8 Must-Visit Carolina Barbecue Joints
Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC (Photo: Denny Culbert)
Southern Living contributing Barbecue Editor Robert Moss travels the South searching for the most mouthwatering 'cue. From vinegar to mustard-based sauces, here are some locations that best represent this regional favorite.
1. Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge
Located in Shelby, North Carolina, 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.
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup.
2. Lexington Barbecue
Located in Lexington, North Carolina, 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.
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup.
3. Barbecue Center
Located in Lexington, North Carolina, at the Barbecue Center, chopped, coarse chopped, or sliced pork shoulder is pit-cooked—and you can order it on a sandwich, on a tray with red slaw and hush puppies or rolls, or 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.
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup.
4. Stamey's Barbecue
Located in Greensboro, North Carolina, Chip Stamey carries on his grandfather Warner's tradition of 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.
Sauce Style: Vinegar & ketchup.
5. Skylight Inn BBQ
Located in Ayden, North Carolina, 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—the skin adds a little crunch. The only accompaniments are white slaw and a square of cornbread.
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper.
6. Grady's Barbecue
Located in Dudley, North Carolina, a massive 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.
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper.
7. Scott's Bar-B-Que
Located in Hemingway, South Carolina, 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. The tender, smoky pork is pulled into long shreds and is so spicy it will leave your lips tingling.
Sauce Style: Vinegar & pepper.
8. Hite's Bar-B-Q
Located in West Columbia, South Carolina, more of a meat market, Hite's in West Columbia is a weekend-only takeout spot. Hite and his son 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.
Sauce Style: Mustard-based.
For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on Southern Living.
