TRIANGLE TODAY | THE NEWS & OBSERVER
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018
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BBQ REVIEWS
compare and contrast Winterville, Benson spots Greg Cox for Triangle Today On paper, Sam Jones BBQ and The Redneck BBQ Lab are as different as two North Carolina barbecue joints could be. One is rooted in generations of family tradition. The other is a newcomer by barbecue joint standards, but has earned an impressive reputation on the national barbecue competition circuit. One cooks whole hogs the traditional way, over seasoned oak embers in an open pit. The other smokes Boston butts on the same cookers it uses in competitions. One has gone beyond the Eastern North Carolina-style pork that has been the foundation of the family reputation for more than six decades to offer a variety of other smoked meats, but still sticks with the time-tested method. The other bills its approach as “BBQ with a scientific twist,” with experiments yielding everything from house-made pastrami to hog jowl bacon cornbread. One serves beer. The other doesn’t. You get the idea. Still, Sam Jones BBQ and The Redneck BBQ Lab do share a couple of noteworthy features. Both are counter service restaurants, for starters. And both merit inclusion in any list of North Carolina’s barbecue elite.
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Redneck BBQ Lab’s pulled pork sandwich is served with slaw on a soft bun and pickled onions and okra on the side.Juli Leonard
year for Best Chef: Southeast.
Some children are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Sam Jones was born with a cleaver in each hand. That’s what he was wielding the first time I ever saw him many years ago, working at the chopping block of the Skylight Inn, the restaurant his grandfather Pete Jones founded in 1947 in Ayden. The place was several decades old by then (Jones couldn’t have been much more than a teenager), and had already won national acclaim as one of the South’s premier barbecue joints. Pete Jones died in 2006, and the Skylight Inn is now operated by Sam Jones along with his father, Bruce Jones, and uncle, Jeff Jones. They preserve the pit-cooked whole hog tradition that earned the restaurant the pres- SAM JONES BBQ tigious James Beard America’s Classics Award in 2003. 715 W. Fire Tower Road, Winterville But he itched to expand his barbecue horizons. 252-689-6449 or samjonesbbq.com He scratched that itch in 2015, opening Sam Jones BBQ a few miles south of Greenville and earned his first nomination for a James Beard Award earlier this
THE REDNECK BBQ LAB 12101-B NC Hwy. 210, Benson 919-938-8334 or redneckbbqlab.com
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2018
AT DUSK
for the holidays
December 4th or 5th, 6 to 8 p.m. | The Mayton Inn, Cary | Get tickets at indulgeatdusk.com
Enjoy indulgent treats, live music, a signature Cheerwine cocktail, a decadent spirits-infused culinary competition and, of course, a visit from the Jolly Old Elf himself.