If you like Lexington Style (as you should if you have good taste) - I recommend the Barbeque Exchange in Lexington and Clarks in Kernersville.

If you like Eastern (pure vinegar - mush) - I have no recommendation.

Stamey's is across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum and I would characterize it as a hybrid.

(03-07-2015 09:32 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  If you like Lexington Style (as you should if you have good taste) - I recommend the Barbeque Exchange in Lexington and Clarks in Kernersville.

If you like Eastern (pure vinegar - mush) - I have no recommendation.

Stamey's is across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum and I would characterize it as a hybrid.

I eaten at Clark's a few times which I don't consider a true BBQ restaurant....Clark can't decide if he wants a BBQ joint or a meat & two restaurant.
In Lexington my favorite is Smokey Joe's.
Fuzzy's in Madison is good and I really enjoy the unique taste of Short Sugars in Reidsville.

(03-07-2015 11:55 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 09:32 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  If you like Lexington Style (as you should if you have good taste) - I recommend the Barbeque Exchange in Lexington and Clarks in Kernersville.

If you like Eastern (pure vinegar - mush) - I have no recommendation.

Stamey's is across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum and I would characterize it as a hybrid.

I eaten at Clark's a few times which I don't consider a true BBQ restaurant....Clark can't decide if he wants a BBQ joint or a meat & two restaurant.
In Lexington my favorite is Smokey Joe's.
Fuzzy's in Madison is good and I really enjoy the unique taste of Short Sugars in Reidsville.

XLance had obviously never had any good Eastern Q. It's transcendent when it's done right (whole hog, wood smoke, lots of time). Real barbecue doesn't need to be covered with gooey molasses and tomato sauce to taste good. And a vinegar and pepper dip turns great barbecue that is perfect on its own into something with a totally different but equally wonderful flavor. I encourage everyone to try it if you have the chance.

I often use this quote by Dennis Rogers of the Raleigh News and Observer that I found in the fantastic book by John Shelton Reed (he's a retired UNC professor) called Holy Smoke: "Anyone who would put ketchup [i.e., a dip or BBQ sauce made with tomato and sugar] on barbecue and serve it to an innocent child is pretty much capable of anything."

When I'm in the western regions I tend to just leave the sauce off. I leave off the slaw too. But don't get me wrong -- even with the ketchup and the slaw it's 1000% better than anything I can get in the barbecue wasteland where I live now.

I haven't been to Stamey's in years. Last time was just okay. Are they keeping up?

Western Carolina or bust. Hickory smoked. Pulled pork. Mustard base sauce.

(03-08-2015 07:11 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Western Carolina or bust. Hickory smoked. Pulled pork. Mustard base sauce.

+1000. Listen to this man!

I thought mustard was a South Carolina thing and Western NC was the tomato based? In any case, I tend to avoid sauce all together.

A couple of things about ENC style: If it is chopped or mushy, pass. Chopped means it was not cooked properly and they had to cut it up. If it is mushy, it is probably old and they added water or something to it.

Not that anyone on this board would ever be caught in a fast food restaurant but...Dickeys (website) is a chain that has been expanding into the area. BBQ is fair. Sides are horrible. Every one of them. Ugh! On the positive - FREE ICE CREAM!

(03-08-2015 01:30 AM)opossum Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 11:55 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 09:32 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  If you like Lexington Style (as you should if you have good taste) - I recommend the Barbeque Exchange in Lexington and Clarks in Kernersville.

If you like Eastern (pure vinegar - mush) - I have no recommendation.

Stamey's is across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum and I would characterize it as a hybrid.

I eaten at Clark's a few times which I don't consider a true BBQ restaurant....Clark can't decide if he wants a BBQ joint or a meat & two restaurant.
In Lexington my favorite is Smokey Joe's.
Fuzzy's in Madison is good and I really enjoy the unique taste of Short Sugars in Reidsville.

XLance had obviously never had any good Eastern Q. It's transcendent when it's done right (whole hog, wood smoke, lots of time). Real barbecue doesn't need to be covered with gooey molasses and tomato sauce to taste good. And a vinegar and pepper dip turns great barbecue that is perfect on its own into something with a totally different but equally wonderful flavor. I encourage everyone to try it if you have the chance.

