and Hill's in Winston-Salem. There is a short video on Hill's along with the article.

For a northerner, Stephens does a good job of covering NC barbecue. He gets a few of the details wrong, but nothing important. If he had gotten to any of the pits east of Greensboro, the distinctions between Eastern and Lexington would have been made clearer.

NC Barbecue Society Historic Trail

The North Carolina Barbecue Society has created the NC Barbecue Society Historic Trail, which visits 25 Historic Barbecue Pits stretching from Ayden to Murphy. The trail description can be found here.

Unfortunately, the term "historic" refers to past reputation, not necessarily current quality or reputation. There are a couple of places on the trail that have lost their lustre over the years. On the other hand, there are some real gems. The following are stops on the trail that I have visited and reviewed in this blog:

1. Skylight Inn, Ayden
8. Allen and Son's, Chapel Hill
9. A&M Grill, Mebane
10. Hursey's, Burlington
11. Stamey's, Greensboro
12. Short Sugar's
13. Fuzzy's, Madison
17. Lexington, Lexington

The trail is not a bad reference list for a barbecue tour. B's in Greenville and Stephenson's in Willow Springs have been on my radar for a while.

The Barbecue Joint on TV

Last night, I caught the first segment of Rachel Ray's Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels on the Food Network the other evening on Best Barbecue. She went to Atlanta and Memphis, then said she was going to Durham NC. They even showed Duke Chapel as part of the segment opener. But, the restaurant was the Barbecue Joint in Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill is not Durham. They could have used shots of UNC, such as the Old Well instead of Duke Chapel. Even the Barbecue Joint said Chapel Hill in a quick shot. Other than that little gaffe, the review of the Barbecue Joint was straight on. It might be a little funky, but a great barbecue joint.

Short Sugar's - Postcard from the Road

Short Sugar's in Reidsville is featured in a Postcards from the Road article in the News and Observer. The history of the Short Sugar's name is well featured, but no mention is made of the other Short Sugar's in Danville VA.

The slideshow is tremendous. It gives a good representation of visiting the place.