Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [71]
A simple, freestanding eatery with an order counter and a scattering of tables, Thomason’s does a big carry-out business, selling its specialties by the pound and gallon. On a shelf below the order counter are bottles of dip for sale. Dip is sauce with natural, au jus character.
North Carolina
Allen & Son
6203 Millhouse Rd.
919–942–7576
Chapel Hill, NC
LD | $
Cinder-block walls, plastic tablecloths, and pork slow-smoked over hickory coals: here is a definitive North Carolina barbecue parlor. Sandwiches are available, but we recommend getting Allen’s meat on a plate, which includes a pile of sparkling coleslaw and about a half-dozen crisp-skinned hush puppies. The hush pups are arranged like a sculptor’s work, on top of the pork. It is a field of spheres atop a heap of meat: a lovely, aromatic, and absolutely mouthwatering sight. Meat is served sauceless, but you can dress it up with Allen & Son’s butter-rich, vinegar-based hot sauce loaded with spice and cracked pepper.
If you get the combination plate known to some locals as “stew and que” (highly recommended), the pile of good smoked meat is supplemented by a bowl of Brunswick stew, another traditional companion to smoked pork in these parts. Unlike the meatier Brunswick stews of southern Virginia, this luscious stuff is mostly vegetables with a few shreds of meat, all cosseted in a tomato-rich sauce. It is a hearty, rib-sticking food that makes a wonderful contrast to the exquisite pork.
For dessert, choose among peanut butter pie, fruit cobbler, key lime pound cake, and chess pie.
Bar B Q King
2900 Wilkinson Blvd.
704–399–8344
Charlotte, NC
LD | $
Bar B Q King has no indoor seating. It is a building in the middle of a parking lot with two rows of car slips, order-matic menus, and trays mounted on articulated arms so you can pull dinner right up to the side of your vehicle when it is delivered by the carhop. While many customers eat in their cars, phone-ahead service is popular, too: call in your order, then arrive to pick up meals packed in the sturdy cardboard boxes that have become the BBQK trademark.
On our first visit, we made the mistake of asking the carhop for a “pork sandwich.” What we got was a perch sandwich. We ate it anyway, and it was marvelous—moist, sweet white meat so satisfying it reminded us of the best pork, but encased in a golden crust. In fact, the perch was so good, we subsequently ordered trout, shrimp, and oysters—all fried in that only-in-the-South soulful way that’s guaranteed to convert even a die-hard fish-frowner.
What we learned from our experience—other than to recommend BBQK as a fine fried-fish restaurant—is that if you want smoked pork hereabouts, you don’t say “pork” you say “barbecue.” Pork is the only pit meat there is. It is available sliced or minced (the latter really is pulverized, the former “hacked”), and it, too, is superb—tender, succulent, veiled in a subtle sauce that does not overwhelm the meat’s fundamental fineness.
Bridges Barbecue Lodge
US 74
704–482–8567
Shelby, NC
LD (closed Mon–Tues) | $
Bridges has no written menu, just the slip of paper used by the waitress to take orders: sandwich, tray, or plate. A tray is barbecue and barbecue slaw; a plate also holds French fries, lettuce, tomato, and pickle. Both are accompanied by hush puppies, and whether you select sandwich, tray, or plate, you must decide if you want your meat (pork shoulder) minced, chopped, or sliced. It is a major decision, for they are almost like three different foods. Bridges is one of the few places that offers minced barbecue, an old-time configuration from traditional pig-pickin’s. It is pulverized into moist hash