Review of Richard's Bar-B-Q
Salisbury, NC


H. Kent Craig ©2000


We first discovered Richard's that first year when the North Carolina Transportation Museum opened up, some years ago. The State Of North Carolina had bought the old Spencer Shops, where Southern RR had maintained one its main train engine and railcar repair shops for decades previous, from the railroad a couple of years prior, and even though the roundhouse and most of the other buildings weren't opened to the public yet, we made a pilgrimage because I'm such a steam engine nut and my wife's married to me. There not being all that much to see that first trip ( since then, the roundhouse has been opened up, filled with restored steam and diesel locomotives as well as a variety of restored railcars, plus they have a working shop inside same, and many of the other buildings have been opened and filled with exhibits), we had a lot left of that Saturday to kill, so off-handedly we asked a museum employee where the best BBQ around was, and she told us that it was Richard's. That one stop by Richard's that day has lead us to look for creative excuses to keep wandering over on day trips to that part of the state.

In a sea of Western-NC-Style pork shoulder BBQ places, Richard's is an island of Eastern-NC-Style whole hog pork. Rough pulled-to-rough chopped in texture, with the barest hint of bare-vinegar sauce as moistening agent more than flavoring one, the full flavor of the meat comes through with every bite. The one concession they make to geographical reality is the onions in their hushpuppies, which is more of Western-NC sidedish style than Eastern, is more for local tastes than tourists from "Down East". Normally I don't speak of waitservice unless it's totally dreadful, since any BBQ restaurant that doesn't have quick and courteous service usually doesn't last long no matter how good the pigflesh, but the waitstaff at Richard's is unusually nice, quick, friendly, prompt, etc., and they deserve a nice mention here for being that way.

We make the trip to Spencer Shops and thus Richard's at least annually, and a couple of years ago we discovered another hidden gem nearby, an antique mall called "The Salisbury Emporium" just 4-5 miles from Spencer Shops and a 1-2 miles from Richard's, along the same Main St. corridor in Salisbury and Spencer (in Spencer, it's called "Salisbury Road", I believe), which we now visit every three months or so, and again, another good excuse to stop by Richard's. The Emporium is the converted freight station building in downtown Salisbury only a couple of blocks from Main Street, converted to an interior antique dealer kiosk mall like many towns now have, except that the selection and value of what's on display is unusual. We have a post-WWII mahogany dropleaf butler's table in our foyer and a 100+-YO antique mirror behind it that we bought from different dealers at The Emporium (dealers rent space, mark all merchandise clearly with no-haggle pricetags, and you pay for whatever at one central location up front) at prices so low as to be an embarrassment (for the dealers). I can tell you what we paid for those items was 80% under current market value each, respectively. So, we pleasantly make our quarterly trek to The Emporium looking for more steals, errrrrr, good deals, and sometimes make the day by visiting Spencer Shops too, or not, or hit other antique and junque shops in the area, and making a BBQ run to Richard's afterwards is always a highlight of the trip!

Richard's Bar-B-Que address is 522 N. Main Street, Salisbury, NC, 28114. To see their map location, please click on this Yahoo! Maps button:



Their phone number is 704-636-9561.

The addresses and phone numbers for Spencer Shops/NC Transportation Museum and The Emporium are, respectively:

N.C. Transportation Museum 411 S. Salisbury Ave. Spencer, NC 28159 704-636-2889 Click here to see the map location of it:

The Salisbury Emporium 230 E. Kerr St. Salisbury, NC 28114 704-642-0039 Click here to see the map location of it:

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