90 Years and Counting: Continuing the Barbecue Tradition at Holland’s Church

The quiet, rural community around Holland's Church knows where to find excellent barbecue. 

When a community has been fixin’ barbecue for 90 years, it has to be good. Located nine miles south of downtown Raleigh, NC, near the intersection of two historic roads, Old Stage and Ten-Ten, Holland’s Church has been doing just that for nine decades. 

The popular barbecue is served in clamshell boxes with potatoes, coleslaw, and hushpuppies.

The church serves its barbecue, potatoes, coleslaw, and hushpuppies in a clamshell box, and runners carry the boxes to tables as people arrive. (There is no standing in line.) Tea (sweet) and water are the beverages. Homemade desserts (pies and cakes) available by the slice are on another table. To-go plates can also be bought as well as containers of barbecue and freshly made pork skins. 

The efficient kitchen crew prepares the clamshell boxes quickly.

Until recently, the barbecue dinner was served family style. After paying at the door, people were seated at tables where bowls of barbecue, coleslaw, potatoes, and hushpuppies were placed, and they were joined by other community members. Everyone could eat as much as they liked.

Runners carry the clamshell boxes to tables as customers arrive.

Preparing barbecue plates has been a tradition at the church for several generations. Every April and November, the church’s members renew their long-standing ritual. However, the church was 122 years old before it began contributing annually to the region’s barbecue culture. 

The dessert table adds an extra sweetness to the day.

This Methodist congregation was established in 1812. Holland’s Church quickly became the center of a community in southern Wake County that was generally isolated from other pockets of population and the evolving city of Raleigh (established as the county seat and state capital only a few years earlier in 1792). This location was being settled before railroads were built in the area.

The eat-in area begins to fill up when the serving line opens at 11 a.m.

In fact, the church predates two major railroads built in the state. The North Carolina Railroad, which connected cities in the Piedmont to those on the Atlantic coast, was chartered in 1849 by the state legislature and opened for operation in 1851. The Chatham Railroad, connecting Chatham County (west of Wake) to Raleigh, opened in 1869.

Trays of pork skins are available at each table.

The church is named for William Holland, who was born in Chester, England, in 1750 and immigrated to Wake County. Before dying on December 4, 1809, the former English schoolmaster had prepared a will that provided $400 “to build a good Methodist Meeting House, that may have a partition at one end thereof for a classroom.” Holland is buried in the church’s cemetery.

The to-go line stays busy throughout the day.

The church was used as a school, a tribute to Holland’s desire that the church include an “educational enterprise.” Believed to be the first school in the county outside the city of Raleigh, this use signified “its established position in the life of the community,” according to the historical text “Early Methodist Meeting Houses in Wake County, North Carolina” by G. Franklin Grill, a church historian. 

Hushpuppy batter is ready for frying at the prep area outside the church.

Nothing in historical records indicates when Holland’s Church also became the center of barbecue excellence. To celebrate the 90th anniversary, the church offered a free plate to anyone who was 90 or older. Imagine being 90 years old and having been part of this barbecue tradition for decades. It would be a life worth living.

Starting a BBQ Tradition in Clayton, NC

Unlimited beer samples were almost as popular as barbecue. Photo: Downtown Clayton NC via Facebook.

Clayton, NC, isn’t known for its barbecue traditions. However, it’s never too late to begin one. Enter the Clayton BBQ Challenge, which had its inaugural event in 2023 with promises of becoming an annual event to celebrate beer, bands, and barbecue. 

Cooking teams set up near the Civitan Center in Clayton.

Clayton Celebrates with Barbecue

With a population of fewer than 25,000, Clayton has successfully preserved a small-town atmosphere, particularly in its downtown historic district. However, it promotes itself as “the fastest growing town in the fastest growing county in North Carolina” — and brags that it’s no longer the “one-stoplight town it was 40 years ago.”

The Off the Rack team scored high in the contest and won first place in the pork category.

Overshadowed by Raleigh, the state capital about 15 miles away, the town seeks to create its own identity. Having a barbecue cookoff is one way to set it apart from its more prominent neighbors as well as to have fun.

Judging plates are ready for the first entries.

Clayton BBQ Challenge: More Than Barbecue

General admission tickets started at $35 and provided access to unlimited beer samples from more than 15 N.C. breweries. In addition to craft beer sampling, the festivities included food trucks, live music, and BBQ-related vendor booths. 

