October 2010
40 posts
"One's destination is never a place, but a new way...
This was never about food. Eating is a momentary rush, concentrated to the few seconds food contacts tongue and papillae sends signals of pleasure to brain. That pleasure is a chemical, like drugs, and the moment comes and goes.
The greater thrill is the chemical that won’t subside. They’re the people we’d never meet if not for food. Barbecue was just the excuse. Driving across the country,...
Mile 2,705: Abe's BBQ
CLARKSDALE, MS. — Our final stop on a cross-country barbecue road trip was located 40 miles off the Interstate, accessible only by a two-lane country highway, which we drove at dusk with the sun at eye level.
Well, Keith did the driving and I was busy looking at YouTube videos, doubling over at cats playing the keyboard (it’s hilarious stuff, check it out here). Every 10 seconds, I hear Keith...
UPDATE: J.J. McBrewster's, post-Guy Fieri
Way back at Mile 408, our first BBQ stop at J.J. McBrewster’s in Lexington, KY, we met with a restaurant staff on pins and needles.
It was last Saturday afternoon when we visited, and the restaurant was two days away from being showcased on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” The exposure would likely change the restaurant forever.
Now that the show has aired, we wanted to check in...
Mile 2,230: A few words about New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — ”This is a city who has cried until she could cry no more…”
Actually, no, I’m in no position to make declarative statements about New Orleans. You simply haven’t earned the right after 36 hours.
What little I knew about the Crescent City, the Zatarainized version of French Quarter trombonists discharging eighth notes-on-fire, was replaced by...
Mile 1,757: Fox Brothers BBQ
ATLANTA — After five days of a specific, foreign, wonderful kind of barbecue, we returned to something familiar.
Georgia is the center from which the South ripples outward, but its barbecue scene is anemic. Between Maurice Bessinger’s in Columbia and Dreamland in Tuscaloosa, I’d struggle to name a barbecue powerhouse along the I-20 corridor.
Instead, we see the rise of a new breed of...
Let's Hear It For The Toys
The BBQ road trip is a story moving at 70 m.p.h. (and sometimes 85, when the cops aren’t looking). When we’re done eating and reporting at a BBQ spot, one person is driving to the next place, and the other writing, editing, uploading photos and videos. We strive to bring you our stories as close to in real time as possible. Some of the technologies we employ: Mobile Web Access...
Mile 1,529-1,540: Maurice's Piggie Park and...
Lloyd Bessinger, left, of Maurice’s Piggie Park, and Lake Hill, president of the South Carolina Barbecue Association.
COLUMBIA, SC — South Carolina gets short shrift — by North Carolinians, the greater barbecue community and, regrettably on this trip, by us. It is by all accounts a “100-Mile Barbecue” kind of state, the distance you’d travel for what many claim is toe-curling good food.
...
Mile 1,236: Wilber's Barbecue
GOLDSBORO, NC. — We were lucky to speak with Keith Allen. We were thrilled to run into Ed Mitchell in his restaurant. To go three-for-three in barbecue legend sightings, meeting Wilber Shirley at his 48-year-old eponymous restaurant, was hitting the trifecta. Is there a horse racing track nearby?
Mile 1,095: The Pit
RALEIGH — You don’t discuss North Carolina Barbecue without mentioning Ed Mitchell in the next sentence. Here, the longtime pitmaster discusses Eastern NC-style ‘Cue.
Mile 1,062: Allen & Son Bar-B-Que
CHAPEL HILL, NC. — The legendary Keith Allen talks about his barbecue philosophy.
Mile 984-986: The Bar-B-Q Center and Lexington...
LEXINGTON, NC. — The town built its name on furnitures and barbecue. When the 1990s exited, they took the furniture business along, and Lexington became just a barbecue town.
Not just any fair-weather barbecue town, townspeople will proclaim, but “the barbecue capital of the world.”
This is a fine slogan for the Chamber of Commerce, but there are several reasons to consider that...
Front Page of The Shelby Star!
Our bucket list just grew shorter. Read “Chicago Tribune writers like to eat barbecue and make new friends” by Shelby Star columnist (and new friend) Jackie Bridges.
Mile 923-953: Carolina Bar-B-Q and Richard's...
SALISBURY, NC. — Low on the list of arguments among the barbecue cognoscenti: debating chopped vs. pulled. In our limited time in North Carolina, there’s no doubt which was superior.
Chopped, all the way.
The question, then, was why?
We spent the afternoon dining at two Piedmont-area institutions: Carolina in Statesville and Richard’s in Salisbury. Luck of lucks, both served...
Mile 801: Livermush Biscuit
Discovering the wonders of Livermush Biscuit at the Cleveland County Fair.
Mile 798: Bridges Barbecue Lodge
SHELBY, NC. — We begin North Carolina barbecue proper. Other sources will be more thorough, but here’s an abbreviated explanation:
There exists a culture war in North Carolina, a divide as vast as the state is wide. The difference between “Eastern North Carolina” and “Piedmont-style North Carolina” is but one ingredient — ketchup — but defenders on either side...