I often use this quote by Dennis Rogers of the Raleigh News and Observer that I found in the fantastic book by John Shelton Reed (he's a retired UNC professor) called Holy Smoke: "Anyone who would put ketchup [i.e., a dip or BBQ sauce made with tomato and sugar] on barbecue and serve it to an innocent child is pretty much capable of anything."

When I'm in the western regions I tend to just leave the sauce off. I leave off the slaw too. But don't get me wrong -- even with the ketchup and the slaw it's 1000% better than anything I can get in the barbecue wasteland where I live now.

I haven't been to Stamey's in years. Last time was just okay. Are they keeping up?

When my daughter was a student at ECU, I made it a point to try to get to B's when I went to Greenville. Sometimes I made it in time before they sold out, sometimes I didn't. It was really worth the gamble...great Q.

Western NC Barbeque is like what you can get in Wilkesboro or Boone at Tipton's or Woodlands - dry stuff, no sauce. If it has mustard it's from SC.

In NC from east to west:

Eastern - Vinegar - On a line from Greensboro down to Asheboro, down to Rockingham.

Lexington (sometimes called Western) a red, tangy sauce, in a geographic blob centered on Lexington, Kernersville, and Salisbury (this is German BBQ - made by PA Germans who moved down here 150 years ago)

Western - Dry - On a line from Winston-Salem down to Charlotte and then west.

Mustard - A Sandlapper thing - in SC.

(03-08-2015 10:06 AM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  Western NC Barbeque is like what you can get in Wilkesboro or Boone at Tipton's or Woodlands - dry stuff, no sauce. If it has mustard it's from SC.

In NC from east to west:

Eastern - Vinegar - On a line from Greensboro down to Asheboro, down to Rockingham.

Lexington (sometimes called Western) a red, tangy sauce, in a geographic blob centered on Lexington, Kernersville, and Salisbury (this is German BBQ - made by PA Germans who moved down here 150 years ago)

Western - Dry - On a line from Winston-Salem down to Charlotte and then west.

Mustard - A Sandlapper thing - in SC.

When eastern NC was settled it was believed that tomatoes were poisonous so it wasn't even considered. The Piedmont was settled later by German and Scot-Irish from Pennsylvania, NJ etc coming down The "Great Wagon Road". By that time tomatoes were commonly used in cooking. But there was very little contact between the two regions for a long time. Rivers in the west flowed into SC and there were few roads and bridges. So two distinct styles developed.

Any barbeque west of I95 is hit or miss as far as being faithful eastern NC style. As far as chains go Smithfield Chicken and Barbeque is pretty darn good. Their sauce has a little tomato in it but otherwise it is true to ENC style.

But the best barbeque doesn't come from a resturant. It is from outdoor parties referred to as a "Pig Pickin'" if of course the cooks know what they are doing. It is whole hog cooked all night. You just pull or cut what you want, add loaf bread, slaw and boiled potatoes along with ice cold beer.

(03-08-2015 01:30 AM)opossum Wrote:  XLance had obviously never had any good Eastern Q. It's transcendent when it's done right (whole hog, wood smoke, lots of time). Real barbecue doesn't need to be covered with gooey molasses and tomato sauce to taste good.

That's a ban-able offense, sir.

(03-08-2015 09:44 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 01:30 AM)opossum Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 11:55 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(03-07-2015 09:32 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  If you like Lexington Style (as you should if you have good taste) - I recommend the Barbeque Exchange in Lexington and Clarks in Kernersville.

If you like Eastern (pure vinegar - mush) - I have no recommendation.

Stamey's is across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum and I would characterize it as a hybrid.

I eaten at Clark's a few times which I don't consider a true BBQ restaurant....Clark can't decide if he wants a BBQ joint or a meat & two restaurant.
In Lexington my favorite is Smokey Joe's.
Fuzzy's in Madison is good and I really enjoy the unique taste of Short Sugars in Reidsville.

XLance had obviously never had any good Eastern Q. It's transcendent when it's done right (whole hog, wood smoke, lots of time). Real barbecue doesn't need to be covered with gooey molasses and tomato sauce to taste good. And a vinegar and pepper dip turns great barbecue that is perfect on its own into something with a totally different but equally wonderful flavor. I encourage everyone to try it if you have the chance.

