Barbecue Brings Community Together In King, NC

Brisket by Optimus Swine is always a winner. Photo: Optimus Swine via Facebook.

 
Fire in the Foothills in King, NC, was begun last year by the city’s Chamber of Commerce and several local service organizations to celebrate community spirit and have a fun event that everyone could enjoy with barbecue being the main attraction. As cooking teams compete in a contest sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, other festival events attract a sizable crowd.

Cooking teams set up around the festival grounds.

In the second year of the cookoff, 42 teams competed: 28 in the Master Series and 14 in the Backyard Series. Top prizes and money are awarded to winners in the Master Series. However, the Backyard Series gives aspiring teams the opportunity to participate in the contest, learn how to prepare for the top series, and also compete for cash prizes. The Master teams competed in all four meat categories—chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket; the Backyard teams were not required to submit brisket entries and prepared just three.

The HalaQyah BBQ team had problems controlling its cooker.

Swig-N-Pig was the overall champion. Its top score was significantly influenced by earning a perfect score and first place in the chicken category. It also placed second in the pork category. Optimus Swine placed first in both ribs and brisket; however, a really low score (24th place out of 28) in pork knocked them out of contention for top honors overall.

The kids zone is a popular area of the festival.

Wolf’s Revenge BBQ was the reserve champion and finished just 0.0232 points—the narrowest of margins—behind Swig-N-Pig in total points. Its 10th-place finish in pork had a dampening effect on the high scores that it received in the three other categories. Incidentally, Wolf’s Revenge was the grand champion at the New Holland (Pa.) Summer Fest, a similar KCBS-sanctioned contest, held the previous weekend.

Pork ribs by Wolf's Revenge BBQ team typically earn a high score from the judges. Photo: Wolf's Revenge via Facebook.

Significantly more cooking teams participated in the second annual Fire in the Foothills. In its first year, just 21 teams competed in the Master Series and 11 in the Backyard. This year Poor Boys BBQ moved up to the Master Series, and the experience gained in 2023 was clearly helpful; they placed seventh overall out of the 28 teams.

More than 100 vendors contribute to the festive atmosphere.

The festival also expanded significantly in its second year with more than 100 vendors. Music, a people’s choice category, kids zone, and other entertainment helped to bring in a larger crowd this year too. The overcast sky which kept temperatures from hitting typical August highs provided the perfect weather for the day.

Entries for the People's Choice contest are brought from the cooking teams.

With $15,000 in cash and prizes this year, Fire in the Foothills has become a major community event. Of course, having barbecue as the main attraction helps to guarantee success.

When a Favorite BBQ Place Goes Up in Smoke…

The initial scene photographed by the neighbor who heard the explosion. Photo by Tim Searchfield in The (Southern Pines, NC) Pilot.

 
A barbecue place on fire captures everyone’s attention and is the top news in a small community. In Carthage, N.C., a town of slightly more than 2,000, the favored Pik-n-Pig was destroyed overnight when a fire broke out early on Sunday, May 30, 2021. 

Firefighters work before dawn to put out the fire. Photo: Carthage Fire & Rescue.

Pik-n-Pig was one of my local favorite spots. (See an initial post here.) It was a place to savor slowly smoked barbecue cooked over hot coals in the traditional way. It was also where I took out-of-town company who wanted to have a real North Carolina barbecue experience. Nothing was more authentic than Pik-n-Pig, even though being located next to an active runway make it seemed like it was a gimmick made for a TV special. 

A photo of the entrance that I took in 2020.

Later in the morning when the fire had been extinguished, the owners posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page how devastating the destruction was. Soon, more than 1,000 people had clicked the “sad” emoji (no one clicked “like), more than 600 shared the post, and over 350 posted comments about how important the restaurant was to them and expressed their sadness. A Go Fund Me page was started by the community with an initial goal of $20,000. When it was quickly reached in a day as donations of up to $1,000 were contributed, the goal was raised to $40,000.

Damage is clearly evident in the early morning light. Photo: Carthage Fire & Rescue.

When barbecue is cooked slowly over hot coals, the risk of unintended consequences is always present: hot grease here, flare-ups there, floating cinders that can ignite anything flammable. Even after the cooking is over, danger can lurk undetected for hours. The Carthage Fire Chief estimated that 75 percent of the restaurant was on fire when the first firefighters arrived at 3:45 a.m. 

The fire caused extensive damage to Pik-n-Pig. Photo: Patrick Priest via WRAL.com.

The restaurant had survived more than a year of the 2020-21 pandemic restrictions. Inside service was suspended for a while, and it relied on takeout orders and later outside seating to stay in business. Now that restaurant limitations have ended in this area, the dedicated local following had been returning there in numbers that seemed greater than before the pandemic. Pik-n-Pig was appreciated that much.

Several hours later, the restaurant's property is secured by the firefighters. Photo: Carthage Fire & Rescue.

When a favorite BBQ place goes up in smoke, the whole community comes together. It tells stories about when they had been there and how important the food was to them, children blow kisses for good luck that the place will reopen, fundraising efforts start to provide seed money for the business to recover — and everyone mourns the loss. 

An aerial view shows that the fire spared little from destruction. Photo: Patrick Priest, Sandhills Sentinel.

Barbecue is more than simply food. It brings people together too.

My barbecue plate with two sides and a corn muffin last year when only outside dining at Pik-n-Pig was available.

Returning to the Firehouse BBQ Cookoff

Returning to Kings Mountain, NC, for the annual Firehouse BBQ Cookoff is been a priority since last year. Held in this small suburban city within the Charlotte metropolitan area, the contest has always been well organized as it was again for its 22nd year.

During the third weekend in April, a fire museum becomes the host of a barbecue cookoff.

The cookoff is so respected that the North Carolina governor proclaimed the 2018 contest as the N.C. Firehouse Barbeque State Championship. One benefit of the recognition is that the winner this year receives an invitation to the American Royal Barbecue Contest and is eligible for the Jack Daniels Invitational Contest. With $4,500 in total prize money at stake, 33 teams signed up for the hopes of not only taking home cash and a trophy but also receiving invitations to the other prestigious events as well.

Cooking teams set up on the grassy area of Deal Park.

Before the first entries were turned in and the judges had settled into their chairs to begin serious judging, the atmosphere resembled that of a reunion. One benefit of being a judge is seeing familiar faces at each cookoff. The judges at this year’s event included several who had been at previous Firehouse BBQ Cookoffs.

Before the competition begins, judges who arrive early look over an antique fire engine, which had been moved outdoors.

All judging activities take place in the Kings Mountain Historical Fire Museum, one of only three fire museums in the state. Built more than 40 years ago, the museum houses two vintage fire engines (1930 and a 1938 models), which are moved outside so the judges have adequate room to set up and evaluate the cookoff entries.

Judges wait in the museum for the first barbecue entries to arrive.

The museum has several items of interest, including a 1927 hose cart, the first piece of equipment to fight fires in the city. A soda acid fire extinguisher, which needed two firefighters to move it, is also on display. Other relics — helmets, hoses, nozzles, patches, and other memorabilia — hang from the ceiling and are in display classes. All of these were quietly overlooked when the judges began their task: judging chicken, pork, ribs, and brisket.

Vendors line the walking track at Deal Park as the competition begins.

Once again Kings Mountain has earned its spot on the barbecue competition trail. Teams compete, judges evaluate, prize money is distributed, and trophies are earned – and after everyone has gone home, the museum returns to a state of slumber to protect its collectibles until the third Saturday in April of another year when a new cookoff begins.

Festival activities include a play area for children.