Barbecue is good for us.

630 Weaver Dairy Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC
(919) 932-7904

The Nutshell

BBQ with a gourmet twist. Good but not great pulled pork, delicious sides, delectable desserts.

The Details

The Barbecue Joint in Chapel Hill was the second BBQ stop in our recent field trip to my home state. We sneaked out of lunch at the conference we were attending (the nominal reason for this BBQ junket) with a mix of native North Carolinians and curious Californian friends to sample the fare at this unassuming spot in a strip mall on Weaver Dairy Road. (Amusingly, the place is right next a Curves fitness center. The owner told us that the Curves used to be a Weight Watchers until the frustrated members, tempted by the smell of BBQ wafting over, decided to move their franchise elsewhere.)

The first thing we noticed about the ‘Cue Joint was a decidedly unorthodox menu. Of course they serve the usual pulled pork platters and sandwiches, but they also include such non-pork delicacies as duck confit and sweet potato bread pudding with whiskey sauce. Hey, no problem there — I’m all for gourmet touches as long as the BBQ is up to snuff.

We sat in the sun on the patio and sipped sweet tea (a delicious clue that they hadn’t strayed too far from Carolina orthodoxy) while we waited for our meat to arrive. We weren’t disappointed: the pork was tender and juicy, with a nice pink smoke ring testifying to its time in the smoker. The sauce was typical eastern North Carolina vinegar-based. My only complaint about the ‘cue was that it lacked the full complement of smoky goodness — there were no visible “outside brown” bits, the chewy pieces from the outside of the shoulder that pack much of the flavor.

As for the sides, the baked beans were spectacular, sweet and spicy with hefty chunks of ham. The slaw was light and crunchy, a perfect complement to BBQ. The thick-cut fried green tomatoes had a tasty cornmeal crust fried up right and crispy, a substantial improvement on the adequate but unremarkable version at Mama Dip’s. And in a subtle but inspired touch, the BBQ entrees came with a few apparently homemade sweet pickled cucumber slices. Usually I’m a dill pickle partisan, but these pickles made me reconsider my stance. They were crisp and lightly sweet, not soggy and cloying like store-bought sweet pickle rounds.

Just as we finished our meal, the owner came out with three desserts on the house: the sweet potato bread pudding with whiskey sauce we’d been eyeing earlier, a slice of key lime pie, and some banana pudding. (We hadn’t even dropped the bbq.isgoodfor.us name yet, so chalk it up to genuine hospitality!) The key lime pie was well-executed but perhaps the least notable of the three. The banana pudding hit the spot; it’s a North Carolina classic with chunks of banana and vanilla wafer cookies. The real superstar, though, was the bread pudding and its delightful interplay of caramelized sweet potato goodness with whiskey fire. We passed around all three plates, but the bread pudding drew the most longing stares as it made the journey around the table. (Will there be one more bite for me?)

Add the Barbecue Joint to the list of must-eats in Chapel Hill. It’s not quite the same genre as old stalwarts such as Allen and Son’s, but there’s room for both under the BBQ big tent.

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