I arrived about11:30AM, there was smoke everywhere. Smoking was taking place out behind the restaurant; I was told the process started about 7:30AM. It sure did smell good.
I made my way inside and was I wat taken to a table. I looked the menu over and decided on my order; Ribs, Pulled Pork, Baked Bean, Sweet Potato Casserole and Banana Pudding.
The Ribs
Ribs had good hit of smoke, the sauce used on the ribs is outstanding – kind of like sweet baby rays – but the meat was a bit overcooked thus drier than I like my ribs. It’s a fine line, and a lot of BBQ houses do this. So, don’t be too alarmed. They were still tasty ribs.
The Pulled Pork
They put their sauce on the Pulled pork before serving – note that if like me, you would prefer to add sauce as needed -. In other words, give me Pull Pork without sauce and show me the sauce(s) available for me to try. The Pork had a good hit of smoke and flavor, but is was also a bit dry. The sauce is a thick paste sauce, which while it had a good flavor and great for the ribs, isn’t my style of sauce for pulled pork. But I try things the way the guy running show likes to serve them
Sweet potato casserole – was pretty good stuff. I liked it.
The baked beans – are good, but needed something in my opinion; I added some pulled pork to the beans and that made them better.
The banana pudding – was the best thing they had. Theirs is a thicker pudding, using possibly a heavy cream? It’s a bit sweet, but those that know me know I like banana pudding. I get a thick pudding like this by using heavy cream in the pudding. I’m not sure what they did here. It was a touch sweet, but that was OK.
Well I’ve heard of this place, even had a friend recommend it to me. But never got around to going to it; it was on my list of BBQ places to try. As I was driving back from the Raleigh-Durham area, I was getting hungry as I approached Salisbury. I pulled off to go to the location in Salisbury since they stayed open longer; but I couldn’t find a place to park so I went back to the interstate and decided it was probably best to try the original anyway. I could get there by 7:30, plenty of time to get my order in.
Holy cow, the line was out the door; but it only took me 12-minutes to place my order. Mainly because the woman in front of me… well I’ll say no more. I did hear that they didn’t have brisket; and since I was late and in a bit of a hurry I decided to just get the pulled pork. My order:
The Smoke Pit Concord, NC Hickory Smoked Pulled pork
The Side Baked Beans
These were great, even had some meat but I added some more! What more can I say?
Verdict: You like baked beans, you’ll really like these!
Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork
Yes, you can use other woods, but really in North Carolina? Sorry, I thought it was funny. You can use other woods. But in North Carolina most people use Hickory. I ordered Regular size because I’ve eaten so much BBQ this week. But the portion of meat was huge; maybe regular means only the one side. This pork had a little bit of bark chopped in, and I like that! The meat had the right hit of smoke and it was tender; I need to get here earlier in the day next time to taste it at it’s best. And their Lexington NC sauce, oh yes I like it. Very similar to mine; only mine has more kick.
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
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
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
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
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.
BBQ, Special Deserts, Burgers and other great Food
