North Carolina BBQ

Location: Little Richard’s BBQ

Sandwich: Pork BBQ, chunky

Lexington, North Carolina is a legend when it comes to barbecue in the South. Pig is king and the sauce is particular: tomato base, vinegary, thin, a little heat. It can be served on a plate, sandwich, or pulled right out of the pit (probably), but regardless of presentation, it has to be served with hushpuppies. Unfortunately for me, fate would have it that I did not make it to Lexington on my first trip to North Carolina. However, a spot just up the road in Clemmons called Little Richard’s BBQ promised the same fabled North Carolina BBQ experience.

As someone not from the South, I have this idea of great barbecue spots being mom and pop shacks with screen doors, hand written signage, a smoker, and cramped digs. I can’t pinpoint where this stereotype has come from, and I can admit that it’s probably way off base. Little Richard’s doesn’t quite fit this ideal. The restaurant is one of a couple Little Richard’s locations around the greater Winston-Salem area, including one advertised as a Bar-N-Que, which I assume has a cocktail menu.

The spot is clean with cohesive interior decorations, a selection of sauces at each table, and a roll of paper towels for good measure. The three sauces they offered were a yellow yellow Carolina mustard sauce, a thicker almost Kansas City style sauce, and a thin, vinegary Carolina BBQ sauce that is kept in a warmer and brought out with the food. The sauces are important here because the chunky pork sandwich I ordered arrived as a bit of a blank canvas. It had generous clumps of pork and a red, vinegary slaw which went well with the meat, but needed that extra sauce to be complete. The next time you find yourself near Clemmons, North Carolina and need a BBQ fix, Little Richard’s will hook it up with all the pig and hot, delicious sauce you can handle.