Defend Barbecue: Clyde Cooper's in Raleigh

Left: Clyde Cooper's on E. Davie Street in Raleigh, North Carolina. Right: "Pit Master King" James Bolton** stands in the doorway of the dining room at Cooper's. (Photos by Denny Culbert)

Preservation. It’s on the menu at Clyde Cooper’s Barbecue in downtown Raleigh. Preservation, along with chopped, sliced, and coarse ‘cue; ribs, fried chicken, and Brunswick stew; and more varieties of fried pork skins than there are toes on a pig's foot.

New Bern North Carolina's King of Cue: Moore's Olde Tyme Barbeque

Patrons line up at the counter for lunch at Moore's Old Tyme Barbeque in New Bern, NC. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

History abounds at Moore’s Olde Tyme Barbeque. John Leonidas (LJ or John) Moore’s pithouse, operating in various incarnations over seven decades, might be most famous as a footnote in the subsequent states’ rights fight over the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Life on the Barbecue Bus

The Barbecue Bus is a Solera C-class motor-home on loan from Rien's parents. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

In between our assigned interviews for the Southern Foodways Alliance there was a lot of driving, camping at Walmarts, coffee drinking, some fine dining, a bit of bike riding, plus a long haul to Virginia for Thanksgiving, and even more barbecue.

Rudy Cobb: The Place is the Space

Rudy Cobb at Jack Cobb & Son Barbecue Place, Farmville, North Carolina. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

No chairs, no tables, just a counter. Take your food and go. Its name is the stuff that could have been dreamed up by a Hollywood script department: Jack Cobb & Son Barbecue Place. It’s a joint where even the owner, Rudy Cobb, can’t pin down exactly how old the establishment is. Could be sixty years, might just be seventy.