So my daughter and I were visiting North Carolina together, and the third stop on our barbecue tour was at one of the ninety-something places in the city of Lexington that specialize in smoked pork. That is only a mild exaggeration. The city of 20,000 people is the home of about twenty different barbecue joints – about one for every thousand residents. This was only my second stop in the city, and I’m aware of a simple walking tour that takes in five of them. Just have cash handy if you try it; many of these places do not take plastic. Smiley’s also stands apart from most in town because it’s open on Sunday; very few of the others are. Continue reading “Smiley’s Lexington BBQ, Lexington NC”
Tag: barbecue
M & K Bar-B-Q, Granite Quarry NC
People frequently ask us where we hear about the restaurants that we visit, and the honest answer is “lots of places,” but we have a great resource when it comes to this state. The North Carolina Barbecue Society features a famous Trail Map with, at present, 23 restaurants on it. At the conclusion of this trip, we’ve now visited 20 of them. I scheduled six new-to-us stops on this drive from their trail, but, and this is no exaggeration, my daughter and I also drove past at least nine other barbecue joints that we could easily have tried. Plus, Our State magazine has a BBQ NC app that will help anybody in the Old North State find something good to eat. Continue reading “M & K Bar-B-Q, Granite Quarry NC”
Bill Spoon’s Barbecue, Charlotte NC (take two)
In February, I took another two-day barbecue tour, and on this one, I spent a little more money than I sometimes do, because I brought my daughter along with me. She’s seventeen, a high school sophomore thinking about her college options. Or, more specifically, her old man’s thinking about her college options while she’s complaining about boys on Snapchat. Anyway, I dragged her along to North Carolina and visited seven new-to-me places and revisited a couple that I wanted to try again. First up was Bill Spoon’s, which Marie and I visited on our honeymoon road trip seven years previously. Continue reading “Bill Spoon’s Barbecue, Charlotte NC (take two)”
Archer’s BBQ, Knoxville TN
We didn’t want to visit Tennessee without having a little barbecue. So after our fun hike at Ijams, we drove back along Kingston Pike, which is the main, sprawling commercial artery of the area, running alongside I-75/I-40, from downtown west for about three miles. Archer’s BBQ is a small chain that has grown very quickly in the time that we’ve been blogging. Archer Bagley, who is from Memphis, opened the first store in 2010. Bagley graduated from UT and had lived in Colorado and Georgia before moving back to Knoxville to become his own boss. Continue reading “Archer’s BBQ, Knoxville TN”
Southern Soul Barbeque, Saint Simons Island GA (take two)
Southern Soul is another terrific barbecue joint about which little more can be said, but I wanted to show some pictures from our Christmas trip to Saint Simons anyway, because we all had a lot of food, and it was fantastic. Continue reading “Southern Soul Barbeque, Saint Simons Island GA (take two)”
Sandfly Bar-B-Q, Savannah GA
Last summer, Keith, one of our readers who’s a regular at roadfood.com, let that forum know about something really neat in Savannah. Across the street from one of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s administrative buildings, somebody moved a 1930s-era Streamliner diner for the students to restore, and then, years later, a barbecue restaurant moved in. We had hoped to stop in that city and visit on our way back from Florida in September, but had to change plans. Happily, we were able to make it by on our way down to Saint Simons Island for Christmas. Continue reading “Sandfly Bar-B-Q, Savannah GA”
Old Clinton Bar-B-Q, Gray GA (take two)
If the road ever does take us away from Georgia to live somewhere else – and it might, it just might – then I will miss Old Clinton Bar-B-Q more than any other restaurant in the state. We made the detour here when we went down to Saint Simons Island for Christmas. I think it was our fourth visit, possibly fifth, and the place is so good and so wonderful that even our teenage girlchild, who has been known to protest that we eat at too many barbecue restaurants by ordering something else, ordered a plate of chopped pork as I did. What a good, sensible kid she sometimes is. Continue reading “Old Clinton Bar-B-Q, Gray GA (take two)”
Marie, Let's Eat! 