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.

[zoobeach]

My husband will bring home a take-out from Patillo's in Beaumont, TX to get in my good graces.

[wardaddy]

Good BBQ everywhere...differing styles.

There is actually good (sort of) BBQ meat roasting in Brasil, Argentina and Nicaragua too....churrasco style spit roasting with different sauces.

[andysandmikesmom]

We lived in North Carolina, near Ft. Bragg(where my husband was stationed), for five years...we originally came from Chicago...

I tasted things in North Carolina, that I had never tasted before...one was their BBQ, which was shredded pork, and was just about the best BBQ, I have ever had....I just loved it...

The other thing I found was that people ate their hot dogs, with cole slaw on them...so I tried it, and just loved it...to this day, I cannot eat a hot dog, unless it has slaw on it...

We now live in Washington State...if we go out for hotdogs, and I ask for slaw on my dog, they look at me as if I am just crazy....I just have to get a side order of slaw, and slather it on my dawg by myself...(of course, being that I am originally from Chicago, I always have to add a sprinkle of celery salt on top of the slaw)...


Goood eats.....

[zoobeach]

Cook a brisket slow until falling apart, po boy bun with cajun mayonnaise and top with cole slaw and you have a Debris po boy.

[King Nothing]

Ahhh Dreamland... one of the many benifits of living in Tuscaloosa.

[nkycincinnatikid]

I checked with the boss and you are correct, it is Corkys. And BTW my favorite Chesterton is ( and I paraphrase from memory)Equality of the sexes came about the day one housewife stood up from the dinner table, told her husband she would never again be dictated to, and promptly went out and got a job as a stenographer.

[sweetliberty]

I never heard of Porky's either. That's why I asked if he meant Corky's. Corky's is pretty well known, Memphis style barbeque. We have several of them in Arkansas as well. It's pretty good for Memphis style, but the sauce is too sweet for me. I definitely prefer a more tart sauce with a mustard base. Corky's is just not as good as some other places.

[sinkspur]

There is a rib place calle the Rendevous

You're the second poster to mention Rendezvous. I'm puttin' that in my book. I LOVE BBQ, and when I get to Memphis again, I'm going to the Rendezvous, and to Corky's.

[Pokey78]

Richardson's BBQ. Haven't been there in a few years.

[pnz1]

Slaw on a BBQ sandwich with the tomato-based sauce is excellent, too! I always throw slaw on my BBQ, no matter what part of the country I'm in.

[Damagro]

I'm in west Tennessee and coleslaw is quite common on barbecue sandwiches. But not the mayonaise coleslaw, that's awful

[Junior]

Barbeque is NOT shredded meat with sauce poured over it. It IS shredded meat cooked all day in a sauce.

[Teetop]

Reminds me...country style pork ribs on sale for 89 cents a pound!

[Pilsner]

The best BBQ beef is found at Kreuz Market, 619 North Colorado Street, Lockhart, Texas.

There is NO sauce. Sauce is something purveyors of inferior BBQ use to disguise the low quality of their product.

Those who disagree are invited to visit Kreuz and see for themselves. Those who disagree after visiting Kreuz's may continue this discussion through seconds.

[sinkspur]

The Rendevous is world famous. My wife and I went there on our honeymoon.

I've got to laugh. 26 years ago, after our wedding reception, with no food left, we were so damn hungry we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken!

Thanks for the recommendation.

[Alwayswatching]

Really,really good "pulled pork" BBQ cooks all day.Some of the best I've ever had was in Laurel,MD at "Red, Hot and Blue"..a really cool BBQ joint.I live in Houston Tx but I bought 2 quarts of sauce and held them on my lap on the plane.....I've learned to duplicate the sauce..but I'll never tell..hehe.......and they do serve slaw on the sandwich..not a Texas "thang"..but good.

[sinkspur]

The best BBQ beef is found at Kreuz Market, 619 North Colorado Street, Lockhart, Texas.

Lockhart's loaded with great BBQ joints.

TEXAS MONTHLY also mentions Smitty's Market as a pretty good place; in fact, they say it's the best damn place in Texas!