Smiley's in Lexington, NC

Smiley’s in Lexington, NC, harkens back to decades ago when excellent pit barbecue was slowly cooked over wood embers before being served to customers sitting inside in a simple concrete block building or outside in their cars waiting for curb service.

The pits in use today are the original ones when the business opened in the 1950s. In fact, little has changed at Smiley’s except for a few name changes. It opened originally as Dan’s before the name was changed to Jay’s and then later to Southern Barbecue. It was renamed as Smiley’s Lexington BBQ in 2002 by Steve Yountz, the current owner, when he bought the business after having been an employee for 27 years. Yountz was inducted into the N.C. BBQ Wall of Fame in 2012.

Smiley's is easy to find on Winston Road.

Smiley’s standing in barbecue folklore is recognized by its being one of only two barbecue pits in Lexington (the self-proclaimed Barbecue Capital of the World) on the Historic Barbecue Trail of the North Carolina Barbecue Society. Even its location is a relic of the past. The building is about nine blocks from the downtown center on the “old” road heading north out of town (now replaced by a modern expressway) that is still called Winston Road, named for the nearby tobacco center before it merged in 1913 with the quiet Moravian town of Salem and changed its name to Winston-Salem. 

Mid-afternoons on a weekdays can be quiet except for occasional takeout orders.

Because so little has changed over the decades at Smiley’s, it’s often underrated and underappreciated by young barbecue fans who are looking something other than great barbecue (such as creative sides and desserts, craft beer, and unusual cocktails). When I was at Smiley’s for a late lunch, it was quiet (unlike two other prominent BBQ places where the parking lots were full when I drove by). I had the indoor area all to myself except for an employee who was also eating.

Red slaw with coarse chopped BBQ in a tray have the signature ketchup colors.

I knew I was in Lexington when the ketchup-colored BBQ on the tray was delivered to my table. I ordered the coarse chopped BBQ and found it extremely satisfying, and it surely didn’t need any extra dip; however, I couldn’t resist the temptation to add more to enjoy the flavors of vinegar, pepper, sugar, ketchup, and salt with the barbecue. Consistent with Lexington style, only pork shoulders are used in making the barbecue at Smiley’s.

Coarse chopped BBQ is a popular choice at Smiley's.

I was surprised when the server offered me a choice of slaw: red or white. I didn’t know that white coleslaw could be served in the city. It seems to be such a break from the traditional Lexington style that a local ordinance should prohibit its availability within city limits. Of course, I ordered red slaw, and it paired well with the barbecue, its companion on the tray. In addition, the hushpuppies were excellent. I was going to eat only a few but couldn’t stop. In a few minutes they had all disappeared. 

True to Lexington style, dip (not sauce) is the name to ask for at Smiley's.

The name of Smiley’s is intriguing. In a history of Lexington style BBQ written in 1996 by John Stogner Jr. and made available online by Southern Foodways Alliance, the name “Smiley” is identified as a nickname for Herman Stamey, one of early barbecue entrepreneurs who operated the business in its early days on Winston Road.

A pig bench is ready for anyone waiting for a takeout order.

Being at Smiley’s was like being in a time capsule. The setting and menu reminded me of decades ago. Fortunately, the barbecue hasn’t changed and is true to its legacy. Let’s hope that Smiley’s continues to preserve its traditions.

The wood pile in the back is proof of the traditional approach at Smiley's.

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.

In the Tradition Appreciated by a Community and Beyond

A trip to Hemingway, SC, has been a goal of mine for some time. The destination is Scott’s Variety Store and Bar-B-Que. This business has been a local community favorite for more than four decades because the barbecue that the Scott family serves has no equal. More recently, it has won national acclaim for the “cut, chop, cook” style — cut the wood, chop it up, and slow-smoke whole hogs all night — embraced by Rodney Scott, pitmaster for the family’s business.

The Scott family opened its business in 1972; the weathered church pew out front is used frequently by customers.

The tin-roofed store, which opened in 1972, once focused on dry goods and included a pool hall before the business swung decidedly to barbecue. Initially, whole hogs were smoked on only Thursdays. My, how times have changed. Selling the area’s best barbecue is now the goal, although the variety store still has a few items on its shelves. Some shelves are empty, but customers rarely notice because they are here for barbecue.

The menu board lists barbecue from a sandwich to a whole hog.

