Johnson Family Barbecue – Durham, NC

Johnson Family Barbecue
www.johnsonfamilybbq.com

5021 Wake Forest Rd Ste A
Durham, NC 27703

Again, I’m trying to find new places in the Durham area. So more searching kept bring up how great Johnson Family Barbecue is. After my experience the previous night at Bullocks, I just didn’t know. But I decided to give it ago based on the written review I found. It promised to at least be a BBQ restaurant.

As I arrived at the location I wasn’t disappointed; there was smoke, and lots of it! As I got out of the car, the smell hit me! Awesome I thought as I made the walk up and inside.

It’s a small place, with limited seating. I went up to the counter to place my order. They distract you by having the menu played on a monitor but then it changes to something else. I made a comment and was told that was why there were menus placed on the counter, in a not so “friendly” tone. Oh well, I’m an idiot I guess. She then told me that it was brisket day. I think she said they make brisket every other day, and Wednesday was a brisket day. I asked if they had banana pudding; she said not today but they had cakes. I passed on desert.

I placed my order:

Brisket
Chopped Pork
Baked Bean
Brunswick Stew

 

I paid, left her a 20% tip even though she made me feel like an idiot; and filled my cup with drink, sat down and waited. I people watched as a few more came in and ordered; then my plate was set before me. She informed me that they Smokey sweet sauce was for the brisket and the vinegar sauce for the pork.

Johnson Family Barbecue Durham, NC Brisket, Pork, Brunswick Stew, Baked Beans
Johnson Family Barbecue Durham, NC Brisket, Pork, Brunswick Stew, Baked Beans

Everything looked good and there was a bonus, hush puppies! I love hush puppies and these were very good. What to eat first? I tasted the sides first.

The Brunswick stew was good and loaded with pork, the baked beans were better. And the beans got “more-better” after I put a little brisket and pork in them.

 

The Brisket

It was almost spot on. Maybe slightly overcooked, but not much. Just a “touch” drier than I’d like. But it came without sauce!  This allowed me to taste the meat by itself first. Great hit of smoke in it, not overpowering but close. Like I said, just a touch drier than I’d like but I was able to find fat so it wasn’t all dried up. Overall a very nice flavor. There was even some bark or burnt outer, I like that!

Then I put a little of the sauce on it, not much. I really liked that combination. Their sauce works well with the brisket.

Verdict: This is one of the better briskets you’ll find in North Carolina. Yes, if it’s brisket day and I’m close here in the future, I’ll stop in and get some.

 

The Pork

I liked the Pork, like the vinegar sauce on it. It had a similar hit of smoke to it and there was a bit of bark as well. Overall, I liked it.  The vinegar sauce needed a little something more; maybe a better vinegar.

Verdict: yes, I’d eat this again!

 

Bullock’s Bar-B-Q – Durham, NC

Bullock’s Bar-B-Q
www.bullocksbbq.com

3330 Quebec Dr
Durham, NC 27705

Wanting to try new places on this trip, I did some searching. And Bullocks came up with high rating in several travel apps. The final item that said, go to Bullocks was one of the students in a class I am teaching said I should go there. So I decided to give it a try.

I drive over to Bullocks to have a late meal (7PM). When I get out of the car I am not greeted with that nice smell of hardwood smoke; and when I step inside, it smells like a fish camp and not a BBQ restaurant! That’s OK I thought as I was lead to my booth; I’ve had good BBQ in a fish camp before.

The waitress gives me my menu and takes my drink order. I left searching the menu to find BBQ; it was very difficult to find. I thought it would be a featured item! Afterall, Bar-B-Q is in the NAME!!! Finally, there it is. Hmm, is this a BBQ joint or what? I had already concluded that it was not. Ok time to place the order:

Spicy Pulled Pork
Baked Beans
Potato Salad
Mac and Cheese
Banana Pudding

 

Bullocks Durham, NC Spicey Pulled Pork, Baked Beans, Mac and Cheese, potato Salad
Bullocks Durham, NC Spicey Pulled Pork, Baked Beans, Mac and Cheese, potato Salad

I’ll get the sides out of the way. Nothing spectacular about them. The Mac and Cheese was cheesy and it tasted like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with some extra cheese. The Potato Salad was kind of bland. The baked beans were pretty good.

