Returning to Normalcy for BBQ Fundraisers

The plate of barbecue comes with beans, cole slaw, and more.

What a difference a year makes, particularly when the coronavirus pandemic is involved. The pandemic required some barbecue fundraisers to suspend events and others to modify theirs. Now most have returned to their regular schedules, such as the annual harvest festival held by Culdee Presbyterian Church. 

A dedicated kitchen crew keeps the serving line moving.

Annual Fall Festival of Culdee Presbyterian Church 

In the Eastwood community of Moore County, NC, the church has cooked barbecue every November on the first weekend as a fundraiser for its projects and ministries as part of a harvest festival. The festival begins early at 10 a.m. when a “country store” opens and continues until the last ticket is bought for a raffle that starts at 6:30 p.m. Other activities occur throughout the day, but for me the priority is to arrive in time for supper before the barbecue sells out. A plate with pulled pork, slaw, baked beans, and a roll sells for $10. It also includes a homemade dessert and a beverage. 

The dessert table is loaded with homemade sweets.

Schedule for Preparing Barbecue 

The 2022 event was the 35th festival that the church had held. With that much experience, the church has perfected its schedule. Boston butts are taken to the church on the Saturday before the festival and are kept refrigerated until the next Wednesday when they are prepared by washing, rubbing with spices, and wrapping for cooking. At 4 o’clock on the next morning, a volunteer team begins cooking. On the next day (Friday), the butts are unwrapped, and the meat is pulled from the bones. And then all we have to do is wait for Saturday, the day of the fall festival. 

After barbecue has been cooked for many harvest festivals, the schedule has been perfected.

Selling Barbecue Also on January 1 

The folks at Culdee really know how to celebrate with food. On January 1 this year, the church celebrated the start of the new year with a Southern meal of pork barbecue, collards, black-eyed peas, and cornbread. Because the pandemic was still a concern, all meals were to-go. The barbecue then was as good as it was today. Maybe the Boston butts were prepared by the same volunteers on the same schedule. 

Several activities of the fall festival are held outdoors.

Celebrating the fall is a hallmark tradition for many communities, especially if they are more rural than urban. Because they include pork barbecue in their celebration, the festival is very enjoyable.

Looking for Smoke and Finding Barbecue

A pulled pork sandwich by pitmaster Joe Kelso.

[Note: This post, prepared originally for Sandhills Magazine and published in its April-May 2021 issue, is hosted on the magazine's website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted here.]

When family members and guests visit from out-of-state and want to taste authentic N.C. barbecue, where do you take them? The choices are more numerous than you may realize. Do you want to impress, go to a casual Sandhills spot, take a short road trip to a legacy location, search for one of the ubiquitous barbecue food trucks, or visit a competitive cookoff? 

The Impressive 

Nothing is more impressive than watching small planes land and take off on an active runway next to where you are enjoying hickory-smoked barbecue slowly cooked over hot coals. Head to Carthage where Pik-n-Pig, located at Gilliam-McConnell Airport, has created a dedicated following for its pulled pork that is smoked for up to 10 hours. Although the meat is served naturally moist, you can enhance the flavor with a homemade hot-spicy (vinegar-based) sauce or a sweet honey sauce (that is tomato-based). The sides are excellent, but make sure to save room for banana pudding. 

Because some out-of-towners want to combine barbecue with a craft beer (or two), Pinehurst Brewing Company in the century-old steam plant building is a favorite destination to impress. Smoked over hickory and oak coals, its pulled pork shoulder pairs well with its signature barbecue sauces, which include a creative blueberry habanero, as well as its distinctive beers.

Continue reading at Sandhills Magazine and also see an earlier post about pitmaster Joe Kelso and Smok'n Joe's BBQ that are mentioned later in this post ...

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.

Smoking Barbecue on a Food Truck

Smoke coming from the truck is a good sign, not a bad one.

Finding a food truck that serves amazing pulled pork is a special discovery, particularly during a coronavirus pandemic when many people don’t want to eat indoors and are compelled to maintain “social distances” as recommended by public health authorities. 

