With six stops plus a photo-only post in Charlotte and its surrounding suburbs on this trip, this city is just killing me with all the great restaurants and things to do. I am miles – miles! – from visiting all of the places here that I want to see, and hope that we’ll be back before long. But one thing was certain before anything else, I had to visit the South 21 Drive-In on Independence Boulevard. This location has been around since 1959 and seen off all kinds of competition over the years, including, reportedly, one of those What-a-Burger Drive-Ins as seen in yesterday’s post, which was apparently just down the street. Still family-owned (Maria Housiadas’s father and uncles, named Copsis, opened the place) and loyal to a small company of awesome carhops who’ve been with them for years, they’re said to make some pretty good burgers and the best onion rings money can buy. Continue reading “South 21 Drive-In, Charlotte NC”
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Short Sugar’s, Reidsville NC
So I started putting this trip together late last year. I planned and replanned and mapped and mapped again. I was totally happy with the itinerary and printed out all my directions. The morning before I was set to leave, I took one last look at Google Maps, zooming in with street view to give me a good idea at what was around each of the destinations. I noticed that my planned final stop, Stamey’s in Greensboro was across the street – literally – from some big coliseum or other. I figured that I should probably check whether there might be a concert that Friday evening. It would help to have some advance notice of a Widespread Panic show or somebody causing traffic backup. Continue reading “Short Sugar’s, Reidsville NC”
Allen & Son Barbeque, Chapel Hill NC
Allen & Son was the farthest east that I ate on this trip to North Carolina, and that’s still not east enough to actually be Eastern North Carolina barbecue. Like the restaurants in the Piedmont Triad, they smoke pork shoulders. However, the sauce is proving to be a little bone of contention. Continue reading “Allen & Son Barbeque, Chapel Hill NC”
Lexington Barbecue, Lexington NC
As I drove toward Lexington, home of the legendary Lexington Barbecue, I had a feeling that, even with an early afternoon arrival, I’d find a pretty good crowd. Yet I was still quite surprised to find their lot much more than full. I parked along with ten or eleven other cars on the side of the road beneath the lot and began trudging up the hill. This place was more popular than I imagined! Or, well, you know, they may have let their regulars know that today would be a good day to be on TV:
Oh! No wonder there was such a mob! Continue reading “Lexington Barbecue, Lexington NC”
Wink’s King of Barbecue and Seafood, Salisbury NC
In the 1960s, a guy named Wink Wasler operated a small chain of restaurants in this stretch of the state between Charlotte and Greensboro called Wink’s Barbecue and Seafood. I understand that there were maybe six of them, but today only this one remains, the name slightly rejigged to reflect the lion logo that appears on the restaurant’s signage. Continue reading “Wink’s King of Barbecue and Seafood, Salisbury NC”
Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge, Shelby NC
Way back when, I decided to reinvest the ad revenue that we earn from this blog into fun two-day trips, just driving around eating about every nine months or so. I call them circumnavigations and, last month, I went out on my fourth. I’m going to report this one a little differently than the first three (Alabama, South Carolina, the Tennessee River Valley), because when I started writing these up, I was concerned about the chapters that we post appearing much later than the visit. These days, I sort of enjoy the posts appearing several weeks later, and so there’s no need to hurry along through longer chapters incorporating several places. Continue reading “Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge, Shelby NC”
Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q, Marietta GA
After several years hoping that time had improved the quality of the barbecue at Williamson Brothers, we made a cautious trip to the gigantic barn of their flagship store. I won’t rehash old complaints, rather, I’d prefer to learn from them and stay away from certain things on the menu that I don’t enjoy. Full disclosure: in the mid-1990s, my parents found themselves enjoying this place, and befriended the owners, and so I have been many, many times on their dime. I briefly developed a taste for it, and it took a while, and a much broader experience of barbecue, to lose it. Continue reading “Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q, Marietta GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 