Southern Living named this barbecue joint the best in NC. Do you agree?
In the never-ending debate over North Carolina barbecue, the west wins this round.
Earlier this spring, Southern Living named the best barbecue in every state, and a Lexington-style icon earned North Carolina’s top spot.
Taking its name from the town and the signature style of tomato-based sauce and pork shoulders, Lexington Barbecue was named North Carolina’s best barbecue restaurant.
For its list, Southern Living looked to barbecue fans to vote on their favorite spots in every state in the South in the magazine’s poll. Lexington Barbecue, founded by Wayne Monk in 1962 and now operated by his son Rick, continues to be one of North Carolina’s busiest barbecue joints after more than 60 years in business.
“The barbecue... is still prepared the way Monk learned it from his mentor Warner Stamey, North Carolina’s pioneering barbecue restaurateur,” wrote Southern Living barbecue editor Robert Moss. “Pork shoulders are cooked directly over oak and hickory coals in closed brick pits, then chopped, sliced, or ‘coarse chopped’ (cut into chunks). It’s dressed in a tangy, slightly-spicy “dip” (vinegar and tomato sauce) and served with crisp-golden brown hushpuppies and finely-minced vinegar slaw tinged red with ketchup — an essential example of the classic Piedmont North Carolina style.”
Eastern vs Piedmont barbecue
In North Carolina, two distinct styles battle over the famed barbecue region. There is the Eastern-style whole hog barbecue, where smoky pork is dressed with a peppery vinegar sauce. And the Piedmont-style, popularized by a number of restaurants in and around Lexington, where the barbecue is made from pork shoulders and the sauce has a squirt of ketchup, giving it and its slaw a signature red tinge.
At Lexington Barbecue, the most prominent practitioner of the style that shares its name, that red “dip” is served warm from glass coffee pitchers and the parking lot is always full.
Those in the know often order Lexington’s barbecue with plenty of “outside brown,” the term for the crispy, darkened bits packed with smoke and flavor.
While whole hog barbecue is an older style, North Carolina’s Lexington-style is responsible for helping spread the pork gospel, with shoulders much easier for home cooks to make and for restaurants to make en masse.
“I’m not sure there is a signature style. You have two signature styles,” barbecue historian and author John Shelton Reed said in 2023. “You’re far more likely to find a wood cooker in the Piedmont than in the East. And it’s easier to cook a pork shoulder than whole hog.”