Barbecue Food Truck 

As I was driving in the Sandhills of North Carolina, the smoke spiraling from a red food truck caught my eye even before I saw a sign with big black letters simply stating, “Bar-B-Que.” It was a place that I had to stop. 

The cooker stays busy for many hours. Source: Smok'n Joe's BBQ via Facebook.

After talking to Joe Kelso for a few moments, I knew that I had unexpectedly met an authentic pitmaster who knew the secrets of slowly smoking pork and who was rightly proud of his work. With an earlier assignment to write an article about local barbecue for Sandhills Magazine, I was in the right place at the right time to collect information for the article. 

Pork shoulders are cooked slowly for a long tie. Source: Smok'n Joe's BBQ via Facebook.

Barbecue and Baked Beans 

Kelso, who has been cooking barbecue for decades, operates The Rocking Pig, a food truck that features Smok’n Joe’s BBQ. The truck revives the name of a former barbecue place in Maxton, NC, that is now closed. Smok’n Joe’s BBQ gives a special identity to the barbecue made by Kelso and a nod to his genius at the smoker. 

My to-go plate of pulled pork barbecue with baked beans, potato salad, and coleslaw.

The menu of the truck is simple: pulled pork barbecue generously moistened with a vinegar-based sauce. A plate comes with baked beans, coleslaw, and potato salad. The beans deserve special mention because they are heartily enhanced with extra pulled pork. They were so good that I went back to the truck and ordered a large container to take home after enjoying my plate. 

A pot of baked beans is ready for customers. Source: Smok'n Joe's BBQ via Facebook.

Permanent Location 

Unlike most food trucks, The Rocking Pig is stationary and does not move from site to site. It’s always on the west side of US Hwy 1 between Aberdeen and Pinebluff, NC. Kelso says he’s avoiding “the rodeo” of moving from place to place such as breweries and shopping centers so common for other food trucks. 

If the sign says, "Bar-B-Que," perhaps you should stop. Source: Smok'n Joe's BBQ via Facebook.

Don’t be surprised when you find excellent barbecue at a food truck. It all depends on the skill of the pitmaster.

The Pitmaster Who Won a James Beard Award

Enjoying barbecue prepared by award-winning pitmasters is a hobby of mine, but it’s not often that the award has been presented by the prestigious James Beard Foundation. Rodney Scott’s Bar-B-Que in Charleston, SC, is the home of the award-winning pitmaster, although his roots in Hemingway, SC, are not that far away.

Cut hardwood stacked outside the restaurant lets you know that you've arrived at Rodney Scott's. 

Opened in July 2016, the restaurant is a continuation of success for Scott, after having been profiled in Time magazine, The New York Times, Saveur, and other publications. With the James Beard Award in 2018 for Best Chef: Southeast, Scott has reached another pinnacle. The award acknowledges Scott’s culinary talent and broadens his reputation nationally. With the recognition came backing for Scott to open his own restaurant on King Street in food-centric Charleston, about 80 miles away to the southeast from his family’s business where he learned to cook whole hogs.

Rodney Scott's BBQ is now a destination on King Street in Charleston.

Having lunch at Scott’s was the most important part of my recent trip to Charleston (although the purpose was to be a judge at a cookoff in the area on the next day). I was surprised how extensive the menu is at the Charleston restaurant. It’s much more expanded than the simple menu of Scott’s Bar-B-Que in Hemingway.

Customers wait to order at the peak of lunch hour.

For my first visit to Rodney Scott’s in Charleston, I had to order the pit-cooked barbecue, although fried catfish was tempting. Pork smoked over oak coals with a little hickory and pecan hardwood carried me back my first visit to Scott’s Variety Store and Bar-B-Que in Hemingway. On his menu in Charleston, Scott proclaims that he gets the wood that he needs every week “to put flavor in what we do — kind of like the chef picking out tomatoes from a garden.” The barbecue flavors of the family’s traditional approach of slowing cooking whole hogs have amazingly been brought intact to the big city.

Rodney Scott is a gracious host, and his smile is as award-winning as his barbecue.

