Bar-B-Q Center Makes a Name for Itself in Lexington
In the hallowed land of barbecue legend, a former ice cream parlor heats up the battle for bragging rights.
Original article published by: Our State Magazine
Snippet
“Lexington, North Carolina, is to barbecue what Paris, France, is to baguettes. When I was a kid, I imagined everyone in Paris walking around with a baguette or two under their arms, like Little League baseball bats in thin paper sacks. This turned out to be true, or sort of true, or at the very least kind of true: I went to Paris once, and I have to tell you, you will never see so many baguettes in one place in all your life. They call Paris the “City of Light” only because they crowd-tested the “City of Baguettes,” and it didn’t play as well.
But Lexington does in fact call itself the “Barbecue Capital of North Carolina,” and not for nothing. Because with a joint like the Bar-B-Q Center within city limits, you can get away with it. And with an annual barbecue festival that, last year, drew more than 200,000 people and had Darius Rucker play for free? Please. Still, it’s a gutsy self-appellation. Especially since the Tar Heel state is split in half by those who prefer one style of barbecue over another. Barbecue novitiates may recall that one style is called “eastern” and that the other is called “western,” or, more commonly, “Lexington-style.” As in the style of how they do it in Lexington, and how they do it — expertly, I might add — at the Bar-B-Q Center“