 

The Spicy Pork

What can I say? It was bit dry, and there was no sauce to wet it down with. My waitress didn’t come back by very often so I just started eating. The flavor was OK, not horrible but nothing spectacular. I really cannot say anything more. It was uninspiring.

Verdict: If I ever come back I’ll try something other than BBQ

 

Bullocks Durham, NC Banana Pudding
Bullocks Durham, NC Banana Pudding

Banana Pudding

The banana pudding was ok, again nothing that made me go WOW.

Verdict: Because I like banana pudding I might get this again if I come here. Just depends on how I feel about the extra calories.

 

 

The Pit – Durham, NC

The Pit Durham, NC
http://www.thepit-durham.com
321 W Geer St
Durham, NC 27701

While in Durham I’ve been seeking new places I’ve not been too. After a lot of off-line evaluation, I decided to go to the Pit in Durham. I’ve been to the Pit in Raleigh, NC. But I didn’t connect the dots until I was inside. This isn’t a bad thing, The Pit in Raleigh was good, just expensive for a BBQ place.

Parking is not good in this area of Durham. The Pit does have complimentary valet parking, which I did not use. I parked instead, up the street by a park. This turned out to be a good thing and I need to make some extra steps to burn some calories!

Alrighty then, I got inside and seated. No wait but then this was a Monday evening. As I sat there looking at the menu I decided to have a beer. They had many North Carolina selections, I went with Pig Pounder Boar Brown Ale. Pig Pounder is a brewery in Greensboro, NC.

Pig Pounder Boar Brown Ale
Pig Pounder Boar Brown Ale

I did my normal thing of ordering multiple meats. I do this so that I can sample as much as possible. They were not able to give me a good mixture, without overloading me. I had to go with their normal three meats offering. You’re going to learn that I don’t normally get Turkey or chicken as one of the meats. My order was for the following:

Eastern North Carolina Chopped Pork
Lexington Outside Brown Chopped
Brisket
Potato Salad
Baked beans
Banana Pudding

 

The Pit Durham, NC Brisket, Eastern Pork Lexington Outside Brown
The Pit Durham, NC Brisket, Eastern Pork Lexington Outside Brown

Eastern NC Chopped Pork

For those of you from outside of North Carolina, this is one of the more traditional offerings for BBQ. Eastern style is chopped different ways. This wasn’t chopped as fine as many do. Kind of a cross between chopped and pulled. Nice hit of smoke, with an even nicer tang from the vinegar; I love vinegar. I was however, just a little disappointed with their Eastern NC vinegar sauce.

Verdict: If you like Eastern NC style chopped pork, get it. I’ll eat it again.

 

Lexington Outside Brown Chopped

I like some “bark”, so when I can get it, I order it. They also have Lexington-Style Pork Shoulder. This was very good, better than the Eastern NC Style. Their Lexington style sauce didn’t quite get it done for me. I don’t know if it’s the vinegar they use – I think it is – but it could have been better. I had a debate with my waiter about what was used in the sauce. He said it was white sugar. I told him that sometimes people put white sugar in Lexington sauce; but always brown sugar, he said no brown sugar. After checking in the kitchen, he apologized and said, yes they use brown sugar and not white sugar.

For those that don’t like a big tangy hit from vinegar, a Lexington style sauce is for you. It’ll be a little sweeter. The sauces are cut with ketchup and brown sugar and then it’ll vary. I spice my Lexington style sauce up a bit.

Verdict: This was the best of the two Chopped Pork offerings I had. I’d get it again.

 

Brisket

The Brisket came to me with a little more sauce on it than I would normally like; I want it to come with NO sauce, and then I can see and taste the brisket before sauce. I can then enhance the taste by adding as much sauce as I feel is needed. So, that put me off on the first bite or two of the brisket; and at that point I was sort of underwhelmed with the meat. But I finally hit a little fat and that changed everything. The brisket turned out to be the best meat that I had.

