Still Serving Like It’s the 1950s

When you walk into Parker’s Barbecue in Wilson, NC, you are met as soon as you pass through the front door -- sometimes by a greeter, frequently by two, and often by a whole host of friendly faces, including young men wearing 1950s-style paper hats who as servers will wait on you soon.

Parker's in Wilson, NC, is a destination for barbecue lovers.

Most customers don’t need a menu when they arrive. After all, Parker’s has been in business since 1946, and little has changed since then. Parker’s serves pork barbecue only one way: chopped. There’s little indication that it will ever change its approach. Why change what has worked well for decade?

Servers wait near the cashiers for customers to arrive.

Although Parker’s is also now known for its chicken and seafood, many customers still arrive hungry for only barbecue, which is slowly roasted every day and infused with Parker’s signature vinegar-based sauce. Each week about 150 whole hogs are cooked (only gas, not wood, has been used since the 1950s).

The kitchen is continually busy throughout the day.

Corn sticks or hushpuppies usually accompany a meal; I got both. In addition, I picked slaw, boiled potatoes and Brunswick stew as the sides for my dinner. The slaw has more “zip” than I had expected, but it combines nicely with the barbecue.

The centerpiece of my dinner is chopped barbecue.

The centerpiece, of course, is Parker’s chopped barbecue. When it arrives at the table, it is drier than a visitor might expect. However, on the table are two bottles of sauce -- both vinegar-based and one with more crushed red peppers -- so that the meat can be moistened to match a customer’s preferences.

Most customers arrive at Parker's with barbecue on their minds, although fried chicken is also popular.

In eastern North Carolina, when you mention Parker’s, most people know that you are referring to the original location in Wilson. However, Parker’s has expanded to nearby Greenville, but the first location is still the destination for many barbecue fans. Until 2018, it was listed on the Historic Barbecue Trail of the North Carolina Barbecue Society but was removed when the trail was limited to historic pits that cook with only wood or charcoal (the original listing may still be displayed on the web.)

The takeout counter always has customers waiting.

Stepping into Parker’s is like going back to the 1950s. Little has changed. Thank goodness.

The menu rarely changes -- this one has been used for more than four years.

Judging in the Shrine of Eastern N.C. Barbecue

Barbecue cooks will be talking about the Big Pig Shindig, the inaugural event of the 2018 North Carolina Whole Hog Barbecue Series, for years -- not because the competition, the pigs, or the prizes grabbed their attention but because the wind did. When the cooks were trying to set up their sites on Friday evening, high wind warnings and watches were in effect from northern Georgia to southern Maine, a distance of 900 miles.

Dustin Taylor stands ready at his site as the judges arrive.

Wilson, NC, where the Big Pig Shindig is held, is in the middle of this zone, and this year March roared in like a lion. Although the winds were more severe to the north and parts of New England experienced hurricane-force wind gusts of 75 mph, the winds at the start of the cookoff were tremendous, and tents were difficult to erect and stabilize.

The pig cooked by Roy Parker is ready to be judged.

A couple of cooks even passed on trying to put up tents. One competitor who was cooking with wood had to move his cooker to a different location because he was the first one in a row and was receiving the direct impact of the gusts.

Only a few pigs showed signs of uneven brownness or areas that were burned.

Sponsored by the Wilson Chamber of Commerce, the Shindig was sanctioned for the first time by the N.C. Pork Council in 2018, although the cookoff had been held before. The change to being sanctioned attracted more teams, almost doubling the number from last year’s event. Of the 23 teams registered, 21 were judged. Two withdrew from the competition because the high winds interfered with their cooking efforts.

After the judges complete their evaluation, the once perfectly intact pig is in shambles.

While the Shindig was going on, the chamber also held its annual Spring Expo. More than 100 businesses and organizations set up booths to discuss their services and products. To accommodate the increase in cooking teams and the ever-growing crowd for the expo and cookoff, the chamber moved the events to the Wilson County Fairgrounds to give them more space.

Chris Fineran, who won first place, smiles with Michole Evans, event organizer.

The winning team was Beach Boys BBQ, led by Chris Fineran, who consistently places high in N.C. whole hog cookoffs. Because he had been the state champion in 2016, he was invited to cook the previous weekend for the BBQ Summit, a training event for judges, cooks, and contest organizers. 

One team had banana pudding for each judge (although the pudding was not a scoreable item).

Fineran is a regular competitor in the Whole Hog Barbecue Series once it gets underway each year. When he won the state championship in 2016, he had participated in 18 of the 25 contests in that year’s series, placing in 13 and winning 4 of them.

The pig cooked by Kevin Wooten earned the second highest score.

The second place team in Wilson was Pickin’ & Grillin’ BBQ, led by Kevin Wooten. Third place was won by Showtime’s Legit BBQ, led by Kevin Peterson, who himself is also a past N.C. Whole Hog Champion, thus showing the high level of competition that the Shindig attracts. When Peterson won the statewide competition in 2017 at age 34, he became the youngest champion ever.

Scores are tallied quickly by a team of volunteers to determine the winners.

For the Shindig, the judges in addition to myself were Lubin Prevatt, Tim Croon and Paul Derrick. All of us were impressed with the excellent results not only by the three winners but by the entire field of competitors.

Judges (Ray, Paul, Tim and Lubin) relax while the scores are counted.

Judging in Wilson is an honor because, as Chamber President Ryan Simon has said, Wilson “is the shrine of eastern North Carolina barbecue” and its agricultural heritage “is still very much a part of the Wilson economy.”