Mile 702: Laughing Seed Cafe
ASHEVILLE, NC. — What you see above contains not an ounce of meat. From upper left, clockwise: organic tofu “Florentine”, seitan sausage, rosemary roasted potatoes, biscuits with buttermilk gravy.
As you can see, guilt has began to creep in. The prospects of eight days of smoked meats were exciting and frightening. So we came here to Asheville, the crunchiest corner of North...
Mile 682: Atop the Smoky Mountains
Mile 501: The Colonel's Birthplace
Mile 408: J.J. McBrewster's
LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was a curiously slow Saturday afternoon at J.J. McBrewster’s, a BBQ restaurant shoehorned between a Chinese take-out and Domino’s Pizza. We doubled the customer count just by walking in, from two to four. The wait staff greeted us with the pageant smiles and niceties we’d assume as Kentucky hospitality, though it probably was us jaded city folks jolted by...
Mile 307: Camp Washington Chili
CINCINNATI — If you lived here, you could close your eyes, throw a rock and hit a place that serves decent chili. Chances are you’d break the window at a Gold Star or Skyline, which must have 150+ locations in the greater Cincinnati area.
The chili memories of my youth were forgettable, bringing to mind some spur-wearing Texan stirring a cast iron pot of thick, beef and bean-studded...
September 2010
13 posts
Redux
You know what gets in my pretentious, effete craw? When big city journalists drop into a small town and “discover” some place, then write 5,000 words proclaiming that _______ is the best _______ in _______. I know locals hate it. I remember turning to one national magazine that directed me to Chicago’s best pizza at … wait for it … Pizzeria Uno. I despise the Voice...
Home. Mile 1,467
Note: This trip was taken in February 2010. We’re doing it again starting Saturday, October 2! What’s the grand takeaway? By no means was this a comprehensive tour through Barbecue Americana; it was more 5-song sampler than complete box set. We didn’t even hit Kansas City, Texas or the Carolinas. (Maybe that’s the sequel.) No matter, our 72-hour sprint made us see what...
Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, Mile 1,068
OWENSBORO, KY. — We arrived in Northern Kentucky on a bittersweet note. Eight states, 72 hours and 1,000 miles later, Keith and I were visiting the last restaurant on our BBQ tour. And what’s more appropriate than crescendoing the trip to a barbecue buffet coda? Such was Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn in Owensboro, KY, a town on the south bank of the Ohio River that boasts itself as the BBQ capital...
Prince's Hot Chicken, Mile 938
NASHVILLE, TN. — We are sadomasochists by disposition. Not satisfied with a day of jaw-dropping and stomach-churning BBQ, we agreed to finish the night with a fried chicken chaser. We don’t eat because we get hungry. We force ourselves to eat, stuffing food down our gullet when we don’t want to, until we cry uncle, when a chef puts in the requisite time to hone a recipe to the...
Mary's Bar-B-Que Pit, Mile 933
NASHVILLE, TN. — It’s been a long day at Mary’s Bar-B-Q Pit in Nashville and business has been brisk for a Friday. That’s good news for Reggie, manning the counter dutifully, but bad for us. They’re running out of food. We were the last customers admitted at 11 p.m. Several folks after us pleaded to be let in, but the manager was having none of it. “But I...
Dreamland BBQ, Mile 882
HUNTSVILLE, AL. —The best ‘Cue my friend Peter ever had was in Tuscaloosa in a restaurant called Dreamland BBQ. The way he described it at the time, you figured the man found religion. Tuscaloosa was a few hours south, but fortunately, a second location was in Huntsville. We pulled into the lot and was greeted by a portrait of a pipe-smoking John Bishop (folks call him “Big...
Big Bob Gibson, Mile 796
DECATUR, AL. — The first sign of trouble appeared when we walked through the door. “Your reputation precedes you,” a bespectacled gentleman in a company polo shirt said. The man was Paul Collins, a manager at Big Bob Gibson, another on the list of legendary BBQ restaurants that aficionados are obligated to visit. Collins led us to a 6-seated table in the middle of the...
Gus's Fried Chicken, Mile 583
MEMPHIS, TN. — My criteria for the level of success a fried chicken restaurant has achieved is the number of T-shirt styles it has in stock. At Gus’s Fried Chicken, they sell T-shirts in eight colors. As for the chicken, it’s a beaut (not BBQ, we know, but that’s not stopping us). The skin straddles the crisp/crunch divide, not an odor of frying oil, not a touch of greasiness,...
The Bar-B-Q Shop, Mile 579
MEMPHIS, TN. — The idea of BBQ spaghetti gave us pause. It sounded gimmicky, as if Southerners insisted they put their stamp on everything, sopping every food with BBQ sauce just because they like the taste and they can. Pizza with BBQ sauce. Kung Pao chicken with BBQ sauce. The Bar-B-Q Shop in Midtown Memphis is to BBQ Spaghetti what Anchor Bar & Grill in Buffalo is to hot wings. Everyone...
