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“We ate at 12 Bones in Asheville last summer...”

Thanks for the heads up. We are planning to go to Charleston later this year, and thought we might stop at 12 Bones on our way home...guess we will find another for our barbeque stop.

So, FReepers, a serious question...who has absolutely the best barbeque in North Caroline?

You're going to get a lot of contradictory answers, NC has two major styles of barbecue, eastern and western. Far western into the mountains it's sort of a subset, sweeter and smokier, more like Tennessee. The transition zone between western and eastern, along about Burlington and Graham, you get a hybrid. Western has the spicy red barbecue slaw, eastern has creamy coleslaw. That transition zone, you'll know it from the pink slaw, looks strange but tastes pretty good.

What interstates are you traveling? Every town has a decent barbecue joint or two. Most are humble little out of the way places that have been there forever, nothing fancy at all. You'd have to be in a city of some size to encounter a really nice place focusing on barbecue.

Locally, I'm fond of BBQ Joe on Fairfax at South Main in High Point. They're agnostics or heretics, depending upon your allegiance, lol. They serve all kinds. The best in my opinion would be “The Joe,” a half pound of pulled, smoked pork on Texas Toast with eastern style pepper vinegar sauce and coleslaw.

The Pit is a big deal down in Raleigh and gets a fair amount of praise, it's a little more on the upscale side.

If you're passing through in the morning, try Country Barbecue, their huge cat's paw biscuits with pork tenderloin or country ham are a thing of beauty.

Just avoid the chains, and avoid having barbecue at a place that does not specialize in it. Asheville and environs would be the smokier, sweeter almost TN style, get down off Black Mountain and you're into Western style territory, a tomatoey sauce with spicy red slaw. That runs all the way to just east of Greensboro and Charlotte, then you start hitting hybrid eastern-western and pure Eastern style with pepper vinegar sauce.

You'll hit pockets with their own spin, German settled areas north and west of Charlotte have a different sauce but still pork. They also serve fried liver mush, it has cornmeal in it, never had the nerve to try it. Up north near the VA border you'll run into Short Sugar's which has a very rich dark brown sauce that is hard to describe but I'm fond of it, they also have several unique cuts of pork, coarse chopped, fine chopped, pulled, etc.

Just make sure the parking lot’s full, you'll be OK.

Had read reviews on Tripadvisor that made it sound good although there were a few warnings that I ignored. Had heard the Obama's eat there when they're in town which should have been a red flag.

Love the historic district of Charleston, Hanks is a good place to eat if you like seafood. If you're going to Asheville and have never seen the Biltmore Estate that is something worth seeing, there is a restaurant in the old horse stable right next to the mansion named The Stable Cafe that serves pretty good BBQ.