Optimus Swine, grand champion of the cookoff, posted this photo of their chicken entry on their Facebook page. Photo: Optimus Swine.

Held in the town’s municipal park, the event was sponsored by the Downtown Development Association. In the cookoff sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, 17 teams competed for the $7,500 in prize money. Many teams were well-known and are perennial finalists for national honors each year.

The Off the Rack BBQ Competition Cooking Team took first place in the pork category. Photo: Ready Roofing Company via Facebook.

From all accounts, the inaugural cookoff sets a great example for future events to duplicate. Let’s hope that Clayton continues to develop a barbecue tradition that it can be proud of.

Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge: A Tradition Dating to 1946

The sign in front has been a beacon
for BBQ fans for decades.

Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, NC, has been a place I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. It is one of the top BBQ places in the South and continues to be recognized for its tradition and legacy of serving moist and tender barbecue.

A main stop on the historic barbecue trail of the N.C. Barbecue Society, it ranks high on just about everybody’s list – Southern Living, Southern Foodways Alliance, and barbecue writers such as Randy Moss. In 2015, it won the “Ultimate Barbecue Bracket” competition of Garden & Gun. Magazine articles and photos line its walls among family pictures and scenes of yesteryear. 

Bracket results tell the story.

Because it is set back from U.S. Highway 74 Bypass, I missed it when I drove by the first time. After making a U-turn, I found what everyone has been talking about – the restaurant looks like it’s been frozen since the 1950s in a time warp (you can almost imagine it being on a two-lane road that the bypass was at the time) and the barbecue is still prepared in the same time-honored tradition as it has been for decades.

On the wall is a picture of the restaurant in the "old days" (observed the vintage cars).

After I had ordered lunch, I started taking pictures. My server Diann (who is certified as a barbecue judge by the Kansas City Barbeque Society and has been a member of a competitive cooking team) asked if I wanted to take pictures of the pit. Of course! There’s where I found Dennis at work, guarding the fire and watching over the smoking shoulders. He has a lifetime of experience and learned his skills from his father, who was cooked pork for most of his life.

Pitmaster Dennis, 55, learned the skills
 of of operating a pit from his father.

Red Bridges himself learned the art of cooking pork shoulders slowly over wood coals from Warner Stamey of Greensboro fame. True to “Lexington-style,” he used only shoulders for pork barbecue that he served with the cole slaw variety that is “red.” I obviously had to order pork barbecue for lunch. The easy choice was a jumbo BBQ plate (combination of chopped pork and chicken with a thin stream of sweet sauce on top) that included baked beans and red slaw and was accompanied by a basket of perfectly fried, crunchy hushpuppies. For dessert, I selected banana pudding (always available) over pineapple-coconut cake, the dessert of the day – both made by Diann who makes all the desserts.

"Lexington-style" barbecue always comes with "red" slaw.

Granddaughter Natalie (left) and daughter
Debbie keep Bridges' spirit alive.

The restaurant continues the legacy of Red Bridges, its namesake, who started selling barbecue in 1946. It is now run by second and third generation family members. Granddaughter Natalie said that she began working there when she was 14 or 15. Diann mentioned that grandson Chase makes all the red slaw and never deviates from the family’s recipe.

The restaurant has a steady stream of customers -- new and repeat.

The woodpile is huge -- and neat.

I couldn’t believe how much chopped wood was in back of the restaurant waiting to be turned into hot coals on another day of cooking. The wood was stacked as neatly as a Boy Scout project and all in a single row as long as the restaurant. Next to the woodpile was the remains of an old free-standing pit building that with a little coaxing looks like it could be returned to service with some tender care. I could almost picture coals blazing in the pits.

Banana pudding is always available.

The constant stream of customers coming and going made the restaurant seem like a train station. A line of customers at the cash register waiting to pay their bills seemed to never disappear. The dining area displays a community spirit as several customers greeted each other and the restaurant’s staff, and most tables were noisy with friendly conversation until food was served. It was obvious that a few customers were also first-time visitors as they (like me) were taking pictures.

Watching descendants of Red Bridges work in the restaurant that he and his wife Lyttle started many decades ago was a special experience. Enjoying pork barbecue and red slaw at Red Bridges Barbecue gave me a greater appreciation for the role of “Lexington” style in creating N.C. barbecue traditions and for this particular restaurant’s connection to others that serve barbecue in the Piedmont.
 

About 50 shoulders cooked the day before are ready to be chopped or sliced in the kitchen.