Parker’s Barbecue, Wilson, North Carolina

It had been a while since I’d gone to Parker’s Barbecue. When I start talking about Parker’s I start thinking of words like “lovely” and “charming” that usually don’t go with restaurants. But they go with Parker’s. I was eager to get back.

Parker’s has been around since 1946, and the space, every bit of it, remains as if in amber, as you can see here. Everything is warm and welcoming — except, in this photo, the sky.

As soon as you step in you’re greeted by a platoon of clean cut young men all dressed in khaki and white and wearing paper Parker’s garrison caps. I want one. Service is friendly, prompt, and meticulously ordered, a brisk pavane. One of the young prodigies escorts you to a table, asks if you need a menu, gets you started, and within minutes brings your order, hot and fresh.

I’d gotten a late start — I was interviewed for a podcast by AdventuRetired that morning. Then I was held up by an unplanned stop at the Big Pig BBQ. The upshot was that I didn’t arrive until after 4:00 pm.

I ordered a small combination plate, barbecue and fried chicken (dark), which comes with a quart or so of good iced tea (unsweet, please), slaw, and either hushpuppies or their truly magnificent corn sticks. I chose green beans and Brunswick stew as my sides.

All of that food cost me $9.50, tax included.

There’s a good bit of finely chopped pork under that chicken thigh, and it’s been tossed with one of the best barbecue sauces around. The pork does lack that pit-cooked flavor the you only can get by cooking the hog over wood coals, but the sauce covers a multitude of sins, and it tastes very good. And the chicken thigh — always order dark meat — had been fried … how do they fry so much chicken so well? It’s … magnificent.

Their slaw is very good, crisp, fresh, and refreshing, with a nice tang of mustard. and the corn sticks, ah, the corn sticks. You may never have had one. As I’ve written before, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the ambrosia on Mount Olympus weren’t actually corn sticks, and Prometheus gave the gift of fire as an adjunct to the greater gift of the corn sticks recipe.” Here, in lieu of fire, is the recipe. You’ll need the right pan.

The green beans were good. I really like Southern green beans. The Brunswick stew could have been better. It can be absolutely delicious, but so many people these days avoid the key ingredient from my grandmother’s recipe, here. Well, yeah, they skip the pig head, but they also skip the barbecue sauce. Fortunately, at Parker’s, you can add some of their barbecue sauce. Thus elevated, it’s very good.

Have you been to Parker’s? If so, you know what a great place it is. If not, give it a try, and you’ll fall in love.

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