Friday, September 13, 2013

Trailer Trad North Carolina: An Eastern North Carolina BBQ Institution

Wilbers Barbecue in Goldsboro is one of a half dozen barbecue pillars in North Carolina, especially eastern north Carolina barbecue. Located about half way between Raleigh and my daughter's camp, we make a point to stop there on the way home. Wilber's doesn't go overboard with cooking methods, sauces, atmosphere, etc. It just makes a nice pulled pork sandwich that is really representative of the style. Make no mistake, it is not as good as Allen & Son in Chapel Hill (not really Chapel Hill-more like less chic Hillsborough) but, then again, none is. Allen & Son really should be its own unique category separate from Lexington Style (Lexington Barbecue and Barbecue Center in Lexington) west of the Triangle and Wilber's, Kings, etc. in the east. 
Wilber's is one of three pork-related tourist attractions in that area of the state. Another is the Nahunta Pork Center. Wilber's has a bright red bench out front that proudly proclaims "America's Largest Pork display."Walmart might disagree when they assert that. I only mean that Walmart has really, really large refrigerated cases filled with pork products. - Actually, I've never seen them but I assume that they do.
This is what barbecue is all about. Located behind the restaurant, the shockingly crude fire pit and smoke house combo looks like they were constructed by two drunk brick masons while camping one weekend in 1954. Awesome. This may be some of the crudest, yet most profitable fixed capital stock known to modern, Western man.

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