Verdict: Give it to me un-sauced, I’ll have to remember to ask for that next time I am here. If you like brisket, I suggest you give it a try.

 

The Pit Durham, NC Banana Pudding
The Pit Durham, NC Banana Pudding

Banana Pudding

Yes, they had banana pudding on the menu; and it had meringue to top it off! I was assured that there were nilla wafers in the pudding. The process is to put four of them on the bottom and then add the pudding and banana. I didn’t think, the consistency was that of a a hard gram cracker crust used for cheese cake. The flavor was somewhere in between. This must have happened in the baking process for the meringue.  Don’t get wrong, this desert was a winner.

Here is a look inside the pudding…

The Pit Durham, NC Banana Pudding Inside
The Pit Durham, NC Banana Pudding Inside

Verdict: Get the banana pudding. You just ate barbecue; banana pudding is a great finisher.

 

Overall a bit pricey. But this is one of the top Barbecue places in Durham.

Bobbee O’s BBQ – Charlotte, NC Review

Bobbee O’s BBQ
9401 Statesville Rd
Charlotte, NC 28269
http://www.bobbeeosbbq.com

June 24, 2017

This was my first time to eat at Bobbee O’s BBQ. I was inspired to go after seeing tweet listing top BBQ in Charlotte, and it was listed 3rd, meaning it must be that person’s third favorite. Since I’ve already been to the other two listed, I decided to add this one to my list. I should eat every location in my home town at least, once shouldn’t I?

So Becky and I head up to Bobbee O’s, which is about a 20-25 minute trip for us. This was a Saturday evening, arriving around 8PM I figured they’d be packed; they were not. There was only one person inside.

Once inside we see that you order at the checkout counter. We take a menu and look it over to decide what we will have. About this time, I notice they have some deserts in a display case. But missing is banana pudding. Now for me, this is a yellow flag. I have always said, I maintain; all proper barbecue joints offer banana pudding.

Becky decides that she’ll get pork – which happens to be chopped pork – and her sides are slaw and sweet potato fries. Great, I don’t have to order chopped pork, I’ll get some of hers! That’s the way I like it!

I order Brisket and ribs; this allows me to knock out 3 of the main meats I always like to try. Missing was sausage. My sides were baked beans, mac and cheese.

As we go over to get our drinks filled I hear blues playing; ok that helps with the atmosphere. But this lack of banana pudding is worrying me a bit.

We sit down, I see no sauces on the table? Finally, our food is brought to us, in Styrofoam to go boxes. This isn’t a problem for me as I’ve had similar service in many BBQ joints.

I open the box up, and I see my two sides in to go containers, two slices of bread and some sauce in containers. Peel back the foil to reveal my meats.

 

The Brisket

I’m disappointed to see that the brisket is somewhat chopped – not fine – and it is covered in sauce. The brisket was overcooked, perhaps the result of arriving at 8PM, but the place advertises open until 11PM. It wasn’t horrible, I’d say average. Putting some more sauce on it made it better, but now I’m liking sauce and not brisket.

Verdict: I’ll not order brisket next time I come here.

 

The Ribs

It’s ok that the ribs had sauce on them. I eat them wet and dry. And sometimes put sauce on dry rub ribs. But, they were also overcooked; and dry. The meat was too chewy.

Verdict: I’ll not order the ribs next time I come here

 

The Chopped Pork

OK, this turns out to be the best of the three meats. The flavor reminded us of the pork that Byrum General store in Shopton – in Steele Creek – used to serve before they shut down. We liked Bryum’s and we liked this. This probably makes a great BBQ Sandwich! Although I’m not a fan of putting sticky type sauce on pork, their sauce was decent with the pork. I

Verdict: I’ll order this next time I come here.

 

The Sauce

The sauce is a thin red sauce that looks like a thin jelly when you first look at it. It is sweet, and not really hot. They say a little sweet and a little hot. probably a little less hot.

