My obsession with BBQ always results in me seeing or reading about famous BBQ places to visit from Texas to Kansas City to North Carolina. It was about damned time to go visit a few! So I convinced my wife to spend Easter vacation traveling across North Carolina and hitting up as many BBQ places as we could! How could she resist, right? She agreed only as long as we visited some of her obsessions....craft breweries! Beer and BBQ....let's go!
There is actually a historic Barbecue Trail that runs across the state of North Carolina. We only had five vacation days for this trip....and there were way too many spots on my list to visit. So we nailed down a few of the "Best of the Best" BBQ joints and breweries in the state and headed off on the eight hour drive south from York, Pennsylvania to Asheville, NC.
Let's throw out a little information about barbecue in North Carolina before we get too far! There are two styles of BBQ in North Carolina separated by Route 1, extending north and south from Raleigh. East of that Barbecue Divide, you'll find the Down East style, which is characterized by a vinegar-pepper sauce and cooking the whole hog. The pig is cooked low and slow over hickory before the meat is roughly chopped and served as a sandwich or on a plate or cardboard trays. In western North Carolina, it's generally the Lexington style you're eating--just the pork shoulder (or its smaller first cousin, a Boston butt), pulled and then chopped up, with sauce based on tomato as well as vinegar. It's often topped with slaw and served on a bun.
We didn't follow the North Carolina BBQ Trail exactly as seen on the map (see above). We kinda made up our own route and stops based on time and research. And, it was also Easter weekend. A few of the popular BBQ restaurants weren't even open during our trip. If you take notice you will see the red line we followed on the map vs. the white line designating the actual NCBBQ trail. I also marked each of our stops along the way with a yellow star/triangle.
It just so happened that the Durham Bulls were in town as we headed towards Raleigh over the weekend. So we were lucky enough to see another of my obsessions.....a baseball game! We snagged some cheap outfield tickets to the game and even had a Q-dog to eat (pulled pork on a hot dog)!
We had originally planned to end our trip in Ayden, NC. The famous Skylight Inn was supposed to be our final BBQ meal before coming home. Unfortunately, the town of Ayden did not have any breweries and my wife was thirsty (imagine that!). So we wound up heading another two hours across the state for Kitty Hawk and the Outer Banks for a drink and more BBQ!
To make it easier (and keep this blog post a bit shorter) I have linked each major stop along our BBQ trip below. Click on each link to see and hear more about our Q & Brew adventures across North Carolina. It was an absolute blast!
And, if you're interested in following Lenny's BBQ blog and all his fabulous creations.....you can simply visit the following link or visit my backyard!
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