I often use this quote by Dennis Rogers of the Raleigh News and Observer that I found in the fantastic book by John Shelton Reed (he's a retired UNC professor) called Holy Smoke: "Anyone who would put ketchup [i.e., a dip or BBQ sauce made with tomato and sugar] on barbecue and serve it to an innocent child is pretty much capable of anything."

When I'm in the western regions I tend to just leave the sauce off. I leave off the slaw too. But don't get me wrong -- even with the ketchup and the slaw it's 1000% better than anything I can get in the barbecue wasteland where I live now.

I haven't been to Stamey's in years. Last time was just okay. Are they keeping up?

When my daughter was a student at ECU, I made it a point to try to get to B's when I went to Greenville. Sometimes I made it in time before they sold out, sometimes I didn't. It was really worth the gamble...great Q.

I apologize, I meant to address lumberpack's "grey, mushy" characterization of Eastern BBQ, not anything in your post.

There is certainly a lot of gas- or electric-cooked grey mush being sold out there as Barbecue, even east of I-95, but that's not the real stuff.

There are lots of culinary uses for tomato barbecue sauce -- it goes just fine with novelty BBQ meats such as beef or chicken. It shouldn't be allowed anywhere near slow-smoked pulled pork. It's like taking an aged Prime New York strip steak and boiling it until it's grey.

(03-08-2015 10:06 AM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  Mustard - A Sandlapper thing - in SC.

Here in the Upstate it is mustard base. You head to Columbia the fools put ketchup on it. You reach the grand strand and it is a mix but mustard is still there. Oddly the local mustard base in the grocery store is from Savannah and Charleston.

(03-08-2015 09:04 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 10:06 AM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  Mustard - A Sandlapper thing - in SC.

Here in the Upstate it is mustard base. You head to Columbia the fools put ketchup on it. You reach the grand strand and it is a mix but mustard is still there. Oddly the local mustard base in the grocery store is from Savannah and Charleston.

No they don't.

Mustard based BBQ sauce was developed by the German immigrants who settled the region from Orangeburg and Barnwell areas up the Congaree and then up the Broad and Saluda Rivers from the Ninety-Six region over towards Winnsboro.

In the PeeDee region you get the Vinegar & Pepper Eastern NC style, in the Upstate you get the Western NC tomato based style, and along the Central Savannah River to Lake Hartwell areas you get Ketchup based.

South Carolina is the only state where you can find all four distinct BBQ sauce styles.

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauce...sauce.html

(03-08-2015 09:20 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  No they don't.

Mustard based BBQ sauce was developed by the German immigrants who settled the region from Orangeburg and Barnwell areas up the Congaree and then up the Broad and Saluda Rivers from the Ninety-Six region over towards Winnsboro.

In the PeeDee region you get the Vinegar & Pepper Eastern NC style, in the Upstate you get the Western NC tomato based style, and along the Central Savannah River to Lake Hartwell areas you get Ketchup based.

South Carolina is the only state where you can find all four distinct BBQ sauce styles.

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauce...sauce.html

I have NEVER had tomato based at anybody's home BBQ here. Even the local places it is mustard. You gotta ask for tomato base if you want it.

The places I went to while in Cola for a few years were all ketchup style.

*shrug*

(03-08-2015 09:20 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 09:04 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 10:06 AM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  Mustard - A Sandlapper thing - in SC.

Here in the Upstate it is mustard base. You head to Columbia the fools put ketchup on it. You reach the grand strand and it is a mix but mustard is still there. Oddly the local mustard base in the grocery store is from Savannah and Charleston.

No they don't.

Mustard based BBQ sauce was developed by the German immigrants who settled the region from Orangeburg and Barnwell areas up the Congaree and then up the Broad and Saluda Rivers from the Ninety-Six region over towards Winnsboro.

In the PeeDee region you get the Vinegar & Pepper Eastern NC style, in the Upstate you get the Western NC tomato based style, and along the Central Savannah River to Lake Hartwell areas you get Ketchup based.

South Carolina is the only state where you can find all four distinct BBQ sauce styles.

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauce...sauce.html

It sounds like the southwest part of the state is where they probably also start cooking a whole menagerie of animals (beef, chicken, I've even heard about "barbecued" sheep in Kentucky) and calling it barbecue.

