The Ten Best Piedmont Style Barbecue Places in North Carolina

It’s high time that I listed the best of the Piedmont. I’ve done a Ten Best in Eastern North Carolina (actually eight), as well as “Best” lists for the Washington, DC, area and for Virginia, and all need updating. If a further spur were needed, it has been the demise of some wonderful Piedmont barbecue places in the last couple of years. I dearly loved Richard’s in Salisbury,

and what a treasure was Rick’s in Welcome. Worst was the foul murder of Smiley’s at the fine bureaucratic hand of NCDOT. I hope that Smiley’s will rise Wilber’s-like from the ashes, and I hear that a new place, Jimmy’s, will open in the Rick’s location with Glenn “Speedy” Holbrook back at the pit.

Thus prompted, I offer a list of the best. Let’s start with my definition of the Piedmont Style barbecue. By Piedmont Style I mean pork shoulders tossed with a vinegar, pepper, and ketchup sauce. The ketchup distinguishes it from Eastern North Carolina’s vinegar-pepper sauce. It may seem a subtle difference, especially since the amount of ketchup is small as a rule. Still, it’s something to argue about.

The second issue is how to define the Piedmont. It’s the area between Eastern North Carolina and the Mountains, but where do you draw the line? I was going to draw it along I-77, but that probably would involve waiting another year. That would mean leaving out the Bar-B-Q King and Red Bridges.

Maybe I’ll put them in my eventual Mountain list as well.

Yet another Best list will separately consider City Barbecue, so I’m leaving out places in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle and the Charlotte area. Wait, you say, I’ve glanced ahead and you include places in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Yes, but those are traditional places, where you can get a meat and two sides with hushpuppies for next to nothing, and they don’t sell brisket or alcohol. Longleaf Swine, for example, is a City Barbecue place.

So here they are, the Ten Best of the Piedmont. Well, actually nine. There’s room for one more. There remain places I haven’t tried, and I’m open to reconsidering places based on comments or new information.

Bar-B-Q King in Lincolnton. “The pork at Bar-B-Q King is excellent, outstanding, redolent of smoke and pork and the tang of the sauce, a good Piedmont sauce. “

Clark’s Barbecue in Kernersville. “Oh, what a plate! And oh, what barbecue. Oh, what pork. The pork had good smoky flavor and a good bit of outside bark to accent the richness of the pork.” And superb vegetables!

College Barbecue Drive-in in Salisbury. “The pork, though, was the star. It lived up to the exalted expectations of the exquisitely sonorous chopping. It was warm. It was smoky. It was rich. It was succulent. Sometimes a meal hits a home run.”

Dickie Do’s BBQ in Haw River. “First the pork. Delicious. This may be the smokiest pork in North Carolina. It also was tender and moist, and altogether great. I can’t believe they don’t get more attention.”

Lexington Barbecue #1 in Lexington. What can you. say that hasn’t been said? “Garden and Gun goes so far as to call Mr. Monk the most famous pit master in the Piedmont, and Lexington #1 is on every “Best Barbecue” list, as it deserves to be.”

Real Q in Winston-Salem. “The pork was a treat. It had been lightly sauced with a good Piedmont sauce, thin with a dab of ketchup and a pleasantly subdued bite from the vinegar and pepper. The sauce balanced and enhanced the smoky pork. It was a great dish. Real Q has first class barbecue.”

Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby. “The meat was delicious.  It was moist, tender, and flavorful, a wonderful blend of pork and smoke.  The dip brought out the flavor and added just a touch of tang and pepper.  I began to understand the Garden and Gun voters’ choice of Red Bridges as #1.”

Speedy Lohr’s Barbecue in Lexington. “The smoky pork was moderately rough chop, moist and flavorful, and tossed with a sauce that made the meat shine. The slaw was yet another fine red slaw, the perfect accompaniment to the rich pork and the hushpuppies.”

Stamey’s Barbecue in Greensboro, specifically the Gate City location, where they cook all the barbecue. “We speak of Stamey’s in hushed whispers. Warner Stamey was present at the creation of the Lexington or Piedmont style of barbecue. … The pork … It had a nice fine chop and that good hickory flavor enhanced by a very good sauce. If you can find better Piedmont style barbecue than this you’re probably at Red Bridges or Lexington #1.”

Your experience may — probably does — differ from mine, and so may your preferences. Feel free to correct me. I’ll go ahead and link to my Bar-B-Q Center review so you can see my thinking. There also are places I haven’t tried, and I welcome your suggestions as to where I should go — perhaps I should rephrase that — additional places I need to try. Here I stand. I can do no other.

Enjoy the list, and do include suggestions of good barbecue place I should try, in North Carolina and beyond.

***

And while you’re at it, click “follow” on our front page to receive blog posts in your email box.  Or bookmark us and check in from time to time.  If you’re planning a trip, you can “Search” the name of the destination city, state, or country for good restaurants (in Europe, often close to sites, like the Louvre or the Van Gogh Museum, that you’ll want to visit in any event). Comments, questions, and suggestions of places to eat or stories to cover are very welcome.  And check out our Instagram and Twitter pages, johntannerbbq.