My friend Joe York, filmmaker extraordinaire, has put together a fantastic film on one of North Carolina’s barbecue gems, the Skylight Inn in Ayden. The Skylight is a special place, a purist’s nirvana, where the crunchy skin is cut into the meat, and there are only three foods on the menu — barbecue, slaw, and cornbread. Yeah, they have soda and Moon Pies, but those aren’t made there. And the barbecue at the Skylight is seasoned very lightly, allowing you to savor the full flavor of the Q.
You have a chance to be on television if you head down to The Pit on Wednesday, as the Travel Channel’s Man v. Food show will be filming there. The crew is supposed to arrive around 3:00 PM, hanging out with Ed Mitchell and his staff, and then they’ll try to get a feel for the place as Mitchell hangs out with customers around 6. In honor of this special filming, The Pit is offering two specials:
a double combo with Carolina Ribs and Chopped Hog with two sides for $14.99 (normally $19.59)
all you can eat Chopped Hog and two sides also for $14.99 (not normally offered)
Host Adam Richman and his crew will also be at Mama Dip’s and the Roast Grill — where Richman will be eating 15 “hot weiners” along with 15 buns, a half pint of mustard, one pint of chili sauce and three drinks (small bottles of Coke, I presume). The show is scheduled to air at 10 PM on March 18.
My friend Kathi Purvis sent me a link to this wonderful, and quite accurate, song about barbecue. Yeah, it was part of an Alka-Seltzer ad campaign from last summer, but it’s still cool. I think I’ll have Rhett and Link, the front men for this song, come to the next pig pickin’ I do, as they are from North Carolina.
Here I was, surrounded by icons of North Carolina barbecue: Wilber Shirley of Wilber’s Barbecue in Goldsboro. Chip and Charles Stamey of Stamey’s Barbecue in Greensboro. Samuel Jones of the Skylight Inn in Ayden. And Ed Mitchell of Raleigh’s The Pit. We were assembled there to celebrate the release of the fantastic book on North Carolina barbecue, Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue, written by John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, and William McKinney. Mr. Mitchell was getting ready to pull a pig off his cooker in the kitchen, and folks were just having a grand time. I truly felt that I was not worthy to be around so many barbecue dignitaries, but they weren’t the ones drawing my attention. No, Andy Price was the person I really wanted to get to know, and that’s because this young accountant is about to open a small, Eastern-style barbecue restaurant in Lumberton. Read the rest of this entry »
Raleigh’s Ed Mitchell went head to head with South Carolina pitmaster James Hagood on NBC’s Today show this morning, in a battle between NC and SC barbecue. Of course, Ed’s barbecue was the unanimous winner among the three judges.
I received in the mail a notice from UNC Press about a book that will be coming out in November, a book on North Carolina barbecue with the title, “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue.” Yeah, I know — “Just what we need, another barbecue book.” That’s what I thought, too., until I saw who wrote this sucker: John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, and William McKinney. I know each of these individuals, but Will McKinney is a friend who may be more knowledgeable about NC barbecue than anyone I know. How knowledgeable? Well, how many people have spent HUNDREDS of hours gathering oral interviews from owners and pitmasters of NC barbecue establishments? How many people can say they founded the North Carolina BBQ Society — when they were a student??? McKinney has a passion for barbecue that few can match, so I’m quite sure his contributions were invaluable to this book.
John Shelton Reed is not a historian or a food writer by trade; he’s a sociologist, and that makes this book even more exciting in my mind. It’s the human dynamic of barbecue that fascinates me, and I really can’t wait to dive into this book. Professor Reed and his wife are two of the leading authorities on Southern culture (if you haven’t read their book, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South, you need to), so I’m pretty darned sure that this book on barbecue won’t disappoint you.
My friend Jason Perlow, one of the co-founders of eGullet and creator of one of the busier food blogs in the country, Off the Broiler, will be in the Triangle over the next four months. Now Jason’s primary purpose for being here is to handle a large computer consulting matter (Jason is one of the nation’s leading authorities on Linux-based systems), but he’s determined to report on a lot of restaurants in the area. When his gig is over, I suspect Off the Broiler will have more detailed content on Triangle restaurants than any other site.
He’s certainly hit the ground running with his fabulous podcast of Ed Mitchell and his Raleigh-based barbecue restaurant, The Pit. If you have some time, listen to the podcast and look at the photos, and you’ll get a sense of what Jason is recording. Jason’s a really good interviewer — this is great stuff.
Andrea Weigl has a great in-depth story on The Pit’s Ed Mitchell in today’s News & Observer. Weigl pulls no punches, digging into Mitchell’s background, his lawsuit with the bank that foreclosed on his Wilson barbecue restaurant, and his ultimate conviction for tax evasion. Ed Mitchell, like all of us, is a flawed human being. He has made a number of mistakes and lost control of the industry built around his “Pitmaster” persona. But give him credit: he landed on his feet, found a solid business partner in Greg Hatem, and has put together an incredible barbecue restaurant. In some ways, Mitchell’s failings make him a much more intriguing character, and when you get right down to it, a little notoriety probably ain’t too bad for business. Frankly, I like Ed Mitchell — he’s got a personality that will win you over the moment you talk to him. You may feel like you’re talking to a snake oil salesman, but Mitchell ultimately convinces you that not only should you buy that snake oil, but it really does the body good. He’s a salesman. He’s a personality. He’s a barbecue icon. While you’re at it, check out the multimedia presentation on Mitchell on the N&O’s website. Read the rest of this entry »
The Pit has now been open for nearly two months, and I finally made it there for lunch. Yes, that’s right, for lunch — they started offering the mid-day meal in the last couple of weeks. But others — many others — have beaten me to the punch. Greg Cox of the N&O has already visited and will be reviewing it shortly. Bob Garner’s crew is editing his review for his television report. And I, after writing about it extensively (including my first ever post on VarmintBites), finally got down to Davie Street to see how good it was. Damn good is the answer.
