Barbecue is good for us.

My smoker has been dormant for too long. Far too long. This weekend I jumped at the tiniest chance to fire it up, and smoked some ribs for Tamar, Andrew, and Rachel. Once again, all I could get at the local butcher were the gourmet back ribs, which (as I’ve said many times before) aren’t my absolute favorite. These were decently meaty, though, and had a good amount of fat.

I followed the usual routine – rubbed ‘em the night before with my usual mix of salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, brown sugar, celery seed. Into the fridge, out of the fridge, on at around 9:30, off at around 2:30. A good amount of time for ribs this size.

Everyone agreed these were the best ribs I’ve ever made. You can see from the pics below that they got a wonderful crust and the pink… well, it was all smoke ring. Booya. Flavorful, juicy, smoky, and falling off the bone. Literally.

Actually, it was kind of a problem for me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved ‘em. But part of the rib eating experience is picking it up and gnawing it off. On a good rib, you don’t have to work hard, and the meat just slides off the bone.

With these, I couldn’t even chop up the rack without most of the meat falling off. No one else seemed to think this was a problem. If I had it to do again, though, I’d take them off 30 minutes earlier, hoping they’d basically be just as tender and wonderful, but stay on the bone.

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Saturdays, 9 am to 2 pm
Grand Lake Farmer’s Market
Oakland, CA

Sundays, 9 am to 1 pm
NewPark Mall Farmer’s Market
Newark, CA

Phat Matt’s BBQ is a catering and farmer’s market operation that serves brisket, tri-tip, pulled pork, and hot links fresh from their mobile smoking rig. I’ve had their pulled pork twice now. Usually they drench the pork in a thick, dark sauce more appropriate for brisket or ribs, but this time, when I asked, they told me that the pork already has a light vinegar sauce on it, so I ordered my pulled pork sandwich sans the incorrect sauce. (Amusingly, the guy plating the meat was in such a groove that he had to make the sandwich three times before he managed not to squirt the extra sauce on top, it was so automatic for him.)

It was a good move: their pork was tender, moist, and tasty. It had a good deal of smoke flavor, but my taste buds and the bags of charcoal I saw sitting around the smoker led me to believe that they are probably not smoking with hickory as is traditional for pork shoulders in North Carolina. (UPDATE: I guessed wrong! They do smoke with hardwood. See below.) Smoking with charcoal alone does impart flavor, but it’s harsher and less sweet than what you get from a good hardwood. When Judd and I smoke, we use a mix of charcoal (to sustain the fire) and hardwood chunks soaked in water (so they smolder nicely instead of catching fire).

Nonetheless, with the addition of a little of my homemade eastern Carolina-style vinegar sauce, my pulled pork sandwich turned into the closest thing to the real North Carolina deal that I’ve found in the Bay Area. Maybe next time I can talk them into selling it that way all the time — in the meantime, try picking up some pork from Phat Matt’s and adding your own vinegar sauce. The recipes from The Lexington Collection will steer you right. I use Dennis Rogers’ version, scaled down because I don’t go through a gallon of sauce as quickly as you might imagine.

UPDATE: Charlotte, one of the owners of Phat Matt’s, reports that they do slow-smoke their pulled pork and brisket offsite over various hardwoods and that the charcoal I saw is for grilling other meats. Also, they will provide more of their Lexington-style vinegar sauce upon request, which is great news for lovers of NC-style ‘cue. See her comment below for more details. Thanks, Charlotte!

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6203 Millhouse Rd.
(Google Maps is a little off, though: it’s really at the corner of Millhouse/Mt. Sinai and Highway 86.)
Chapel Hill, NC
(919) 942-7576

Hours: Sometimes variable — call ahead. Closes before dinner Monday through Thursday; usually closed for a break during the winter holidays.

The Nutshell

The best eastern North Carolina-style BBQ you’ll ever eat, smoky, tender, and flavorful. Great traditional accompaniments like hushpuppies and sweet tea.

The Place

You might recall Allen & Son from the Los Angeles Times profile of owner and pit-master Keith Allen back in 2007. This venerable destination has been a North Carolina fixture for decades, so it made a fitting final stop on our Triangle BBQ itinerary. The homey dining room sits by itself near some railroad tracks outside of Chapel Hill. Inside, they have checkered tablecloths, a motley assortment of folding metal chairs and old wooden ones, and lots of reviews and memorabilia on the walls. If you walk around out back, you can see the well-worn cinderblock smoking pits.

The Meat

Especially after our excellent meal at The Barbecue Joint, we had high expectations for Allen & Son. We weren’t disappointed: Keith Allen’s product remains the best North Carolina-style ‘cue we’ve ever had. It was full of pork flavor, with a nice balance between tender inside pork and tasty outside brown. You can order the BBQ on a platter or in a sandwich, which comes on a soft (and quickly soggy) hamburger bun with a basic but satisfying slaw on top of the meat.

(Judd says: I for one arrived at Allen & Son expecting to be disappointed, if only because of the obscenely long build up and high expectations. Then, as we were leaving The Cue Joint, Andrew proclaimed that he wasn’t sure Allen & Son would be substantially better. Anyway, all this is to say, I think of it as an even greater achievement that Allen & Son knocked our socks off. I agree with everything Andrew said, and I’d add that the texture was perfect. With long-smoked pork it’s easy for the meat to get mushy, lose its integrity, even if it still tastes good. Allen & Son was right on the edge, but didn’t go too far. I also liked that it wasn’t too uniform — there were larger pieces of pork that hadn’t been completely shredded. Tasty bites!)

Why is Allen & Son’s BBQ so good? Well, fewer and fewer pit-masters do what Keith Allen still does: chop hickory wood and slow-smoke pork shoulders starting in the wee hours of the morning. Many popular places have moved to quicker, cheaper methods like pre-cooking the meat and then popping it in the smoker for just a short time or using electric smokers that mete out smoke from processed chips. These modern techniques sometimes produce good ‘cue, but they never produce the transcendent pork that Allen & Son serves.

The Sides

The hushpuppies are excellent: crunchy, coarse cornmeal batter fried up crispy. The slaw is wet and a little creamy — I’m partial to a drier slaw — but it is well-seasoned and ultimately successful. Since the basic sides are so good, I never seem to get around to trying the others, but their menu seems less extensive than The Barbecue Joint’s. Dessert is another Allen & Son claim to fame, but I’ve never had enough room left for it after a BBQ meal there. Keith Allen makes many of the desserts himself while the meat is smoking.

In the End

Allen & Son is a mandatory stop on any North Carolina BBQ itinerary. You will be hard-pressed to find better pulled pork anywhere — it is that good. I hear you can phone in an order to have it shipped to you overnight if you must have your fix but you can’t make it to Chapel Hill. It just might be worth it.

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