True to the tradition of the Scott’s family style in Hemingway, two slices of white bread accompany the pulled pork on a plate, which is served on a tray and comes with two sides and cornbread (only one side with sandwiches).

This combo plate, served on a tray, includes pork and ribs with beans, greens, cornbread, and white bread. An order of banana pudding is at the top left.

The sides are tempting. Baked mac ‘n’ cheese with a crispy breadcrumb topping seemed to be the customers’ favorite while I was there. Being a traditional Southerner, I ordered the greens. Coleslaw, potato salad, hushpuppies, and baked beans are among the other sides.

A sandwich is served with one side (coleslaw in this order).

Although I didn’t save room for dessert, I ordered some anyway — only one is on the menu, and it’s the only one needed. Traditional banana pudding completes a perfect barbecue lunch. What Scott’s serves reminds me of Sunday dessert when I was growing up. It is that good.

Banana pudding is the only dessert on the menu.

Not every BBQ restaurant has a drive-thru window. Rodney Scott’s does, and it stayed busy, although most customers come to eat either inside or at tables on the patios. The line inside seemed to never end while I was there, and often than a dozen people were waiting to order.

The drive-thru window awaits the first lunch customer after the restaurant has opened.

The excitement that has developed for Rodney Scott’s barbecue in South Carolina is a clue that another state deserves a location. Not to worry. Another restaurant — this one in Birmingham, Alabama — is already on the books and being planned to open in 2019. Now I need to start planning a trip to Alabama.

Whole hogs smoked for hours are ready to be taken from the pits.

Few spaces inside are available during the lunch hour.

The tables outside are popular places to enjoy barbecue.

Eastern N.C. Style Barbecue in the Blue Ridge Mountains

It’s a topsy-turvy world. Now you can travel west to the Blue Ridge Mountains to enjoy eastern North Carolina-style barbecue. Since it opened in Asheville in 2015, Buxton Hall Barbecue has been a destination for barbecue fans.

Could this building have been home to a roller rink?

The food is made right in front of you in a wide-open kitchen. Whole hogs are smoked low and slow for 18 hours over hardwood coals in the traditional eastern N.C. style and basted with a vinegar mop based on a family recipe of chef Elliott Moss, who grew up in Florence, S.C. True to eastern N.C., the menu lists “BBQ mop,” not sauce, as the baste that moistens and flavors the meat.

The wide-open kitchen adjoins the dining area.

Loyal to its region, Buxton Hall sources its pasture-raised hogs, produce and other ingredients from area farms. Although pulled pork is the reason many customers visit Buxton Hall, fried chicken and catfish are also popular, and South Carolina-style “hash” is served in a combo plate with barbecue. In addition to plates that come with cornbread and pickles, sandwich options include barbecue, chicken and catfish, and the sandwiches are as good as the plates. In fact, the “Fried Chicken Sandwich of the Year” as proclaimed by Bon Appétit in 2016 is the one made at Buxton Hall.

A cooked whole hog has just been taken out of a smoker.

The dozen sides at Buxton Hall deserve special mention and are very appealing. Narrowing down to the two that come with a plate is difficult. The collard greens, which has flavors of sweet and sour, are worth taking home to serve to company if any are left over. The green beans are good but have a spicy kick that need to be calmed down with a sip of a cold beverage. Next time I will try the chicken bog -- a combination of rice, sausage and peas. The spiced peaches with fromage blanc also are tempting.

The sauce bar satisfies more than one regional preference.

The hushpuppies are crispy and convey buttermilk and jalapeño flavors. Other appetizers include mussels cooked under the pig (not the typical menu offering of a barbecue pitmaster) and smoky pimento cheese.

My pulled pork plate with collard greens, green beans and cornbread is ready to be enjoyed.

Because Buxton Hall has an in-house bakery, all desserts are homemade. I couldn’t leave with trying the banana pudding pie, which was delicious. With a wafer crumb crust and a brown sugar meringue top, it was the perfect end to the peppery and vinegary entrée. Although I’d order the same dessert on another visit, the nectarine poundcake and black forest cake were also top contenders on the dessert list. On the day I visited, the black raspberry pie wasn’t available. If it had been, I would have taken home a serving.