For some reason, I was a bit skeptical of The Pit. Most of the early reviews were favorable, with a few high praises and one or two “no, thank yous” mixed in. I knew Ed Mitchell could cook a pig as well or better than anyone else, but I also remembered that his Wilson restaurant was plagued with quality control problems. Blame it on inattentiveness, bad management, or just lack of consistent turnover, but I had some pretty lousy barbecue at Mitchell’s. That’s why I was hoping, but not overly optimistically, that this partnership with Greg Hatem and Empire Eats would result in a quality eating establishment. Read the rest of this entry »
Ed Mitchell and Greg Hatem’s new venture, The Pit, opens for dinner today at 5:00. I just received a copy of the menu, and it’s an interesting selection. This most definitely is high end barbecue, at $12 a plate (including 2 sides). I don’t mind paying 50% more than other places if the quality is good and they continue to use hogs raised in a sustainable fashion. I’ve heard several people compare this concept with Danny Meyer’s and Kenny Callaghan’s Blue Smoke in New York, which is amazingly successful, and the prices here are about 30% to 50% less than Blue Smoke’s. I can see The Pit becoming a place where business people and politicians hang out. I really, truly hope it succeeds. I’ll have a report after I give it a try.
I confirmed with Ed Mitchell and Greg Hatem that their new barbecue restaurant, The Pit, will open in Raleigh on November 26, the Monday after Thanksgiving. The new joint will be a high-end place in the old Nana’s Chophouse space and will initially serve only dinner, with lunch available in January.
I had a plate of Mitchell’s barbecue this past Saturday at the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium, and it was some of the best pork I’ve ever had. Plus, it was fun to see barbecue guru Bob Garner and Hatem working on Ed’s crew! I’ve always liked Mitchell’s barbecue, but I never raved over it. He often had quality control issues, with the barbecue being dry one day and overly sauced the next. Folks, Ed Mitchell has his act together, as the pork was tender, juicy, slightly smoky and just damn good. Every fan of slow-cooked pig should start marking their calendars for this exciting opening. The new website, which is not live yet, will be www.thepit-raleigh.com.
As I was driving my 13-year old son to his soccer game in Charlotte yesterday, we passed a truck filled with hogs. My boy examined the truck, looked at me, and said, “Mmmm, pork.” I then began to tell him where those pigs were headed, and more significantly, where they likely came from. I explained to him that the pigs led a life in which they didn’t run around, were confined to a 6 square foot space of concrete floor, where the pigs’ feces are pumped to huge lagoons, fouling the air for miles around. I told him that this process makes the pork that he eats reasonably affordable, but at the expense of any semblance of humane treatment. I thought that he needed to know these things. He didn’t really respond, but he gazed at me with a perplexed look, and then said, “That’s not right.”
I am a hypocrite. I don’t really want to know first-hand how bad our food-animals have it. I don’t need to see the stockyards where cattle are raised, the hog farms where thousands of pigs are cramped together, how female chickens are pumped with antibiotics and raised in one-third of the time they used to take to get to market-size. If I saw those things, I might stop eating the wondrous flesh these animals provide.
As I posted earlier today at eGullet, Ed Mitchell, the famed “Pitmaster” of eastern style North Carolina barbecue, has a deal in the works with local developer/restaurateur Greg Hatem to open a new barbecue joint in Raleigh. Gourmet’s “Diary of a Foodie” was filming a segment on Mitchell in his hometown of Wilson, NC on Monday. It will be interesting to see how things work out, as Mitchell is still involved in litigation regarding his previous restaurant.
Mitchell is certainly a great promoter and he can make some mighty fine barbecue, and I hope his partnering with Hatem will give him the business expertise that he always lacked. Mitchell is a flawed businessman and readily points the finger at others for his failings. And Hatem hasn’t always had a great relationship with chefs, as evidenced by the toxic break-up with Ashley Christensen. Regardless, Raleigh could FINALLY be a barbecue destination. I can’t wait for that.
Posted by Varmint 
You have a chance to be on television if you head down to 
, written by John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, and William McKinney. Mr. Mitchell was getting ready to pull a pig off his cooker in the kitchen, and folks were just having a grand time. I truly felt that I was not worthy to be around so many barbecue dignitaries, but they weren’t the ones drawing my attention. No, Andy Price was the person I really wanted to get to know, and that’s because this young accountant is about to open a small, Eastern-style barbecue restaurant in Lumberton. 
My friend 
The Pit
As I was driving my 13-year old son to his soccer game in Charlotte yesterday, we passed a truck filled with hogs. My boy examined the truck, looked at me, and said, “Mmmm, pork.” I then began to tell him where those pigs were headed, and more significantly, where they likely came from. I explained to him that the pigs led a life in which they didn’t run around, were confined to a 6 square foot space of concrete floor, where the pigs’ feces are pumped to huge lagoons, fouling the air for miles around. I told him that this process makes the pork that he eats reasonably affordable, but at the expense of any semblance of humane treatment. I thought that he needed to know these things. He didn’t really respond, but he gazed at me with a perplexed look, and then said, “That’s not right.”
