^^^^The Lexington, NC, Barbecue Six~Pack: Jimmy's Barbecue, John Wayne's Barbecue, Lexington Barbecue, Southern Barbecue, Speedy's Barbecue, Stamey's Barbecue^^^^ ©2000

Please click on the respectice Yahoo! Map link button to see a location map of each restaurant:

Jimmy's Barbecue 1703 Cotton Grove Road Lexington, NC 27292 336-357-2311	John Wayne's Barbecue 601 W. 5th Street Lexington, NC 27292 336-249-1658	Lexington Barbecue Business Loop I-85 Lexington, NC 27292 336-249-9814
Southern Barbecue 917 Winston Road Lexington, NC 27292 336-248-4528	Speedy's Barbecue 1317 Winston Road Lexington, NC 27292 336-248-2410	Stamey's Barbecue 4524 S. NC 150 Highway Lexington, NC 27292 336-853-6426

Dear fellow Bar-B-Que fan,

No longer is there a Southern Bar-B-Que, For over two years it has been changed to Smiles Barbeque, amed after the early restaurant that was there, Dan Stamey's father nick name. You completely missed Back Country Barbeque owned by Doug Cook, it's probably another 4 pigger.
Thanks for your time,

Donnie McBride, Lexington, N.C., September, 2004



Mention "Lexington-Style" barbecue to any North Carolina native and almost all would know that you're talking about what I call "Western-NC-Style" here in my BBQ pages. I call it "Western-NC-Style" normally instead of "Lexington-Style" because this site gets more Web visitors from out of NC than from inside it, and it simply saves a bit of confusion. Make no mistake, though, while Western-NC-Style probably didn't originate actually in the City Of Lexington, some local pride to the contrary, The High Priest, I should say the High Monk Of Lexington-Style-BBQ, Wayne Monk himself who runs Lexington Barbecue, what I often call "Old Lexington Barbecue" or "Original Lexington Barbecue" to distinguish the actual restaurant from the style of barbecue, did help write the Canons Of Lexington-Style Barbecue Liturgical Recipes, did help popularize it, did help put some of his competitors in business by giving them jobs and teaching them the business, did help make the synonym "Lexington-Style BBQ" equate with very-high-quality "Western-NC-Style BBQ".

Why am I giving all six of these great Lexington-Style barbecue restaurants equal ratings of four well-earned pigs? Well, for one thing, there is such a passione intenso about barbecue in that part of the country that I don't want someone showing up at my doorstep one fine Sunday morning and kneecapping me with a double-barreled shotgun blast because I unintentionally dis'd their favorite barbecue joint. You may think I'm trying to be funny, you may thing I'm trying to be a bit humorously sarcastic, but let me assure, I'm not. Mainly, in all honesty, is that they're all so good, so similar in many ways (Lexington-Style is Lexington-Style, i.e. ketchup & vinegar-based sauce, medium-to-fine chopped meat texture,), so equally deserving of anyone's highest barbecue rating, that to try to single one or two out would be a cruel disservice to the rest. Let me use an analogy of my three favorite steak houses in the States; on any given night, with any given kitchen staff, who's to say that an eight ounce filet mignon would be any better or any worse say at Blackie's in DC, The Golden Ox in Kansas City, or the original Ruth's Chris in New Orleans? Same with these six epitomes of Lexington-Style barbecue; when you achieve a certain level of objective, quantifiable as well as routine subjective, perceptual near-perfection, do you have to start using less reliable "style points" to separate them? I think not.

There are subtle and nit-picky differences between them, for certain, though. Speedy's tends to have the best reputation outside of Lexington, though their sauce is a a hair tad too sweet and a tiny bit too heavy for my personal tastes. Lexington's not as sweet, has a tad more hot pepper than Speedy's, and their hushpuppies are better than most. Stamey's has a very loyal local following as well as excellent reputation outside the area, yet, if you press a local real hard about where they themselves prefer to go eat, after trying to steer you to Speedy's or Lexington or John Wayne's, sometimes they'll sheepishly admit, like they're trying to keep a state secret or something, that a lot of times they'll go to Jimmy's. Squeeze them a little harder about who they'd hire to cater a corporate function, though, and they'll probably squeak that John Wayne's catered barbecue and fixings is better to them than most. My personal favorite is Southern Barbeque, which was a happy accidental find one Saturday when Speedy's was too busy and we didn't want to wait half an hour to eat inside and didn't want to eat take-out in the car, and we just happened to remember seeing Southern just a block or two before Speedy's (as you come from downtown). Southern Barbecue serves a sauce which is delicious but not as hot or sweet or "biting" as a lot you'll find, the meat itself is as near-perfectly-good as Speedy's or Lexington or anyone else's, and the tea is the best in town.

If you were from Mars or Alpha Centaura and passing through Lexington and know that you wouldn't be back in fifty years and really nagged me to death to pick the one among the six to show you what perfect Lexington-Style barbecue really is, all I could say is the one I'd pick would be the first one I came across that wasn't full-house packed at that moment, they truly all are that consistently equally great.

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