Starting a BBQ Tradition in Clayton, NC

Unlimited beer samples were almost as popular as barbecue. Photo: Downtown Clayton NC via Facebook.

Clayton, NC, isn’t known for its barbecue traditions. However, it’s never too late to begin one. Enter the Clayton BBQ Challenge, which had its inaugural event in 2023 with promises of becoming an annual event to celebrate beer, bands, and barbecue. 

Cooking teams set up near the Civitan Center in Clayton.

Clayton Celebrates with Barbecue

With a population of fewer than 25,000, Clayton has successfully preserved a small-town atmosphere, particularly in its downtown historic district. However, it promotes itself as “the fastest growing town in the fastest growing county in North Carolina” — and brags that it’s no longer the “one-stoplight town it was 40 years ago.”

The Off the Rack team scored high in the contest and won first place in the pork category.

Overshadowed by Raleigh, the state capital about 15 miles away, the town seeks to create its own identity. Having a barbecue cookoff is one way to set it apart from its more prominent neighbors as well as to have fun.

Judging plates are ready for the first entries.

Clayton BBQ Challenge: More Than Barbecue

General admission tickets started at $35 and provided access to unlimited beer samples from more than 15 N.C. breweries. In addition to craft beer sampling, the festivities included food trucks, live music, and BBQ-related vendor booths. 

Optimus Swine, grand champion of the cookoff, posted this photo of their chicken entry on their Facebook page. Photo: Optimus Swine.

Held in the town’s municipal park, the event was sponsored by the Downtown Development Association. In the cookoff sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, 17 teams competed for the $7,500 in prize money. Many teams were well-known and are perennial finalists for national honors each year.

The Off the Rack BBQ Competition Cooking Team took first place in the pork category. Photo: Ready Roofing Company via Facebook.

From all accounts, the inaugural cookoff sets a great example for future events to duplicate. Let’s hope that Clayton continues to develop a barbecue tradition that it can be proud of.

A Barbecue Food Truck Rolls into a Small NC Town

Up in Smoke BBQ sets up in Southern Pines, NC.

 Barbecue food trucks seem to be multiplying. They serve an increasing number of people wanting their beloved barbecue while the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the restaurant industry are brought under control. Although the restrictions that limit how many customers on-site that restaurants can serve are slowly being lifted, trucks may have found a long-term opportunity to connect with barbecue fans even after the pandemic has ended. 

Trays of pulled pork inside the truck are ready for orders. Photo: Up in Smoke via Facebook.

Up in Smoke BBQ 

In downtown Southern Pines, NC, on the premises of Hatchett Brewery Co., Up in Smoke BBQ set up one weekend to offer good-tasting barbecue to beer fans who otherwise wouldn’t have had anything substantial to eat. Also known as the BBQ Bus (although it’s really a trailer with a bus logo painted on it), Up in Smoke BBQ and other barbecue trucks that locate at a craft brewery have found a good partner, and all can benefit from mutual promotion. The menu varies with each event, but barbecue is always served. 

The menu usually includes ribs but always includes pulled pork.

Although Southern Pines restricts food trucks in its central business district, permits can be obtained in advance with a little thoughtful planning. The restrictions are designed to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants that pay property taxes from competition with trucks that have lower expenses. However, a barbecue food truck isn’t competition for restaurants and bars that generally don’t serve barbecue. If a truck doesn’t roll in, barbecue is not available. 

My pulled pork order with two servings of coleslaw.

Truck Menu

When I was at Up in Smoke BBQ, the truck was continually busy serving customers who were entering and leaving the craft brewery. Most customers probably were more focused on beer than barbecue, but for me, my concentration was totally on the pork. The popular choice was pulled pork, which is what I ordered. It was excellent, and several sauce options were available. 

The BBQ bus logo is very prominent on the trailer of Up in Smoke.

Finding good barbecue on food trucks is no longer a rare experience. Let’s hope that they keep rolling.

Returning to Galax

Smoke on the Mountain in Galax, Va., is an annual favorite for cooking teams and judges. Set in the center of a small city (population only 7,000), the cookout has a venue envied by many other contests.

The last time that I was a judge for Smoke on the Mountain was in 2015. The community support for the event and the hordes of enthusiastic barbecue fans who attend continue to impress me.

Teams keep wood burning to have hot coals for when needed.

Local citizens and visitors spend a good part of the weekend walking among the cooking teams, enjoying the live music on street stages, looking over items being sold by arts and crafts vendors, and checking out sales at several antique stores.

The marquee of the historic theater in Galax promotes the barbecue cookoff.

