It was a bit of kismet that I got a text from my oldest son while I was writing my recent review of Southern Style Barbecue & Fried Chicken. He was heading to Graham with his girlfriend to visit her folks this weekend and he wanted to know if I'd ever eaten at Smokehouse at Steve's. Oh, boy! Have I! I sent him the link to my review from a few years back and his response was, and I quote: "Damn! In your top 10?!" He knows that for me to have any BBQ place butt its way into my

A photo assignment had me in Clinton and then down Wilmington way recently. It's a route I've taken a few times and each of those times I visited my BBQ Numero Uno Southern Smoke in Garland. Now Garland is not exactly on the way to anywhere unless you plan it to be, but I can easily justify an extra 30 minutes or so out of the way for my favorite barbecue sandwich and a visit with pitmaster extraordinaire Matt Register. I have dined there three times, most recently back in Ap

It was kind of a last-minute decision to make a detour to Brussels during our vacation to France. And boy-howdy! Am I glad we did! Cheers from high atop Brussels at The BeerLab! Belgian style beers have been my favorite, with a witbiers topping my list of "go-to" brews, as there's something super satisfying about an unfiltered, hazy wheat with a touch of bright fruit side flavors - especially of the orange or pineapple variety. That hint of clove is nice too. I tried many sev

I had already ordered my barbecue sandwich and stepped back from the counter when I side-eyed the "B" rating hanging on the wall. Ugh. It was a "high B" I assured myself, but after all the previous health department issues Doug Saul's BBQ & Seafood had in the past, it was a toss-up if it even mattered in the overall scheme of things. I mean, shouldn't an old-fashioned BBQ joint have a little bit of something off to make it legit? The last time I had eaten at Doug Saul's was

As a die-hard BBQ traditionalist, it's super tough for me to give a whole lotta love to barbecue joints that do not cook their pork over wood. That said, I have to admit that there are a handful of gas/electric cookers that deserve respect in offering up a solid sandwich and one of those is the historic Clyde Cooper's BBQ . After nearly 90 years in downtown Raleigh, Cooper's moved just around the corner from my house in North Raleigh (dangerous, I know), taking up residence i