Banana pudding pie is a clear favorite.

Buxton Hall represents the “new” style of barbecue establishments, as explained by food writer Kathleen Purvis. Traditional barbecue fare is offered in a large restaurant with meat sourced locally and cooked over wood by an owner whose reputation was made in fine dining, a long and interesting list of sides, creative appetizers and craft beer. Buxton Hall not only has craft beer but also the “world famous” Buxton Slushie, a frozen concoction of bourbon and Cheerwine, along with several creative cocktails. An extensive list of beer and wine is available as is the traditional iced tea (sweet or unsweet).

The Buxton Slushie (bourbon and Cheerwine) is "world famous" (well, it's becoming better known).

The restaurant’s historic location is on Asheville’s South Slope. The enormous space has been a boat showroom, the site of auto shops and even a wood-floored roller rink. Along the walls are several murals, well worth preserving, that date to 1936.

A skier in a mural on a side wall seems to be airborne over wood cut for the kitchen.

The steady stream of customers who arrive each day don’t seem perplexed at finding whole hog barbecue prepared in the style of eastern North Carolina in western Asheville. Moss and his partner Meherwan Iran (both are James Beard nominees) say that they are “revitalizing Carolina barbecue history,” and the customers enjoy experiencing that renaissance.

The menu includes plates, sandwiches and an extensive list of sides.

Finding and Appreciating Jim ‘N Nick’s

The sign by the road says it all.

Have you been traveling down a highway when you saw a sign for a restaurant and thought, “That’s a place I’ve been wanting to visit”? As I was driving through the panhandle of Florida on U.S 98 heading west into Destin, the neon sign for Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q caught my attention.

On arrival you are greeted with a basket of mni cheese biscuits, a specialty of Jim 'N Nick's, which also sell the mix in bags.

Jim ‘N Nick’s serves barbecue I’ve wanted to taste since I first learned about it from Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization that documents, studies, and celebrates the food cultures of the American South. As I have attended SFA events, I’ve noticed that Jim ‘N Nick’s is one of the dedicated SFA corporate donors and actively promotes SFA’s events, programs, and workshops.

Riblets, a small plate or appetizer to share, are bite-sized pieces of smoked ribs.

Jim ‘N Nick’s, a casual chain that features slow-cooked barbecue, began in Birmingham, Alabama, where the late Jim Pihakis with his son Nick opened the first restaurant in 1985. Nick learned how to smoke meat slowly over wood coals by apprenticing under Phillip Audrey, pitmaster of Ollie’s Bar-B-Q in Birmingham. Jim ‘N Nick’s has grown to 34 locations in seven states. Almost half are in the state of Alabama, and four are as far away from my home as Denver.

A pulled-pork sandwich comes with two sides -- collards and beans were my choices.

The food definitely doesn’t taste like it was prepared by a chain, perhaps because its network of local producers provides pastured-raised heritage breed pork and each restaurant is locally owned and operated. Jim ‘N Nick’s says, “All BBQ has the same three basic ingredients: smoke, meat, and time,” and it combines all three superbly. It refers to its classic pulled pork sandwich as “pig on a bun,” which John T. Edge, SFA director, calls “the ideal pulled-pork sandwich, the workaday sustenance of all BBQ aficionados.”

John T. Edge's observation is highlighted in the menu.

With such a lofty portrayal, I couldn’t order anything else. With a pulled pork sandwich, I ordered slow-cooked collards and baked beans. To accompany a sandwich or plate, Jim ‘N Nick’s offers several favorite sides, or “scratch-made trimmings.” Also on the menu are mac & cheese, coleslaw, potato (mashed, chips, fried, or baked), fresh fruit, and house or potato salad. Even with several cheese biscuits, I saved room -- a challenge -- to finish with banana pudding.

Banana pudding is always on the menu as a dessert.

Everything brought to the table was superior. It’s hard to pick a favorite, although the cheese biscuits are a great way to begin a meal and the riblets that my wife ordered were perfectly prepared. Although I generally don’t consider a chain to be topic for this blog, Jim ‘N Nick’s is definitely an exception that deserves praise and a place that I would visit when I’m in one of its locations again.

