Customer Reviews

Bob Garner's Guide to North Carolina Barbeque

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I just moved to North Carolina a few years ago, so this guide to NC BBQ has been indispensible. Garner has spent many years sampling and reviewing NC BBQ, and he really seems to know what he's talking about in his reviews. He's picked the 100 best BBQ joints in NC and gives a wealth of info about each, including address, phone number, hours, menu items, etc. Of course, he spends the most time talking about the BBQ.

The intro contains a concise history of NC BBQ, including a pretty thorough discourse on the differences between Eastern Carolina BBQ and Piedmont BBQ. I'm a newcomer to NC BBQ, which usually consists of smoked pork with a vinegar-based sauce, so this background info is helpful. Most of the places he reviews are well-known locally and are pretty casual, preferring to put their emphasis on the BBQ instead of the atmosphere. A terrific guide and an enjoyable read. Highly recommended for NC residents and fans of BBQ.

Bob Garner's Guide to North Carolina Barbecue is a regional restaurant guide to what are arguably the best barbecue joints North Carolina has to offer. Each individual restaurant is presented with its address, its hours for serving barbecue, and a brief yet mouth-wateringly descriptive of its barbecue styles, special touches, and occasional, its limitations. Bob Garner's Guide to North Carolina Barbecue is recommended as a "must-have" for barbecue epicureans who either live in North Carolina or are simply passing through -- even if only briefly.

Mr Bob Garner's guide to North Carolina Barbecue is spot on . If you are looking to cruise N.C counties take this book with you, it will help you alot to sift out the unsavory bunch,and trust me they are out there......

I went to high school in Virginia with Bob Garner, so I was naturally intrigued when I discovered his book on the shelves of a gourmet friend in Salem, Oregon. Bob has apparently become a major force in North Carolina media and a barbecue connoisseur. His folksy little book is full of specific recommendations about the best places to get barbecue in North Carolina, as well as recounting the history of barbecue and delineating the different types of sauces. We are barbecue-starved Yankees now, and we often travel through the state on our way south. We have gone out of our way many times to eat at a spot Bob recommends, and he has never steered us wrong. The little pine-paneled hole-in-the-wall places he frequents are long on homey atmosphere and short on luxuries, but the 'cue is always delicious and the sides remind us of our southern childhoods. A bonus is that we often still find a great meal including iced tea for under $10. If you travel through North Carolina, this little book is indispensable.

While this is a folksy kind of travel guide to barbeque, Bob
Garner is not the person that should be making the commentary
on some of these eating establishments. It's obvious he has a
bias for wood cooked barbeque and has rated some of the places
he visited based on that bias. Note that there is barbeque in
North Carolina cooked over charcoal briquets or LP gas as good
as anything ever cooked over hickory wood and I would have no
trouble finding experienced barbeque eaters to agree. There are
eateries listed where the barbeque is outstanding that managed
only a marginal rating from Garner so his ratings must be taken
with a grain of salt, in my opinion. Establishments that are
selling thousands of pounds of barbeque a week are NOT producing
mediocre barbeque but this book might lead you to believe that
is the case. My advise is that if you have a hunger for eating
barbeque,forget this book, stop at a respectable looking 'que eatery and give it a try. You don't need to be guided there on the questionable taste buds of Bob Garner.