I don't see a great moral distinction between Western NC "tomato based" and the rest of the South's "ketchup based." If you're mixing tomatoes, vinegar, water, sweetener and seasonings you're making ketchup. Look at the ingredients on the back of a bottle of ketchup -- Western NC barbecue sauce is generally made from the same stuff. It might be thinner, the spices and seasonings may be better chosen, the proportion of tangy/sweet/spicy may be more appropriate for an adult palette, and it's definitely better tasting than Heinz 57, but it's still ketchup.

I love Hash over Rice, and I try to grab a plate whenever I'm driving down I-95 (recommendations of places within a few miles of the highway are welcome!). I've been to the big chain with all the confederate memorabilia for sale in the front (something-gers), and I don't remember it tasting very smoky.

I think that's the overall problem with getting away from pure Eastern sauce. The additional flavors, whether it's tomato in Western Carolina or Georgia or Tennessee or mustard in South Carolina or blood orange in some bistro in the Napa Valley, can flatten out the complex flavors created by the cooking method (long smoke) and material (preferably whole hog, but some hog parts are pretty good on their own if the former isn't possible -- boston butts/shoulders are a decent compromise and deserve respect) that makes barbecue.

If you're compromising on cooking method (anywhere from using gas heat and wood chips to crock pot and liquid smoke) or materials (from smoking a shoulder or two and a slab of ribs and some other parts and pulling it all together, to trying to use a pork tenderloin or God forbid a chicken), then I can see the temptation to distract the eater with fancy tomatoes, mustards and blood oranges. But call it what it is: compromise.

We all do it. Just the other day, my wife came home from the grocery store with a sale pork shoulder, and put it in the crock pot (no liquid smoke, thank God). After it was done, she got out the forks and pulled it. I got a bun, and put some St. Augustine, Florida Saville Orange and Datil Pepper-flavored "barbecue sauce"/ketchup on my sandwich. It was good, pork usually is, but if there wasn't a foot of snow on the ground and I didn't have too much to do this weekend I could have turned that poor pig's shoulder into something great on my charcoal setup, with no sauce but a little bit of the leftover simple vinegar and pepper sop needed.

If I lived out in the country, with plenty of extra land to spare for a real cinder block and chicken wire and tin roof pit, and no neighbors to complain about all the smoke, and a whole hog instead of just a shoulder, and plenty of people to feed, I could have made real no-compromise barbecue. To sauce it would be a sin (but a little more sop is okay).

(03-08-2015 10:43 PM)opossum Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 09:20 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 09:04 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 10:06 AM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  Mustard - A Sandlapper thing - in SC.

Here in the Upstate it is mustard base. You head to Columbia the fools put ketchup on it. You reach the grand strand and it is a mix but mustard is still there. Oddly the local mustard base in the grocery store is from Savannah and Charleston.

No they don't.

Mustard based BBQ sauce was developed by the German immigrants who settled the region from Orangeburg and Barnwell areas up the Congaree and then up the Broad and Saluda Rivers from the Ninety-Six region over towards Winnsboro.

In the PeeDee region you get the Vinegar & Pepper Eastern NC style, in the Upstate you get the Western NC tomato based style, and along the Central Savannah River to Lake Hartwell areas you get Ketchup based.

South Carolina is the only state where you can find all four distinct BBQ sauce styles.

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauce...sauce.html

It sounds like the southwest part of the state is where they probably also start cooking a whole menagerie of animals (beef, chicken, I've even heard about "barbecued" sheep in Kentucky) and calling it barbecue.

I don't see a great moral distinction between Western NC "tomato based" and the rest of the South's "ketchup based." If you're mixing tomatoes, vinegar, water, sweetener and seasonings you're making ketchup. Look at the ingredients on the back of a bottle of ketchup -- Western NC barbecue sauce is generally made from the same stuff. It might be thinner, the spices and seasonings may be better chosen, the proportion of tangy/sweet/spicy may be more appropriate for an adult palette, and it's definitely better tasting than Heinz 57, but it's still ketchup.

I love Hash over Rice, and I try to grab a plate whenever I'm driving down I-95 (recommendations of places within a few miles of the highway are welcome!). I've been to the big chain with all the confederate memorabilia for sale in the front (something-gers), and I don't remember it tasting very smoky.

