After years of research, we found the best restaurants serving up traditional barbecue in North Carolina. Join us in our state-wide pursuit of the top classic pitmasters and the mouth-watering barbecue that is the result of their tireless work! These are our Top 5 Traditional North Carolina BBQ Joints.

CONTENTS
00:00 Teaser
00:39 Overview
02:26 #5 Stamey's
05:35 #4 Old Hampton
08:13 #3 Clyde Cooper's
10:52 #2 Red Bridges
13:13 Honorable Mention
14:22 #1 Skylight Inn

There are four barbeque regions that reign supreme in the United States: Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, and most importantly, North Carolina. It is the Carolina hog-based pit smoking that is considered to be the starting point for American barbecue.

In order to capture some of that history, we looked for the top traditional North Carolina barbecue joints the state has to offer. Here pigs are cooked at extremely low temperatures for long hours over wood coals, allowing the smoky flavor to be reached without drying out. These traditional joints have been around for a long time - and tend to have a single location, are closed on Sunday, don’t serve alcohol, and utilize plastic utensils and paper plates.

But even within these restaurants, the state’s pitmasters have their own divide. Eastern-style BBQ uses the whole hog (everything but the squeal - as they say) with a minimal vinegar-based and peppery mop sauce accompanied by mayo-based slaw. Lexington-style (sometimes called Piedmont or Western) uses only the leaner, richer pork shoulder and a tomato-based vinegar dip that varies from sweet to spicy - and is also used to create a red barbeque slaw. Preference is hotly contested, but both sides agree that cole slaw, hush puppies, sweet tea, and banana pudding are preferred fixings. This is the barbecue that mouth-watering dreams are made of.

5. Stamey’s Barbecue, Greensboro, North Carolina
Stamey’s serves up “Lexington-style” barbecue cooked over hardwood hickory coals with a secret dip. Founder Warner Stamey learned the pitmaster trade in Lexington where he eventually opened his first restaurant in 1938 under his name. In 1953 a Greensboro location was opened where he soon handed over the business to his son. Here the pitmasters come in before dawn to start the cooking process that takes eight to ten hours. Once the pork is done, it is chopped or sliced to order, ensuring maximum freshness.

4. Old Hampton Barbeque, Linville, North Carolina
This Historic 1920 General Store was the original train stop for Tweetsie Railroad - a now famed amusement park between Boone and Blowing Rock. This authentic country store now features a revitalized BBQ restaurant with hand pulled hickory smoked pork barbeque. Inside the original smokehouse, the pit boss chops Boston butts that have been smoked for 11 hours. This place is also a local music venue, seasonally featuring strummers and pickers on small indoor or larger outdoor stages.

3. Clyde Cooper’s Barbecue, Raleigh, North Carolina
With $50 in his pocket, Clyde Cooper started his Raleigh restaurant back in 1938, providing no-frills casual dining to the downtown area. The flagship pulled BBQ pork used their own signature vinegar-based sauce. But Clyde did not adapt the eastern-style whole-hog method because he thought it included too much “junk.” The leaner pork shoulder was his choice. For 50 years he kept the restaurant running based on simple principles until he sold it to a long-time friend and customer. It wasn’t until eight years ago that Clyde Cooper’s was forced to leave their original downtown location, moving just around the corner.

2. Red Bridges Barbecue, Shelby, North Carolina
In 1946, Red and Lyttle Bridges opened the first Lexington-Style BBQ joint in Cleveland County, slow cooking pork shoulders over hickory all night long. After a move and a rename, Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge opened in its current location on Highway 74. After 20 years of operation, Red passed away and his wife, known as Mama B, continued to perfect recipes and place the lodge on the proverbial barbecue map. She worked night and day until she was 80 years old - and is considered to be the very first woman barbecue entrepreneur in North Carolina.

Honorable Mention, B’s Barbecue, Greenville, North Carolina

Honorable Mention, Lexington Barbecue, Lexington, North Carolina

1. Skylight Inn Barbecue, Ayden, North Carolina
Known to the locals as Pete Jones’ BBQ, Skylight Inn has been cooking eastern-style whole hog over wood since 1947. Satisfied customers had been finding crispy skin in their barbecue for years when National Geographic’s book, Back Roads America, brought huge notoriety in 1979 by touting Skylight Inn as one of the best barbecue in the country. Just a few years later President Reagan would delight in Mr. Jones’ pork, following up with a letter of appreciation. The success continued and in 2003 Skylight Inn was awarded the prestigious James Beard “America’s Classics” Award.