Before the judges were required to take their seats, I joined the downtown scene and visited several vendors and stores. The most surprising find for me was to see a squash pie for sale. Although my focus for the day was barbecue, I couldn’t resist taking home a squash pie made by a 95-year-old lady who was one of the street vendors.

Judges relax before the first entries arrive for them to judge.

The judges again met on the second floor of the Chestnut Creek School of the Arts, which conducts classes in contemporary art and traditional music. Located in the historic National Bank Building, it has a gift store that features creative items made by local artists. I was particularly struck by artwork using a theme of the galax leaf. The prominence of the low-growing evergreen shrub, native to the southern Appalachian Mountains, is how Galax got its name in 1906.

The watercolor "Small Galax Leaf" by local artist Paula Melton is on display at the Chestnut Creek School of the Arts.

The cookoff occurs in Galax a month before it hosts the Old Fiddlers’ Convention, the world’s largest and oldest fiddlers’ convention. The city is known as the World Capital of Old-Time Mountain Music, a traditional American music that gave rise to bluegrass, country, rock and other styles. With its Smoke on the Mountain contest, Galax also continues to build on its reputation for excellent barbecue. In the cookoff, cooking teams compete in separate contests sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society and Memphis Barbecue Network.

A team prepares one of its entries for judging.

Smoke on the Mountain continues to be one of my favorite contests. The cool temperatures in mid-July are an added enticement to attend. Judging barbecue and enjoying the street scene are great ways to spend a Saturday in a lively small city.

Trophies for earlier cookoffs in Galax take center place among others at a competitor's site.

A New Cookoff to Start a Tradition

Duplin County in North Carolina is well known for its wines, history, museums, and festivals. After having its first whole hog cookoff that promises to be an annual tradition, the county -- big in square miles (ninth largest in the state) but small in population (58,000) -- will also be known for its competition-quality barbecue.

Showtime's Legit, the first team to be judged, awaits arrival of the judges.

The Duplin County Events Center, which hosts a variety of tourism and agricultural events, is the home to concerts, competitions, shows, tournaments, exhibitions, and other activities. The N.C. Muscadine Festival, which has been held annually each fall since 2005, was the first major event held at the center. To balance the schedule by holding a major event in the spring, a whole hog cookoff has been added. Although excellent barbecue is enticement enough to attract a sizable crowd, the organizers have also included bluegrass music and craft beer sampling. The event’s name says it all: Blue, Brew, and Cue Festival.

A pig looks perfectly prepared before the judges begin their inspection.

Because the organizers achieved sanctioning by the N.C. Pork Council for the festival, they were assured that the event would attract competitive cooks. Although the cooks want to earn bragging rights as finalists and win a festival trophy, they also want to qualify for the annual statewide championship held later in the year. When at least 10 cooks participate in a local contest sanctioned by the Pork Council, the finalists are eligible to advance and compete in the championship.

I check a temperature gauge as part of the evaluation.

For the inaugural cookoff, 20 competitors registered. Many cooks earned high scores – an indication of how competitive an inaugural contest can be. Although a few novices to the Whole Hog Barbecue Series were competing in a sanctioned event for the first time, several had been competitors in past years and achieved success in those contests. At least one competitor -- Roy Parker -- had won the annual Whole Hog Barbecue Championship (2006), and he clearly was confident. When I visited his site with the other judges for this festival, I thought the skin crispness -- one of the scoring criteria of a cookoff -- of his pig was excellent.

After judges walk away from a cooker, the pig is in shambles from the inspection.

The pigs were provided by Smithfield, a festival sponsor, to the cooks the evening before judging was conducted. Although they varied in weight from about 94 to 116 pounds, they were uniformly moist after having been cooked overnight, a phenomenal accomplishment for the cooks because contest rules prevent them from injecting the pigs or adding any sauce.

I enter the scores for one team before leaving its site.

For the contest, I teamed up with two long-term judges, Charlie Martin and Timmy Evans. Martin had been a judge at the Newport Pig Cookin’ Contest in 2016 and was one of the judges whom I shadowed as part of my certification by the Pork Council.

After the pigs are judged, meat from the cookers is brought in bins to festival volunteers who prepare for selling barbecue plates to the public.

For a first-time event, the Blue, Brew, and Cue Festival was well planned and organized. The combination of music, beer, and barbecue is a winner and should serve as a strong foundation for future cookoffs. Duplin County should soon be able to add excellent barbecue to its other tourism credentials – how appropriate for the county that has more hogs than any other in the United States. 

Photographer Katherine Clark takes pictures as I and the other judges evaluate a pig.

Note: During the judging process, I was followed by photographer Katherine Clark, who took pictures to accompany an article that I had written for OutreachNC magazine.