Stamey's Barbecue: The Root of It All

Chip Stamey, owner of Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Chip Stamey is the grandson of famed Piedmont-barbecue pathfinder and promotor Warner Stamey. In the 1920s, Warner studied and worked under Lexington, NC pit-cooking pioneers Jess Swicegood and Sid Weaver. Warner took what he learned about smoking shoulders back home to Shelby to perfect his techniques and recipes. Moving back to Lexington, in 1938 Warner bought out his mentor Swicegood and renamed the operation Stamey’s.

Stamey’s Barbecue helped tiny Lexington become not only the most ‘cue-centric town in North Carolina, but perhaps the world. With a population hovering around twenty thousand, the Lexington area houses nearly twenty barbecue establishments. 

Like several other pit proprietors we’ve met while constructing the North Carolina BBQ Trail, Chip Stamey left a non-‘cue career to take over the family business. Mirroring a practice found in most every Carolina barbecue joint, Chip’s one rule is to keep everything the same. Commitment to family, history, and preservation is valued above all else. 

Relocated to Greensboro since 1953, Stamey’s recently celebrated its eighty-first anniversary. The house that Warner built continues to fry up hushpuppies (a Stamey’s invention), slow-smoke shoulders over hickory coals, and serve chopped and sliced barbecue doused with sauce, or in local parlance, "dip."


- Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Stamey's Barbecue "dip" lines the wall behind the cash register. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Hickory coals are transferred from the fire to the barbecue pits at Stamey's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Morning light streams into the smokey pit room at Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Ponn Chanuon tends to the pits throughout the day at Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

A typical barbecue plate at Stamey's consists of chopped pork, hushpuppies and red slaw. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

A plate of "brown" barbecue at Stamey's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Homemade peach cobbler at Stamey's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Stamey's Barbecue is an 81-year-old establishment in Greensboro, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Stamey's Barbecue
2206 High Point Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27403


(336)299-9888
Hours of Operation: 
Monday - Saturday: 10 am - 9 pm
Closed Sunday

Parker's Barbecue, Wilson, N.C.

Dried spices, salt and vinegar are added to the chopped pork at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

If barbecue is big business in North Carolina, Parker’s Barbecue is a veritable warehouse of whole hogism. Located in the eastern city of Wilson, Parker’s serves over 150 smoked pigs and 8,000 fried chickens to 20,000 customers each week. Catering to crowds is part of the Parker’s mythos; on one brilliant afternoon in 1954, founders Ralph Parker, Graham Parker, and Henry Parker Brewer fed 17,000 chopped barbecue plates in one day. Despite the crowds here, little details maintain that small-joint feel. Donald Williams and Kevin Lamm (two of the three owners that we met) greet each patron at the entrance. On this Sunday, families came from different church services, greeted one another in the parking lot, and queued up in the ever-increasing line. Inside Parker’s, a group of young men in 1950s-style, white paper caps stood in formation ready to usher the next group to their table. Almost no one we saw needed a menu. The Parkers would be proud to see their dining room so full, in this, its sixty-fifth year in business. Ralph Parker, the last surviving of the three “brothers,” still regularly holds court, sipping a cup of coffee. He recently conceded that Parker’s “barbecue is better than it has ever been.”

- Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Young male servers stand ready to meet the needs of their customers at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Unmarked glass bottles hold the spicy vinegar based sauce at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Two of three Parker's Barbecue owners Kevin Lamm, left, and Donald Williams. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Whole hogs cook to crispy perfection on the pit at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The line of friers in the kitchen at Parker's Barbecue are constantly bubbling full of chicken, hushpuppies, corn sticks or fries. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Charlie, a long time barbecue pit worker, disassembles a hog for chopping at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The "Family Style" meal at Parker's Barbecue: (top to bottom) coleslaw, fried chicken, boiled potatoes, chopped pork, Brunswick stew, hushpuppies and corn sticks. 

Families wait in line for a seat inside Parker's Barbecue, Sunday afternoon in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Parker's Barbecue
2514 US Highway 301 S, Wilson, NC

(252) 237-0972

Open 7 Days a Week

Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q

Worn leather stools line the lunch counter at Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q in Reidsville, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

North Carolina barbecue pit owners and masters that we’ve talked to follow the same business model: consistently cook the same product the same way everyday. This change-nothing attitude is readily apparent at Short Sugar’s Pit Bar-B-Q, where time appears to crawl at the same pace as their pork shoulders’ slow hickory-smoking. Located in downtown Reidsville, Short Sugar’s looks nearly the same as when it opened in 1949 (excluding a dining room addition three decades ago). Sit at the lunch counter and you soon come to terms with the goodness of this antiquarianism. Elbow-jostle with men who take the same stool every afternoon. Wave greetings to second-generation owner David Wilson, who was dressed in a 1950s drive-in cars shirt the day we spent there. Whether you order your chopped pit-cooked barbecue in plate, tray, or sandwich form, you’ll douse it in Short Sugar’s idiosyncratic sauce. The stuff is many shades darker than that found anywhere else in the State; undoubtedly worcestershire-based, it’s runny and salty-sweet. Every week they sell gallons of the sauce because it’s good, it complements their barbecue, and it’s the same as it ever was. 


- Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Short Sugar's chopped barbecue sandwich with their unique sauce. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q, Reidsville, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Short Sugar's patrons socialize after breakfast at the 62-year-old, Reidsville, N.C. establishment. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

1328 South Scales Street
Reidsville, North Carolina

Open 6am-8pm Mon-Thurs & 6am-9pm Fri-Sat

(336)342-7487

James Bolton: "Pit Master King" of Clyde Cooper's Barbeque

James Bolton, "Pit Master King" at Clyde Cooper's Barbeque, Raleigh, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Click below to play Rien's interview with James Bolton "Pit Master King."

