The first time that we went up to hike at Tallulah Gorge a few years ago, we dragged our exhausted carcasses back to the visitors’ center and asked where we could get some good barbecue in the area. The nice lady at the gift shop didn’t skip a beat. “It’s about ten miles up the road,” she said. “Do you mind the drive?” Y’all have probably figured out that I certainly don’t object to a fifteen minute trip for good barbecue.
Going north from Tallulah Gorge, where we try to visit about twice a year, Oinkers is on the right a couple of miles after that new-looking overpass that they built for the Rabun County High School. It’s pretty easy to miss; if you make it into the morass of fast-food chain restaurants of downtown Clayton, you went too far. We’ve come to Oinkers three times now, and each time enjoyed a good Saturday lunch with an absolutely packed house and a parking lot where about half the cars sport Rabun plates and half are from out of town. US 23 runs from I-40 and the Great Smokey Mountains Expressway, near Asheville, through Atlanta and to points down south, so it’s a perfect artery for travelers looking to enjoy the fall colors. In fact, we’ll double-check the mileage later this month, but Oinkers seems to be right around the halfway point between our place in Marietta and the city of Asheville.
Locals and travelers alike have learned that this is a lunchtime destination, and arrive in bulk. There is always a wait, even when it rains, as it did on us about a year ago, and then you have to worry about them running out of food. Well, maybe you don’t have to worry, but I’ve never seen a place that posts quite so many notices about how they only prepare enough food as they think they might need on any given day, and might run out. Evidently, this was once a problem, and so they’ve tried to get the word out that it doesn’t matter how much people might want to eat here, the restaurant might well get overwhelmed.
Oinkers’ specialty is chopped pork with vinegar sauce, but this is definitely a sauce that novices to Carolina-style vinegar need to sample sparingly. Fortunately, for people like Marie who prefer their sauce tomato-based, they also offer a “sweet sauce,” thick and tasty with molasses. Me, I like the hot vinegar sauce, which packs a very nice, peppery punch.
After our most recent trip to Tallulah Gorge last week, we settled on having two small meals. I wanted to revisit the wonderful Hawg Wild down south in Clarkesville, but I also wanted to talk about Oinkers, so we resolved to do both. Oinkers was, as usual, completely packed, and so the staff kindly sat us at the servers’ table.
Between the three of us, we had a sandwich and a plate of chopped pork, along with some fries, stew, baked beans and applesauce, with a slice of peanut butter pie. My daughter and I agreed that the pie needed a tall glass of milk, but that was about the only complaint we could levy against the “snack.” Between authentic and interesting food and service which somehow finds a way to be attentive despite a madhouse of customers, Oinkers has carved out a niche as a local favorite, and if you’re planning to take US 23 up to Asheville from Atlanta, you will quickly find this a very agreeable halfway point.
Other blog posts about Oinkers:
Punkerque (July 28 2006)
Buster’s Blogs (July 24 2009)
Marie, Let's Eat! 