Southern Living declares the Triangle North Carolina’s BBQ capital. Here’s why.

Drew Jackson
·2 min read

The gaze of one of the south’s top barbecue writers fell upon the Triangle recently as Southern Living put Raleigh and Durham’s best smokehouses in the spotlight.

In a Jan. 15 story, Southern Living barbecue editor Robert Moss declared the Triangle as North Carolina’s new barbecue capital. Historically, North Carolina’s best barbecue was found far afield, from tiny Eastern North Carolina towns to hog city Lexington, the namesake of an entire style.

“Ten years ago, if you had asked a North Carolinian where you should go for some good barbecue, they wouldn’t have said Raleigh,” Moss writes in the new Southern Living piece. “But things look very different today. Compelling new restaurants have opened their doors in Raleigh and nearby Durham, transforming the area into a flourishing oasis of slow-smoked meats.”

Moss is best known for his regular ranking of the South’s 50 best barbecue joints, spanning from Texas to Eastern North Carolina. Each year it’s published, that list includes at least a handful of North Carolina names, featuring classics like Skylight Inn and Lexington Barbecue and newcomers Sam Jones BBQ and Prime Barbecue.

North Carolina’s barbecue revival has been one of the state’s most exciting developments in dining over the last few years. Though the pages of The News & Observer predicted the Triangle’s claim as a barbecue capital as far back as 2019, the pandemic slowed things down a bit, delaying this coronation until now. In late 2023, we published our first-ever ranking of the Triangle’s best barbecue restaurants.

In its latest look at the Triangle’s barbecue scene, Southern Living shouts out a few of the stars making up this innovative generation of pitmasters. Here are the seven shops Moss highlights as shifting North Carolina’s barbecue heart.

  • Prime Barbecue

  • Lawrence Barbecue

  • Sam Jones BBQ

  • The Pit

  • Picnic

  • Longleaf Swine

  • Lechon Latin BBQ & Bar

While Moss writes that the Triangle’s new-school joints are leading the current barbecue renaissance, he throws some love to a few of the classics. Also mentioned in the piece are Bullock’s Barbecue in Durham, and Ole Time Barbecue and Clyde Cooper’s in Raleigh, as well as modern newcomers Midwood Smokehouse and The BBQ Lab.

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