Polar Pig BBQ Cookoff Grows in a New Location

The inaugural Polar Pig BBQ Cookoff, held last year in Mt. Pleasant, NC, successfully started a new fall tradition of barbecue competition in an area northeast of Charlotte. To give the event more space, the new organizers moved the contest five miles from the original site to the spacious property of the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center in Concord.

Even as the center was hosting a cheerleading competition and a gun show in other facilities on the same day, it was a better location than being behind the Mt. Pleasant Town Hall and provided more than adequate space for the contest. In the inaugural event, 25 teams competed. With the additional space of the new venue, the organizers accommodated almost twice that many – 47 teams cooked this year.

Trophies await the winners of the Polar Pig BBQ competition.

Because the event is held on the second Saturday in November, teams interested in earning points in the final weeks of the year’s competition conducted by Kansas City Barbeque Society were eager to participate. The overall winner and grand champion was perennial favorite Redneck Scientific, which last year placed second and won reserve champion honors. 

Judges assemble before the competition begins.

Having the contest at the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center brought out a larger crowd than had attended at the inaugural event. In addition to observing the contest participants, the crowd could enjoy a zone of vendor tents, a beer garden, live music, and a kid’s play area. This year, the event also included a people’s choice award, and spectators could taste samples prepared by cooking teams.

Cooking teams set up inside the track of the 11-acre midway of the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center.

The future for the Polar Pig BBQ Cookoff looks promising. The significant improvements in event planning and the major increase in the number of cooking teams are encouraging signs that the competition will be even better in 2018. I hope to return again next year.

Another Throwdown on the Charleston Harbor

Charleston is such a favorite place that I returned for another Smoke on the Harbor BBQ Throwdown. My experience in 2013 created many fond memories, and last year’s event continued to be unsurpassed throughout 2014 as I participated as a judge at other events.

Perfect weather drew a large crowd again to the Throwdown.

The competition this year was again a great event: superior location, large crowd, perfect weather, excellent organization, superior cooking teams and tasty meat. The only surprise: No team could surpass Killer B’s again this year. The winner of the 2013 contest repeated as grand champion, and its score this year was even higher than in 2013.

Cooking teams certainly know how to travel in style.

The public again showed up in droves and lingered for hours. A huge crowd enjoyed the music, food, and sampling. In addition to admission fee (which was cut in half with a donation to the local food bank), sampling tickets sold for $1. Sampling of pork butts cooked by teams was available after 1 p.m. However, for hours well before the public began arriving at 11 a.m., spirals of smoke rose from the cooking area.

No Throwdown can be planned without signs pointing to BBQ.

Although each team had received eight butts to prepare barbecue for the public, several teams ran out of samples by mid-afternoon – an indication of everyone’s interest in evaluating the skills of the cooking teams and voting for a favorite in the People’s Choice Award.

Samples of cooked pork are served to the public who vote for the People's Choice Award.

After all the votes were counted, the favorite barbecue team and the winner of the People’s Choice Award was Swig & Swine, a team from Charleston. Because it’s a full-service catering company as well as a restaurant, name recognition may have helped it in garnering the most votes.

Winner of the People's Choice was the appropriately named Swig & Swine team.

Dates for the fourth annual throwdown, which again will be sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, have already been set for 2015 (the weekend of Nov. 12-14), and several cooking teams were discussing plans to return. With a total cash prize purse of $6,150, this event will continue to be popular in the Southeast. I hope to be with them again as a judge.

I hope to see this sign again next year.