NC is losing 2 of its oldest barbecue joints. There’s still time to visit one of them
A pair of historic North Carolina barbecue joints are snuffing out the smokehouses after a collective century and a half in business.
Short Sugar’s in Reidsville and Kepley’s in High Point are the latest longtime barbecue restaurants to close, joining a growing list of lost North Carolina barbecue legends.
The distinctive Reidsville restaurant Short Sugar’s BBQ closed for good last week, according to several neighboring businesses, ending its run after 76 years.
Owned by David and Lea Wilson, Short Sugar’s was among the oldest barbecue restaurants in the state. Short Sugar’s is on the North Carolina Barbecue Society’s Historic BBQ Trail.
Short Sugar’s first opened in 1949, owned by brothers Johnny and Clyde Overby. It was named in honor of a deceased third brother, Eldridge, whose nickname was Short Sugar, owner David Wilson said in a 2011 interview with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Wilson became involved with the restaurant in 1980 after the death of his father-in-law Johnny Overby.
Something of a rarity in North Carolina barbecue, Short Sugar’s was at its heart a drive-in. In its hey-day, its parking lot was filled with cars and teenagers in the evenings and was a center of Reidsville’s nightlife.
“There are a lot of interesting stories,” Wilson said in the SFA interview. “There were professional wrestlers that would be going between Greensboro and Danville in this area and they would stop in all buddy-buddy eating together and then they’d go wrestle and want to kill each other, you know that type of thing. It has a real history.”
Short Sugar’s smoked mostly pork shoulders in the Lexington-style tradition. But it served a distinctively thin, dark and sweet barbecue sauce, with the pork ordered minced, chopped or sliced.
In recent years, operating hours could be sporadic at Short Sugar’s, according to neighbors, noting that staffing was occasionally too short to open the restaurant.
In a text message, Wilson declined to comment.
Kepley’s BBQ
In High Point, Kepley’s BBQ announced that it will close on Feb. 8.
Opened in 1948 as a barbecue joint in an old metal military surplus building, Kepley’s was founded by original owner Hayden Kepley. But for most of its history it has been owned and co-owned by Bob Burleson, who started working as a teenage carhop in 1948. Burleson bought the restaurant in 1962.
Burleson passed away in 2022 at 90 years old, with his daughter Susan Burleson taking over the restaurant.
The closing of Kepley’s was first reported by the High Point Enterprise.
Kepley’s was a Lexington-style restaurant, smoking shoulders and serving its sauce and slaw with a red tinge.
Sensing a demand for a last chance for Kepley’s barbecue from near and far, Burleson posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page that diners can call and arrange for shipments.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