 

The Sides

Sorry I didn’t take pictures of the sides.

The best of the sides was the Mac and Cheese, it was a little bit salty but had great flavor and loaded with cheese.

The baked bean just really didn’t stand out. They were good, but were like heavily buttered pork and beans without the pork. Dropping some of the brisket and chopped pork in the beans made them much better.

The Sweet Potato Fries were, about what you’d expect

The slaw, we have is a mixed verdict on it. Becky liked it; I thought it had a fish flavor to it. Which if you aren’t expecting it…

Bobbee O’s is place I’d go to if I were local to the area and didn’t want to drive far for BBQ.  Understand that I’ve eaten at many places that I’ll never go back to, under any circumstances.

 

 

 

Big Tiny’s BBQ – Mooresville, NC

I’ve been eating BBQ for all my life, and I mean lots of it. This is the first review I’ve posted on WeKnowBBQ.com.

Wednesday was a busy day for me with CarolinaVarsity.com stuff. In the morning I was at West Mecklenburg High School for a 4-team 7-on-7; and then in the afternoon I made a drive up to Mooresville, NC to meet with Head Football coach Marty Paxton and see some 7-on-7 action with Mooresville and East Lincoln.

As I was leaving it was mentioned to me that there is a new BBQ place in Mooresville that must try. People that know me, know I like BBQ. I checked back at home to see if it was OK if stopped in and got some BBQ. With the green light given I threw Big Tiny’s BBQ and followed the directions and a few minutes later I had arrived.

At this point I’m going to add that normally I was to get BBQ in Mooresville, it would be at Lancasters. I’ll get around to a review of that place later.

So this is supposed to be “Texas Style”, folks don’t get hung up on style please. BBQ is done a bit differently across this country. Try it all. We might have favorite styles, but I’ve learned there are a lot of good styles. But when it comes to Texas, I always think beef BBQ. The best brisket you can get is in Texas junk. The best brisket is in Madison, AL; and it’s “Texas Style” too… but that’s another review. When it comes to BBQ, the differences are typically the type meat that is use, the woods that are used for smoking and lastly a sauce that you might use.

Enough on that, let’s get to Big Tiny’sBBQ

I want to say that I’ve been working to lose weight and have lost ~25lbs since I first started, ~20 since I got serious. This makes it hard on me to continue my life style of eating BBQ all the time. But when I go to a new place that I might not get back to for some time, I like to sample stuff. But I DON’T need all the meat, and certainly don’t need what they offer as samples. Those two, three or multiple meat offerings are typically two, three or multiple full servings!

I will ask if they can do anything for me to cut the portions down. Sometimes they will, and sometimes they will not. Here they were willing to do it. It turned out that what I ordered was still too much and had to take some of it home and eat, and there was still too much with the leftovers!

So here is what I ordered:

1 – Spare Rib

Pulled Pork 4oz, I think they gave me more

Brisket I assume 4oz

Jalapeno Sausage again I assume 4oz

Regular Sausage ditto on the 4oz

Potato Salad

Banana Pudding – I was told it is the best ever, the kid didn’t know I’m also banana pudding guy, I make it, and I eat it everywhere I can find it. –

 

Potato Salad

Let me get one item out of the way, the Potato Salad. It was average run of the mill already prepared Potato Salad. Wouldn’t you know, my luck has me picking the only side that I was told they didn’t make in house. I was really hoping for some good baked beans loaded with pieces of meats – hint, hint -. Don’t get me wrong, if you like Potato Salad this is good. Just nothing special.

 

The Spare Rib

It was very good especially having it at 8PM. They close at 8:30, 8PM is end of the day, ribs have probably been sitting for a while warming and drying. It still retained some juices in it! Also, it was not over-cooked! Beware, you’ll hear me say often that you do NOT want “fall of the bone” ribs. You want ribs that you can easily pull off the bone with your teeth but still have a bit of firmness to them. Note, I did not say toughness!

