Bubba's BBQ - Charlotte, NC

I'll stick with Charlotte for a minute since I ventured that way, and will move on to another bbq place I like to hit while I'm there, Bubba's.

This place is nothing to look at from the outside, it looks like a converted fast food restaurant and very well may be.  That's a good indication of the atmosphere inside too, which is one big room as bland as can be with the feel of a Kiwanis Club dining hall where you're more likely to be playing bingo than eating quality bbq.  Actually, I'd say the best part of the atmosphere is the smell, followed by a urinal that they've got about six feet up on the wall in the men's room.  Can't for the life of me remember why it's up there, but it is.

Anyway, B-7, that's where my knocking of this place ends because I love to go here for a good basic bbq dinner.  Unlike some of the other spots I like to hit where I focus on the meat, this one is about the whole meal, and the sauce.  O-62.  My go to here is a standard barbecue plate, which is pork, hush puppies, and sides, of which I recommend brunswick stew and cole slaw.

The pork here is of the chopped variety, though not so fine as to become mushy or mealy.  Also, given the lack of any visible bark I would guess this pig was smoked as a whole hog, which is traditional of eastern Carolina bbq.  The result is a mild smoke flavor and very, very tender meat, which requires the addition of some eastern Carolina vinegar sauce to truly make it shine.  The sauce here is is a vinegar incorporating what appears to be cayenne, which adds great flavor and punch to the meat.  Very good, simple, barbecue.  G-47.

The sides here are also really good.  Hushpuppies come to the table on the house with whatever you order, and they are perfect, brown and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  The sides here are either really good, or really ordinary.  I love the cole slaw, which has a pungent kick provided by a mustard base, and it pairs really well with the pork.  I-22.  The brunswick stew is also very good.

I've tried some other things here, and won't give up on more of the menu items, as I think they do really well on certain things, and really terrible on some others.  I tried the ribs on a recent trip, and wouldn't order them again.  Little flavor and not that tender, was a true disappointment.  That said, N-37, this place is a great stop for classic eastern bbq when you're in Charlotte, and gets my recommendation.

Bingo.

Summary:

Atmosphere:  bland, dining hall

Food:  classic eastern Carolina bbq

Dog Friendly:  nope

Crowd:  locals, groups

When to Go:  lunch or dinner

What to Order for the First Timer:  barbecue plate with cole slaw and brunswick stew

Bar-B-Q King - Charlotte, NC

Alright here's a spot that I never thought to stop at until someone told me that they had good bbq chicken, which I'm not normally and advocate of when other (read: better) meats are available, but this one was a bit different.  It looks pretty rough, a beat up old drive-in on the road in to downtown from the airport.

It's one of those places that you drive by and say, yeah, that place probably has some good food, but its probably not worth risking my life for.  Risk reward seemingly way out of balance on this one.  I'm happy to report I was wrong, but I still would not recommend going there at night.

So it looks like a drive-in, because it is.  No tables here, and no place to eat inside.  I went there for the first time with a guy I worked with, who was a little skeptical of it when we pulled in and into our spot.  They had a big menu to look at, but I had to try that chicken that I'd heard about.  And it didn't disappoint.  Our meal came to the car in styrofoam boxes and we immediately realized that this was a meal that we'd have to eat ON the car and not IN the car.   The picture below doesn't do justice to the sloppiness of this chicken, which is first deep fried and then dunked in a vat of hot, vinegary, western Carolina style bbq sauce before being brought out to you.  So we're not talking smoked bbq chicken here, we're talking inner city fried chicken dunked in a great sauce which makes your nose and eyes water.  So the western Carolina sauce differs from the sauces out east, and a different way from sauces down here in Texas, almost being a blend of the two.  While eastern Carolina sauces (which I love) are primarily vinegar and some kind of pepper...black, cayenne, red...and are generally clear and watery, the western Carolina sauces look a bit more like what most people think of as a bbq sauce, reddish brown due to the tomato base.  That said, these sauces go much heavier on the vinegar than the Texas sauces, which creates a really volatile and pungent sauce when it's heated up that hits every sense but the ears when you eat it.  So this chicken is absolutely incredible, and I urge anyone visiting Charlotte to make time to hit it.  While the other bbq and the sides there are good, there is absolutely no reason to talk about them here.  You get the chicken, and you won't remember anything else.

Summary:

Atmosphere:  beat up drive-in in a rough area

Food:  bbq

Dog Friendly:  only if your car is

Crowd:  mixed, carry out

When to Go:  lunch

What to Order for the First Timer:   BBQ Chicken