"Craig Watts" > wrote in
message
...
>> The western part of NC is best known for "Lexington style"
>> ribs, which don't appeal to me. On you way up, take I-70 in
>> and have a plate of pulled pork and veggies at Barbecue Lodge
>> or Don Murray's in Raleigh. If you're near Rocky Mount,
>> consider Gardners, which is an icon of the Eastern NC style as
>> well. Going on west to Ashville, another great place is
>> Stamy's in Greensboro. The last time I was there, they were
>> still cooking with ONLY wood coals.
>>
>> Heck, since you won't be going on over to Memphis, stop at Red
>> Hot and Blue in Raleigh for their interpretation of Memphis
>> style (dry) ribs. If you are still hungry, go back to Barbecue
>> Lodge and get a plate of chicken livers and gizzards. Send
>> some to me.
>
> Nonny,
>
> I agree that Lexington Q is not my choice. It is different with
> black pepper and the such, but I prefer Eastern NC Q.
>
> Unfortunitly Don Murry's has closed and in IMHO Barbecue Lodge
> has slipped several notches.
>
What a shame! I always felt that Don Murrays was a close second
to Barbecue Lodge, which was strange in the he was the original
owner who sold out and built the one down the street on Capital
Blvd. to compete. My neighbor had an office fairly close and we'd
eat at Murrays occasionally, but would usually hit Barbecue Lodge
when it was just the wife or family.

I'd guess we ate there weekly and got to know most of the folk,
including the old timer on the cash register. Every time I'd go
up to pay, she'd ask, "Was everything OK?" The expected answer
was, "Yes," but one time I decided to have some fun. When she
asked the question, I told her, "I couldn't hardly choke the stuff
down. It was awful." The poor lady about died right then and
there until I started laughing. From then on, she'd ask me, "Did
you choke today?"

We had a party in the late 90's, with a number of folk coming in
for a long weekend, staying at our place and the new motel in Wake
Forest. The theme of the party was NC Pigout, and everyone was
looking forward to the big meal planned at Barbecue Lodge on
Capital Blvd. Some of the folk were from Long Island, NYC and New
Jersey and many had never tasted NC style pulled pork.

One gent from Long Island never understood that there were
different kinds of barbecue and when he ordered the barbecue,
expected sauced ribs. When his plate arrived with the incredible
portion of Barbecue Lodge's pulled pork, he about died off and
sent it back. He settled for fried chicken and griped the whole
meal about the horrible barbecue there. <grin>

We had supper there in late May and sampled a good number of
different items on the menu, including the pulled pork, fried
chicken and particularly the gizzards and livers. The consensus
of everyone was that the food was still between excellent and
whatever would be even better, comparing it quite favorably to
Gardners, where we also had a lunch. There WAS a difference in
some of their other locations, could one of them be what you're
describing?

--
Nonny

Giving money and power to
liberals is like giving
whiskey and car keys
to teenage boys.