BBQ Across the South

Southern Living ^ | April 2003 | Gary Ford

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BBQ Across the South

Barbecue is pork. No, beef. How about mutton? Chicken? Goat? North Carolina has the best barbecue. Make that Texas. Memphis is barbecue heaven. Nope. Kansas City.

Sometimes, home-cooking is best. The Gibson family's "pig-picking" begins in the early hours.

On and on goes this debate about the South's best barbecue. While y'all argued, we ate. Charles Walton, the best food photographer in America, and I sniffed out nearly 100 restaurants, joints, and dives from Washington, D.C., to Kansas City, Missouri. We found that the heart of barbecue beats in Memphis. Tar Heels and Texans cook mountains of it, and between them run rivers of sauces and islands of styles. A vast feast spreads across the South. Come savor it with us.

As long as there's been a South, we've loved barbecue, the one food that defines us most as a region. It suits our Southern sense of comfort, society, and the passage of time--friends and family gathering around glowing embers, drifting smoke scenting the air and seasoning the meats of animals that grazed the grass of our prairies and rooted the mast of our forests.

Barbecue has moved from home to restaurant. In our Readers' Choice Awards, we asked for your favorite barbecue places. You submitted more than 7,500 restaurants. A full 47 of them sported "Bubba" somewhere in the name--from Bubba's Barbeque in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to Bubba's Ribs & Q in Tifton, Georgia. All those Bubbas--and so many more--set a very long table of meat, sauces, and side dishes.

"There are four barbecue meccas," says Carolyn Wells, a Nashville native and now the executive director of the Kansas City Barbeque Society. "The Carolinas form the cradle of American barbecue. Memphis is the undisputed pork barbecue capital of the world. The entire state of Texas considers itself a capital. Kansas City is the melting pot, where all regional styles come together."

Later we'll tell you what we think is the best barbecue in the South. Travel Assistant Tanner Latham, informed of our foolhardy claim, leveled a gaze at us and said, "You do realize that readers will send death threats?"

Yes. We expect them, but when you write us, please include names of your favorite restaurants so we can cover them in the future.

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Thanks Shuckmaster - good find

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Springtime in Dixie....fire up the smoker, make some sweet tea, and enjoy your family and friends!

[steplock]

Can't forget the 12-hour mesquite-smoked cabrito from west Texas.

That's finger licking good goat to you yankees!

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bump

[wardaddy]

I'm from Mississippi. I live in Nashville.

The best bar b que is generally in Texas.

[sweetliberty]

Ping!

[El Sordo]

From what I've seen of BBQ threads on FR, this should have been posted in 'Religion'.

[Tarheel]

...Charles Walton, the best food photographer in America, and I sniffed out nearly 100 restaurants, joints, and dives from Washington, D.C.,...

What a choice assignment--how much weight did they gain, 100 restaurants to sample! So many choices, so little time.

The Tarheel

[yarddog]

I agree that Bar BQ should be Pork. I once lived in Texas and loved the state but I never did think Mesquite was all that good for BBQ.

I have had really good in Norfolk, Va., Columbus Ga., and Montgomery, Al.

I don't know that I would call it the best in the world but Dobbs in Dothan Alabama can be really good.

[Pamlico]

I guess you have never traveled to North Carolina, now have you?

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I watched the US BBQ Competition on the Food Channel last year. I would've paid money to be a judge! I got so dang hungry watching that show...man.

Two ladies took one of the awards on a modified smoker they picked up on the roadside as junk, inserted a threaded rod and spun the grill up and down as needed for the proper heat. Nows that's cookin'

[stainlessbanner]

bbq bump.

[kcordell]

this should have been posted in 'Religion'.

Amen!

[gubamyster]

I lived in Sugar Land, TX for a while & there used to be the best BBQ place across the road from the old sugar factory. They served a bake potato covered in BBQ, cheese & butter. Just thinking of that, some jalapenos & an ice cold pitcher of beer has my keyboard covered w/ drool.

Up near Champions, in North Houston, there used to be a guy (Cotton's BBQ) who pulled his smoker into a Kroger parking lot & sold brisket sandwiches.

Now, I go to Dr. Hoggly Woggly's Tyler Texas BBQ here in the valley. A long drive from HB, but well worth it.

[annyokie]

We've had our grill fired up for at least six weeks now.

Good BBQ IS a religion! ; )

[sinkspur]

I'm in Texas, and we fight all the time over pork vs. beef (though I prefer pork), but one thing I do not get is coleslaw on a sandwich. I got that in Tupelo, Mississippi once, and, since then, folks tell me that's common in the south.

Where did that come from?

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Texas, you say? How 'bout Railhead in FW, TX?

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We always ate slaw dawgs, but no 'samiches with coleslaw...

[nkycincinnatikid]

Well Cincinnati IS Porkopolis and there is some awesome BBQ ribs joints here. Montgomery and Walts come to mind. I recently had some of the worst BBQ in my life at County Line in Austin, supposedly a MECCA there. The wife swears by Porky's in Memphis. Carolina BBQ requires a few generations to appreciate I think.

[yarddog]

I grew up about as deep South as you can get but I never heard of a cole slaw sandwich.

It is commonly served with BBQ tho.