Scott is admired for his skills in the pits. However, before cooking the hogs, he also cuts all the wood himself with a chainsaw. With smoldering oak and hickory coals burning brightly in each pit, Scott monitors hogs weighing up to 150 pounds as they are smoked and mops them with peppery vinegar. The master of the pits has been cooking whole hogs since he was 11.

The cut hardwood behind the store is ready to be chopped; the telltale sign of smoke lets you know that the burn barrels are active.

Lots of customers take orders to go by the half pound and more. The to-go business is easy to understand. There’s no place inside to sit and eat. A weathered church pew on the front porch is about the only place someone can sit and eat on the premises. That’s where I sat and enjoyed pulled pork served with two slices of bread in a Styrofoam clamshell. The simplicity of the container matches the simplicity of the pulled pork barbecue prepared so deliciously.

Hardwood breaks down into coals as it's burned in five-foot barrels.

While I was there, I was able to visit the pits, which consist of two long concrete bunkers. Each one is fed hot coals from the burn barrels to cook hogs suspended above the heat by chicken wire. No other customers seemed interested in checking out the pits, a sign that they were locals and considered the pit area so functional with nothing to admire. However, the salvaged industrial piping and junked truck axles in the burn barrels seemed to me as artistic as any treasured folk art.

The pit area constantly stays busy.

The customers also seemed unimpressed to be ordering barbecue prepared by someone who has received so much attention. In July 2011, Time magazine heralded Scott for personifying “everything people admire about barbecue.”

Grocery items are still on the shelves for sale but more space is being taken over to document the recognition of Rodney Scott's pitmaster skills.

Two year earlier, on June 9, 2009, The New York Times exposed Scott, then 37, to the world in an article by John T. Edge, a food writer and director of the Southern Foodways Alliance. In the following year, SFA produced the documentary “Chop/Cut/Smoke” about Scott’s approach to whole hog cooking. Edge also extended the recognition of Scott in an article for Saveur on how barbecue is being preserved as an art form.

A plaque commemorates the initial showing of the "Cut/Chop/Cook" documentary by the Southern Foodways Alliance.

Rumors that Scott is planning a “city” restaurant in Charleston with his barbecue have started to circulate. I can’t imagine it would ever compete with the charm of the family’s variety store in Hemingway. Let’s hope that the barbecue and the approach for preparing it don’t change either.

Hot coals are added to the pits regularly as hogs are smoked.

Ridgewood Barbecue: A Tennessee Tradition

Ridgewood Barbecue is a popular
destination in eastern Tennessee.

Smoked ham, thinly sliced, is not the typical barbecue. To find it, you have to head to eastern Tennessee to a regional restaurant known as Ridgewood Barbecue.

When I was in the Bristol area for a field trip conducted by Southern Foodways Alliance, the hickoried sandwiches of Ridgewood were served as supper in the infield of Bristol Motor Speedway. As part of the evening program, Larry Proffitt, the surviving son of parents who started the business, discussed his family’s barbecue business and Ridgewood’s traditions.

Larry Proffitt serves 
barbecue for supper.

The origin of Ridgewood Barbecue dates to 1948 when Proffitt’s father Jim and partners opened Ridgewood Inn. When the business changed its operations to barbecue in 1952, it was renamed Ridgewood Barbecue and operated by the Proffitt family.

With a pit made out of cinder blocks, father Jim began smoking hams – not shoulders or whole hogs – because as Larry says, “Even a country boy knows that shoulders go into sausage.”  After being smoked for hours, the meat is chilled overnight. Then it is sliced very thin to be ready for customer orders. As customers arrive, it is heated on a griddle with a tomato-based sauce and then piled high on sandwiches or platters.

Smoked ham slices are heated on a griddle for platters and sandwiches.

Although I missed an excursion to the restaurant with him, I created my own Ridgewood experience by going there for lunch after the field trip was over. Ridgewood certainly has a style of its own. The thinly sliced ham is definitely different than the pulled or chopped pork that a barbecue aficionado typically encounters, and the homemade sweet and tangy sauce adds an extra dimension to separate Ridgewood’s barbecue from others.

Hams are smoked next to the restaurant.

Larry Proffitt worked in the family business with his brother Terry as they grew up. Although Larry graduated from pharmacy school and owns a drug store in the area, he and his daughter Lisa (who is a nurse) now continue as owners and operators of the family business. For their dedication in carrying on this regional tradition, we are very much in their debt.

I was able to visit the area where the hams are smoked.