october-2010

082 TRAVEL REPORT: NORTH CAROLINA
BLEDSOE: ALTHOUGH DENNIS AND I HAVE
been grappling over North Carolina’s original styles of
barbecue for more than 30 years, each of us clinging
devotedly to the ambrosia that brought us to the
dance, the truth is that we agree on more than might
be expected. First and foremost: It is indeed about the
meat. That goes without question.
Dennis always has made
much ado about sauce.
But when he refers to the
Lexington style as “tomato-y,”
it creates a misleading image
of the gooey, overly sweet
concoctions found in supermarkets
and used in many
regions to disguise various cuts
of meat as barbecue. These are
dominating sauces that thwart
genuine barbecue’s reason for
being: the wood-smoke flavor.
Lexington-style sauce—
we call it dip—isn’t like that. It
is light, thin and designed to
enhance the flavor so deeply
imbued over many hours by
hickory coals.
In reality, the sauces of our
two regions are very similar—
sometimes almost identical.
Both are vinegar based and
contain water, salt and sugar.
Eastern sauce is often heavy
with black pepper, while
Lexington style hosts just a hint
of crushed cayenne. A splash
or two of ketchup adds flavor and a pinkish color to our
dip. And although Dennis doesn’t want to admit it, many
of the sauces used in the East also contain ketchup.
But I do have to disagree with my friend on one
thing: The sauce is far more than an afterthought. It’s
an exalting addition. And down east, where so few
places still cook over wood, it’s often all that’s left to
make people think they’re actually eating barbecue.
I recommend The Pit in Raleigh and Bar-B-Q-
King in Charlotte. Both cook over wood.
THE PIT (serves both kinds
of barbecue) 328 W Davie St,
Raleigh; 919-890-4500;
thepit-raleigh.com
GO MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2010
THE RESPONSES
BAR-B-Q-KING 2900 Wilkinson
Blvd, Charlotte; 704-399-
8344; barbqking.com
ROGERS: PIG PARTISANS OF THE PIEDMONT
can get a mite uppity when they brag that they only
cook pork shoulders. The unmistakable inference is
there is something suspicious about enjoying the total
pig. What they don’t grasp is that it is only when the
sundry parts of a pig are brought together in smoky
harmony that true barbecue excellence is achieved.
Barbecue in eastern North
Carolina transcends commercial
restaurants. We natives
grew up eating around tobacco
barns and farmhouses. You get
a few friends together, throw
a pig on a wood-fired cooker,
keep the heat low and cook it
slow, and you’ve got a well-fed
party. We call it a “pig pickin’”:
you eat it standing around the
cooker, picking off the tasty bits.
Tourists are not likely to get
the chance to eat barbecue al
fresco, but there are restaurants
that will treat you right. Even
my esteemed opponent would
likely agree that Allen & Son Pit
Cooked Bar-B-Que in Chapel
Hill is world class. The Pit in
Raleigh is more upscale, but
once you get past the maître d’,
the barbecue makes for some
good eats. If you’re looking for
the down-home experience, B’s
Barbecue near Greenville is the
Mother Church for serious pig
fanciers. It opens at 10am and
closes when it runs out of food a couple of hours later.
I’ve enjoyed many a fine feed in the Piedmont’s
barbecue joints, but when the dinner bell rings, I look
to the East for my swine sustenance. I’m not one for
casting aspersions, you understand, but it has been
suspected for centuries that tomatoes, members of a
deadly botanical family called “nightshade,” are poisonous.
That’s probably not the only reason tomatoes are
so reviled by eastern North Carolina’s barbecue cooks,
but a fellow can’t be too careful.
WHOLE HOG Eastern-style barbecue
ALLEN & SON PIT COOKED
BAR-B-QUE 6203 Millhouse
Rd, Chapel Hill; 919-942-7576
B’S BARBECUE 751 B’s Barbecue
Rd, Greenville (95 miles
from Raleigh/Durham airport);
no phone; cash only
SIMON GRIFFETH