Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC (Photo: Denny Culbert)
Southern Living contributing Barbecue Editor Robert Moss travels the South in search of the most mouthwatering ’cue. From vinegar- to mustard-based sauces, here are some that best represent this regional favorite.
1.) Red Bridges Barbecue: Lodge Shelby, NC
704/482-8567
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Order the sliced pork tray with red slaw and hush puppies, or get a chopped pork sandwich with plenty of “outside brown” (the smoky outer bits of the shoulder) on a warm toasted bun. Wash it all down with a glass of sweet tea.
2.) Lexington Barbecue: Lexington, NC
336/249-9814
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Since 1962, Wayne Monk has been a master of the town’s signature style, cooking pork shoulders directly over glowing oak coals inside enclosed brick pits. The meat is chopped and dressed in the classic Piedmont vinegar-and-ketchup sauce.
3.) Barbecue Center: Lexington, NC
336/248-4633
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
At the Barbecue Center, pit-cooked pork shoulder is chopped, coarse chopped, or sliced—and you can order it on a sandwich, on a tray with red slaw and hush puppies or rolls, or on a plate with fries. The famous banana split is a multi-scoop concoction—a nod to the restaurant’s start as an ice-cream parlor.
4.) Stamey’s: Greensboro, NC
336/299-9888
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup
Chip Stamey carries on his grandfather Warner’s tradition, cooking pork shoulders over all-hickory coals. You won’t find ribs, chicken, or Brunswick stew here—just chopped or sliced pork plates and sandwiches, fries and baked beans, and Stamey’s famous peach cobbler.
5.) Allen & Son Barbeque: Chapel Hill, NC
919/942-7576
Sauce Style: Vinegar & red pepper
Allen & Son bridges the Eastern and Piedmont styles of North Carolina barbecue. Owner Keith Allen cooks pork shoulders Lexington style over hickory coals in closed brick pits and serves it with a basket of hush puppies. But the white mayo-based slaw and spicy, tomato-free vinegar sauce are more Eastern in style.
6.) Skylight Inn: Ayden, NC
252/746-4113
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper
The self-proclaimed “barbecue capital of the world” is run by the Jones family, whose minimalist method hasn’t changed since 1947: Whole hogs cook all night in open brick pits fired with shovelfuls of oak coals. The finished meat is seasoned with salt, cider vinegar, and Texas Pete hot sauce as it’s chopped, and the skin is added for a little crunch. The only accompaniments are white slaw and a square of cornbread.
7.) Grady’s Barbecue: Dudley, NC
919/735-7243
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper
A huge pile of split oak and hickory logs sits under a tin-roofed shed behind Stephen Grady’s pit room, where he cooks whole hogs and chickens overnight on open brick pits. His wife, Geri, makes all the sides from scratch, including cabbage, collards, and black-eyed peas. A tender, smoky chopped pork sandwich with coleslaw is the way to go.
8.) Scott’s Bar-B-Que: Hemingway, SC
843/558-0134
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper
At his family’s country store, Rodney Scott cooks barbecue the old-time, labor-intensive Pee Dee way. He reduces white oak and pecan to embers in a giant burn barrel and uses them to fire open cinder block pits, where whole hogs roast slowly, skin-side-up, for 12 hours before they’re flipped and mopped with a pepper-laced vinegar sauce. Pulled into long shreds, the tender, smoky pork is so spicy it will leave your lips tingling.
9.) Hite’s Bar-B-Q: West Columbia, SC
803/794-4120
Sauce Style: Mustard-based
More meat market, Hite’s in West Columbia is a weekend-only takeout spot. Hite and his on David burn two cords of oak and hickory wood in the pit room behind the main building, and you can taste the wood in every smoky bite of their chopped pork and ribs.
10.) Jackie Hite’s: Leesville, SC
803/532-3354
Sauce Style: Mustard-based
Jackie Hite’s is an ideal place to sample Midlands-style hash and rice: pork and onions simmered slowly in a giant iron pot, the meat pulled by hand into long strands, then simmered with plenty of mustard till it dissolves into a gravy-like concoction. The buffet features barbecue pulled from whole hogs cooked over hickory embers on cinder block pits. It’s served with the Midlands’ signature tangy yellow mustard sauce.
Filed under: The Daily South Tagged: Homepage 