Barbecue Served with Recipes That Grandma Hill Created

Pork shoulders cook slowly over hardwood coals in the kitchen of Hill's Lexington Barbecue.

A trip to Hill’s Lexington Barbecue in Winston-Salem, NC, is a trip back to the 1950s. The food, hospitality, and atmosphere harken back to an earlier time and a slower pace. Drive-ins were family-owned. Another decade would be needed before McDonalds, Hardees, and similar places would open.

A traditional wood burner, this stack at Hill's was brought in from Asheboro, NC.

Imagine Winston-Salem, NC, in 1951, when Hill’s opened as a drive-in on Patterson Avenue, then U.S. 52 heading north to Mt. Airy and south to the Twin City. At that time the restaurant was outside city limits – a time and place I remember as a child because my dad was its mail carrier on his motor route and let me join him delivering the mail on summer days in the mid-1950s (without U.S. Postal Service approval or knowledge, of course). Today, although within city limits, Hill’s is now bypassed by the limited-access U.S. 52 that rises high above on an elevated road soon to be Interstate 74. 

Hardwood is burned until coals are ready for the smoker.

In 1951, the city population was around 90,000, and the dedicated customer enjoyed a scenic drive to Hill’s on a curvy, two-lane U.S. 52 at slow speeds. Today, U.S. 52 is the fast road north in a city of almost 250,000. Many wonderful places with cultural and historic connections are now missed by some travelers who are totally unaware they exist simply because highways have been redesigned and “improved” to move us at faster speeds. Although a new customer has to look for the overhead billboard to know which exit to take, long-term customers know exactly where on Patterson Avenue Hill’s is located.

Long-term customers arrive early for favorite seating in the dining areas,

The dining areas are typically filled with repeat customers who also know that the menu still reflects good value and a cooking method known as Lexington style.  The pork is prepared from only hog shoulders and cooked slowly over hardwood coals. Although it’s served in one of four ways -- chopped, pulled, sliced, and blocked -- it comes with only one kind of slaw – red – the only kind served with Lexington-style barbecue.

Lexington-style barbecue is always served with "red" slaw.

When I ordered a pulled pork tray for lunch, the server was careful to explain that it came with red slaw just in case I was not familiar with it. Unlike traditional coleslaw, no mayonnaise is in the vinegary red slaw, which gets its characteristic color from ketchup. The pulled pork with a thin but peppery sauce I enjoyed was tender and full of smoky flavor. With the red slaw, it’s a perfect lunch – with hushpuppies, of course.

The server brings more than enough hushpuppies to a table while the orders are being prepared.

The original small drive-in has been gone a long time. Although a larger building replaced it more than 40 years ago, the best recipes – banana pudding, slaw, hushpuppies, and sauce – are still the original family ones. The Hill family, with the third generation now operating the restaurant, has been wise in not modernizing or updating them.

A portrait of Edna Hill, wife of the founder, guards the entrance -- a good reason not to change a recipe, particularly the one for banana pudding.

The sign in front proclaims Hill’s to be “The Original Lexington Barbecue” for two good reasons. Founder Joe Allen Hill came to Winston-Salem from Lexington with the dream of cooking pork “Lexington-style” here and opened the first restaurant in the city to have “Lexington barbecue” in its name. More importantly, although other establishments in Lexington, NC, were in business when Hill opened this restaurant, he’s the first to name his “Lexington barbecue.”

Hill's is the original Lexington Barbecue for two good reasons.

Take a journey back to the 1950s – only the prices have changed (and modestly at that). The hospitality, atmosphere, recipes, and food at Hill’s remain the same. Even the mail boxes on the side of the road look like they are just as original.

The best finish for a meal at Hill's is its famous banana pudding, always served warm.

Notes: 

1. An earlier post, prepared for the N.C. Folklife Institute that focuses on memory and changing cultural experiences and also discusses the traditions of Hill’s, is online at the Institute’s NCFood blog.
2. The restaurant was permanent closed in January 2020 after being in business 68 years.