James Bolton seasons the pork ribs at Clyde Cooper's Barbeque, Raleigh, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Clyde Cooper's Barbeque, 109 E. Davie Street, Raleigh, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Clyde Cooper's Barbeque
109 East Davie Street
Raleigh, NC 27601


(919) 832-7614
Hours of Operation:
Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Closed Sunday

Interview with Namon Carlton: 20-Year Veteran of the Chop Block

Namon Carlton, Red Bridges Barbecue (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Click play to hear Rien's interview with Namon Carlton at Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge, Shelby, NC.

Chopped brown barbecue plate at Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge, Shelby, NC. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge, Shelby, NC.  (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge
2000 East Dixon Blvd
Shelby, NC 28150


(704) 482-8567
Hours of Operation:
Wednesday - Sunday 11am -  8pm

The Barbecue Bus reviews Matthew Herbert’s One Pig

For his new release One Pig, British musician Matthew Herbert may well have invented a new form of sound: farm to table electronica. The album follows the life cycle of the eponymous swine from birth to dinner plate. Arranged chronologically, One Pig transforms the sounds—recorded over thirteen months—of the pig and its environment into a diverse dance record. Herbert dissolves squeals into dissonance, forms a rumbling march step from guttural grunts, and, in the album’s best track, “February,” transforms the sharpening of knives into a tremendous rave-up. The album’s concept will certainly strike most as strange, while its sound, at times, is hard to swallow. Several melancholia-riddled tracks (featuring the whine of swinging metal gates, the yelps of a distressed animal, etc. ) could easily be mistaken for a Angelo Badalamenti or Trent Reznor-produced film score. The album, however, is not just a record of life and reminder of approaching death, but a political statement that takes the nose-to-tail food movement a step further. Eventually, this one pig becomes not only life-sustaining meat for human consumption but a sustainable sound. Herbert crafted the pig's bones and skin into drums. To record “January,” Herbert built a heart-like organ instrument, which pumped the pig’s own blood, to provide the song’s pulsing-heart beat. On the penultimate track, he layers the masticatory sounds of eaters joyfully feasting on the pig’s meat with that of the animal itself gorging; Herbert's brilliant mirroring ultimately shows just how similar are man and pig.


- Rien Fertel

Links:
http://www.matthewherbert.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GddErv81vOY

How to Order Lexington 'Cue

Clockwise from the top left: Lexington Style Barbecue, sliced white meat with red slaw tray, skins, chopped white meat with slaw tray, dip (sauce), hush puppies, barbecue turkey breast, brown sliced tray, hush puppies, rolls. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

What we've learned about ordering Lexington style barbecue meat:

White chopped (Slightly sweet, finely chopped, the leanest of the lean shoulder meat)  

White coarse chopped (pictured on a sandwich)

                  White sliced (pictured with red slaw)

Brown sliced or coarse (The outside of the shoulder. This is the smokiest, slightly salty and crispier part of the shoulder, occasionally with a little fat mixed in.)

Brown chopped (From the same part of the shoulder as above, but finely chopped.)

An Interview with Lexington Barbecue's Binky McCarn

Lexington Barbecue's Binky McCarn (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Listen to Rien's interview with twenty-one year veteran of the pits at Lexington Barbecue, Charles "Binky" McCarn. 

Shoulders on the pit at Lexington Barbecue in Lexington, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/The Barbecue Bus)

Lexington Barbecue's Binky McCarn and his shovel. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Roy Benson at the Chop Block

Chopped pork at the Barbecue Center, Lexington, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Check out a little audio Rien put together from the Barbecue Center kitchen in Lexington. 

Roy Benson, Barbecue Center's head cook, Lexington, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Chopped pork and Roy Benson's tools of the trade, Lexington, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Late Night Barbecue

The neon sign outside the Barbecue Center guides customers in for dinner. (photo by Denny Culbert/ the Barbecue Bus)

Tuesday night for dinner we headed to the Barbecue Center on a recommendation from David Bodenheimer, a reporter at The Dispatch, the Lexington newspaper. Once inside the joint it was obvious we'd found a piece of barbecue history.We're headed back today for an interview and photos, more to come on the Barbecue Center and it's owner Sonny Conrad.

Sonny Conrad's Barbecue Center started as a curbside pick-up and continues the tradition today. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

An Introduction to Lexington 'Cue

On Tuesday, we ate barbecue three times before 1p.m. It was glorious. This was a fast introduction into Lexington 'cue, but we barely scratched the surface. There are sixteen barbecue joints in this town with a population of around 20,000. Each one a little different and with its own loyal following. We'll be in Lexington until Friday and will continue our education in the Piedmont style of barbecue. 

The smell of smoke fills the air around the Lexington Barbecue building,  Tuesday, November 15, 2011. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Lexington Barbecue's dark red dip drips from a chopped sandwich with slaw. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Tar Heel Q, Lexington, North Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Hush puppies at Tar Heel Q (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Chopped barbecue plate with fries and white slaw at Tar Heel Q. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Pork skin at Backcountry Barbecue. An entire sandwich filled with this savory treat is available while supply lasts each day. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The Weigh-In

Original Weights

Denny 177 lbs

                             Rien 173 lbs

The Barbecue Bus's dynamic duo will be consuming plates and plates of pork over the next few weeks. How many pounds will we gain??? Get your guesses in now! Prizes for the winners!