I think that's the overall problem with getting away from pure Eastern sauce. The additional flavors, whether it's tomato in Western Carolina or Georgia or Tennessee or mustard in South Carolina or blood orange in some bistro in the Napa Valley, can flatten out the complex flavors created by the cooking method (long smoke) and material (preferably whole hog, but some hog parts are pretty good on their own if the former isn't possible -- boston butts/shoulders are a decent compromise and deserve respect) that makes barbecue.

If you're compromising on cooking method (anywhere from using gas heat and wood chips to crock pot and liquid smoke) or materials (from smoking a shoulder or two and a slab of ribs and some other parts and pulling it all together, to trying to use a pork tenderloin or God forbid a chicken), then I can see the temptation to distract the eater with fancy tomatoes, mustards and blood oranges. But call it what it is: compromise.

We all do it. Just the other day, my wife came home from the grocery store with a sale pork shoulder, and put it in the crock pot (no liquid smoke, thank God). After it was done, she got out the forks and pulled it. I got a bun, and put some St. Augustine, Florida Saville Orange and Datil Pepper-flavored "barbecue sauce"/ketchup on my sandwich. It was good, pork usually is, but if there wasn't a foot of snow on the ground and I didn't have too much to do this weekend I could have turned that poor pig's shoulder into something great on my charcoal setup, with no sauce but a little bit of the leftover simple vinegar and pepper sop needed.

If I lived out in the country, with plenty of extra land to spare for a real cinder block and chicken wire and tin roof pit, and no neighbors to complain about all the smoke, and a whole hog instead of just a shoulder, and plenty of people to feed, I could have made real no-compromise barbecue. To sauce it would be a sin (but a little more sop is okay).

It's not right off I95, but it's worth making the effort to go to Sweatman's BBQ in Holly Hill. It's as close to backyard BBQ as you are going to find in a restaurant in my experience. Best restaurant hash I've found too.

http://sweatmansbbq.com/

It's just so hard to serve BBQ in a style that will make you money in a commercial setting so there are always compromises. Even the guys who own BBQ restaurants around here will tell you that if some of the backyard masters had a way to sell their que in it's pure form they would be out of business. Sweatman's is damn close though.

I've spent many a weekend teaching courses or playing softball all across SC and there aren't many BBQ joints in this state I haven't been to. You aren't going to find any sheep BBQ, that's a Kentucky thing. Maybe chicken, and some places have started serving brisket.

The chain with all the confederate junk is Maurice Bessinger's. The old bigot died but they are still selling his mediocre slop. Several members of his family (Melvin's BBQ and Bessinger's) have places in the Charleston area. Different name, same mediocre BBQ.

In a few years after my son graduates we are moving out into the country. The second thing I am going to build after my workshop is a real honest to God BBQ pit.

(03-08-2015 11:17 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 10:43 PM)opossum Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 09:20 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 09:04 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-08-2015 10:06 AM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  Mustard - A Sandlapper thing - in SC.

Here in the Upstate it is mustard base. You head to Columbia the fools put ketchup on it. You reach the grand strand and it is a mix but mustard is still there. Oddly the local mustard base in the grocery store is from Savannah and Charleston.

No they don't.

Mustard based BBQ sauce was developed by the German immigrants who settled the region from Orangeburg and Barnwell areas up the Congaree and then up the Broad and Saluda Rivers from the Ninety-Six region over towards Winnsboro.

In the PeeDee region you get the Vinegar & Pepper Eastern NC style, in the Upstate you get the Western NC tomato based style, and along the Central Savannah River to Lake Hartwell areas you get Ketchup based.

South Carolina is the only state where you can find all four distinct BBQ sauce styles.

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauce...sauce.html

It sounds like the southwest part of the state is where they probably also start cooking a whole menagerie of animals (beef, chicken, I've even heard about "barbecued" sheep in Kentucky) and calling it barbecue.

I don't see a great moral distinction between Western NC "tomato based" and the rest of the South's "ketchup based." If you're mixing tomatoes, vinegar, water, sweetener and seasonings you're making ketchup. Look at the ingredients on the back of a bottle of ketchup -- Western NC barbecue sauce is generally made from the same stuff. It might be thinner, the spices and seasonings may be better chosen, the proportion of tangy/sweet/spicy may be more appropriate for an adult palette, and it's definitely better tasting than Heinz 57, but it's still ketchup.