I prefer baby back ribs however, spare ribs done right are good and, these were done right. I sampled both  of the thick sauces with the ribs; their original and the sweet and spicy. I preferred the sweet and spicy. A tip for you, don’t overwhelm your rib with sauce. drizzle some on to complement the meat. If you want to eat sauce then just buy some sauce and eat that.

Verdict: If you like rib, you’ll really like these.

 

The Pulled Pork

The meat was extra moist with what I assume to be what they used for injection. Maybe the Big Tiny BBQ people can tell me what it is. It sure had had the tang of vinegar. The Pulled Pork was awesome, this is a winner here. I recommend their North Carolina Red Sauce for this. I also suggest a name change of the North Carolina Red Sauce to, North Carolina Piedmont or North Carolina Lexington Style sauce. When I hear someone say North Carolina Red Sauce I expect that thick sticky stuff they use West of us in the North Carolina mountains.

I had so much pulled pork, I had to take some home. It was a good “leftover” and even better with MY North Carolina “Red Sauce”.

Verdict:  This is a must try! Very good pork for “Texas Style” lol.

 

The Brisket

I just realized that I stuck this in the middle of the review; it should have been first or last, please forgive me. Brisket, this always seems to be the hit or miss item in a barbecue house when you can find it. Those that do brisket right, you’ve got a great tasty piece of meat. Done wrong, you might as well have made Sunday beef stew with it.

I liked every point that you would judge brisket. The meat was tender, it was still moist at 8PM, It had a good hit of smoke, there was still fat there and lastly, we had that nice burnt outer, giving us the awesomeness similar to what is known as a burnt end. I tried both the Original Sauce and the Sweet and Spicy; the Sweet and Spicy wins for me.

Like the pork, there was too much meat considering all the other food. So some of it went home. At home I did not have a thick sauce, so I tried it with my North Carolina “Red Sauce” WOW is what I say. I didn’t expect brisket to taste that good with it. So, you might try a little of their North Carolina “Red Sauce” on the brisket; just a little, this might not be for you.

Verdict: If you’re looking for Brisket not only is this the best you’ll find in Mooresville, it is some of the best you’ll find anywhere. This is one of the ten best I’ve had, maybe top five five best. BTW, I’ve eaten a lot of brisket a lot of places including Texas.

 

Jalapeno Sausage

You need to know, I love sausages. And it is very difficult to find in BBQ joints, especially in North Carolina. I order both of their sausages, the jalapeno sausage had more flavor making it the winner of the two. However, it was a bit on the dry side. But still worthwhile, just not the winner I think it could have been based on the other meats. Perhaps this was impacted by the time of day. Or maybe this is what I should have expected?

Note, it wasn’t very spicy. So don’t be alarmed by the Jalapeno part…

Verdict: if you like sausage, yes try it. While it didn’t get hit out of the park like the ribs, pulled pork and brisket did; it’s still nice.

 

The Texas sausage

This was nice and moist, however, on the flavor side it was a bit flat. Based on how well they did the other meats, I think they can do better here. But I don’t know if they make the sausage or buy it and just smoke it.

Verdict: Since it’s hard to find sausage, if you don’t want the “heat” of the jalapeno, give this a shot. It was however the least of my favorites of the five meats.

 

The Banana Pudding

I’m sorry but if people think I’m a BBQ snob, I’m worse when it comes to banana pudding; I make banana pudding; I love banana pudding.  Also, you aren’t a proper Barbecue place unless you have banana pudding. It’s the first thing I look for on the menu to help me gauge if this is going to be a good experience.

OK first it isn’t “homemade pudding”. Is that bad? No, it isn’t a bad thing. Most places that you get banana pudding it isn’t all made from scratch. I don’t know their process to what they’ve made, but they are winners here. It’s thicker, most likely from adding some heavy cream or heavy whipping cream.

It’s not the best banana pudding I’ve had in a restaurant. But it is one of the better that I’ve had. It might rank top-10 out of hundreds of different puddings.

Verdict: Buy this.

 

It’s great to know that there is another option in Mooresville for good BBQ, and in many ways a better option.