I love Hash over Rice, and I try to grab a plate whenever I'm driving down I-95 (recommendations of places within a few miles of the highway are welcome!). I've been to the big chain with all the confederate memorabilia for sale in the front (something-gers), and I don't remember it tasting very smoky.

I think that's the overall problem with getting away from pure Eastern sauce. The additional flavors, whether it's tomato in Western Carolina or Georgia or Tennessee or mustard in South Carolina or blood orange in some bistro in the Napa Valley, can flatten out the complex flavors created by the cooking method (long smoke) and material (preferably whole hog, but some hog parts are pretty good on their own if the former isn't possible -- boston butts/shoulders are a decent compromise and deserve respect) that makes barbecue.

If you're compromising on cooking method (anywhere from using gas heat and wood chips to crock pot and liquid smoke) or materials (from smoking a shoulder or two and a slab of ribs and some other parts and pulling it all together, to trying to use a pork tenderloin or God forbid a chicken), then I can see the temptation to distract the eater with fancy tomatoes, mustards and blood oranges. But call it what it is: compromise.

We all do it. Just the other day, my wife came home from the grocery store with a sale pork shoulder, and put it in the crock pot (no liquid smoke, thank God). After it was done, she got out the forks and pulled it. I got a bun, and put some St. Augustine, Florida Saville Orange and Datil Pepper-flavored "barbecue sauce"/ketchup on my sandwich. It was good, pork usually is, but if there wasn't a foot of snow on the ground and I didn't have too much to do this weekend I could have turned that poor pig's shoulder into something great on my charcoal setup, with no sauce but a little bit of the leftover simple vinegar and pepper sop needed.

If I lived out in the country, with plenty of extra land to spare for a real cinder block and chicken wire and tin roof pit, and no neighbors to complain about all the smoke, and a whole hog instead of just a shoulder, and plenty of people to feed, I could have made real no-compromise barbecue. To sauce it would be a sin (but a little more sop is okay).

It's not right off I95, but it's worth making the effort to go to Sweatman's BBQ in Holly Hill. It's as close to backyard BBQ as you are going to find in a restaurant in my experience. Best restaurant hash I've found too.

http://sweatmansbbq.com/

It's just so hard to serve BBQ in a style that will make you money in a commercial setting so there are always compromises. Even the guys who own BBQ restaurants around here will tell you that if some of the backyard masters had a way to sell their que in it's pure form they would be out of business. Sweatman's is damn close though.

I've spent many a weekend teaching courses or playing softball all across SC and there aren't many BBQ joints in this state I haven't been to. You aren't going to find any sheep BBQ, that's a Kentucky thing. Maybe chicken, and some places have started serving brisket.

The chain with all the confederate junk is Maurice Bessinger's. The old bigot died but they are still selling his mediocre slop. Several members of his family (Melvin's BBQ and Bessinger's) have places in the Charleston area. Different name, same mediocre BBQ.

In a few years after my son graduates we are moving out into the country. The second thing I am going to build after my workshop is a real honest to God BBQ pit.

That's only a twenty mile or so detour on a 700 mile trip. It looks well worth it, and I owe you one for recommending it. I will time my next road trip down to be there for a meal.

Bessingers is what I was thinking of. We stopped there last time we made the drive down I95 (the timing was right for a stop, and there it was). I really thought it was okay for road food, but I was thinking of it as a rice dish (i.e. "putting this stuff on it is a great way to make rice tasty") more than a barbecue dish. I'm naturally inclined to like mustard. I have definitely had better hash, but not recently.

I hope I've got a real pit in my future too.

Yo know... I really believe "boss hog" could create a "Barbeque" board under the Lounge and it would have the potential to generate about 80% of the traffic he gets on the ConfRealign board, just based on the passion in this thread.

Personally, I prefer my 'Cue pulled with tomato-based (but spicy) barbecue sauce.

With hush puppies galore.

Eastern NC BBQ rules.

Best places I've had it:

Skylight Inn - Ayden, NC
B's - Greenville, NC
Parker's - downtown Greenville, NC
The Pit - Raleigh, NC

Some of the best I've ever had is at the Pittsburgh Rib Fest every Labor Day weekend. Most of the vendors are from North Carolina. Mostly the vineger based BBQ...