Thanks to Chuck Satterfield for letting us know that Benson's Bar-B-Q & Chicken went out of business (confirmed) sometime before Janaury of 2008

Update . . . February, 2006

As of October 2005, David Harris who used to be Operations Manager for Smithfield's Chicken & Bar-B-Q , bought the Olde South Barbecue establishment and totally revamped the menu and brought the quality of the fine-porcine up several notches over what it had been under previous management and renamed it "Benson's Bar-B-Q & Chicken" .

Though I've not had a chance to personally visit since Mr. Harris took over, from what I hear from second and third-hand sources, he's dramatically improved the quality of his Eastern-NC-Style barbeque to where I am going to do something I've not done before and issue a conditional 3-pig rating to his new establishment.

I do this because David Harris's commitment to excellence in trying to bring the best barbecue possible to the dining public for the eleven years he spent as Operations Manager for Smithfield's Bar-B-Q demonstrates not just his passion for his life's work but the fact he took a small chain of eight restaurants and helped it grow into a larger one of thirty-eight in the span of those eleven years shows he knows how to make truly great 'cue, and for that reason along with anecdotal supporting tales told back to me about how truly superb his barbeque is - now means that Benson's Bar-B-Q will wear a 3-pig hat if and until I actually dine there a couple of times and confirm it or rate it higher or lower.

If you've eaten there since it's become Benson's BBQ in the fall of last year and want to state your opinion publicly, please click here to go to my NC BBQ Bulletin Board where you can say anything about it as you wish, either anonymously or with attribution, and Thanks!

Oh, BTW, if you're traveling up or down I-95 in North Carolina or on I-40 near where it intersects I-95, it might behoove you to stop and try them out . . . their phone number is: 919-207-5777, open 10AM-8PM Mon-Sat.

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Review of Olde South Bar-B-Q & Chicken
Benson, NC 27504
{At Exit #79 Off Of Interstate Highway 95}

by
H. Kent Craig Š2000

(Thanks to G. & J.B. for contributing to this review)

You know when I begin a barbecue restaurant review by describing the physical facilities of a given attempted shrine of the Holy Grub that more than likely they're not going to get a three or four pig rating on a scale of 1-4, and with Olde South's case, that's true.

Originally built several years ago by Smithfield Chicken & Bar-B-Q to trap, eerrrrrr, catch the tourists traveling up and down I-95, the ex-and-in-terior reeks of a budding chain of fast-foodish-barbecue joints just wanting to explode like Parker's tried a couple of decades back, that also died on the vine similar to what Parker's tried.

Think of something along the lines of a super-clean (and it was spotless, always a good sign) and super-efficient use of available dining room space (comfortable, padded benches along the walls, square and rectangular tables with nice chairs along the perimeter and in the middle of the dining area) and maximum use of the tiny counter and kitchen area Hardee's clone designed by Buckminster Fuller, and you will have Olde South Bar-B-Q & Chicken's raison d'architecture.

Don't get me wrong, this is not damnation by faint praise. To the contrary, having designed a few hundred restaurants during a time long past, it's an expression of sincere admiration to whoever did the plans. Clean, shiny, new, happy, efficient, easy-in, easy-out, but with no irritants like hard benches designed to make you want to leave. Rather, a friendly openness with Baby-Boomer-butt friendly furniture that beckons one to sit a while and enjoy Olde South's hospitality.

I wish the barbecue and sides were as contemporaneously as non-suspect as the art and architecture of the place, but that was unfortunately not the case.

The cooked pigmeat itself was true, traditional Eastern-NC whole-hog style, with textures ranging from large hand-pulled chunks to finechop. The meat was thoroughly done all the way through, not the slightest hint of pink at all, and had been obviously slow cooked overnight or longer. Most of the grease had been cooked out of the meat, always a good sign. It wasn't as greaseless as say, Clyde Cooper's BBQ, but it was much less greasy than many lower echelon barbecue peers. It's served without the slightest, slightest hint of sauce, i.e., you can't find a microdot of red pepper in the meat, even if you would look for same with a magnifying glass. This is good if you can't handle spicy foods.

With basically a positive spin on the meat, then why just a two-out-of-four-possible pig rating? Because, over multiple trips with multiple people trying it, the burned swineflesh was very, very inconsistent, the true hallmark of average and/or ordinary barbeque fare. While consistently cooked well, meaning no one saw any uncooked pink meat in what they were served, the meat itself in a typical serving ranged from way too dry to almost way-too moist, not consistent at all in its presentation. Uncooked chunks of close to raw fat were consistently there, as were pieces of meat that were truly burned so black and hard as to be inedible. Of course, it's almost part of the ritual at backyard pig-pickings to pick through the burned chunks and fat globules, but this is a professional barbecue restaurant selling to the public, not an amateur effort to offer hospitality to one's friends. Allowing for the inconsistency of dry-and-moistness of the meat, it's basically an okay offering, nothing horrible or grandiose. Just pick the parts of the serving (they only offer one size plate, which gives you between a half and three-quarters of a pound of swinemeat, something between a small and a large plate at most other places) you'd like to eat and enjoy them, they'll taste basically fine, not unpleasant at all.

Their hushpuppies are delicious! Made from a mix, they're fried in clean, perfectly-temperature'd grease, and are so good you can make a meal off of them. Considering the paucity of the size of the actual barbecued pigflesh serving on your plate that you can actually enjoy, one is almost forced too, anyway.

Their boiled potatoes are just that, plain boiled potatoes, not the red-style (cooked in a traditional, watery-thin tomato sauce) one often finds in some barbecue places. They're heavily black-peppered during cooking, but are lightly salted.

Their Brunswick Stew is definitely not traditional in recipe or presentation, but according to those others that have eaten it, is better than average. Having lots of whole tomato chunks as well as bits of collards (collards are also one of the other sidedishes you can order) in the mix meant (because of my severe food allergies to same) I couldn't try it, but everyone else liked it. You'll also find a nice assortment of pork and chicken bits as well as corn and string beans and whatever other sidedishes they decide to add to the pot of Brunswick Stew sitting atop their stove that day.

Their barbecued chicken is edible, average, and ordinary. If you don't like pork, then while you won't disappointed in their chicken, it won't impress you either, but it is, like all other items on the menu, worth what you pay for it. They also have some seafood entrees as well as an interesting and different one in the form of a catfish sandwich. Their iced tea is even average, something that's hard to do. Not as strong or thick as many what many other barbecue restaurants serve, I think they water it down a little for the non-locals coming in off I-95, it's still tea-tasting enough to wash the vittles served down with a comfortable ease, and they keep bottomless pitchers on each table for your convenience.

In closing, I'd say that Olde South Bar-B-Q & Chicken is fine both for those living in Benson who don't want to drive the fifteen or twenty miles up the country backroads to get to White Swan or Smithfield Chicken & Bar-B-Q, and for those non-natives who happen to be cruising down I-95 and want to try a truly representative sample of what most Eastern-NC-Style pork barbeque restaurants offer. As long as you enjoy eating pork generally, you'll enjoy eating at Olde South specifically. If you're a cratchety old deadpigflesh connoisseur like I am, you won't be impressed, but you won't go away thinking that Allen & Son sells them their excess capacity, either.

Oh, by the way, if you're on I-40 as it crosses I-95 at Benson, take I-95 South from I-40 to the first exit after getting on I-95, then go left over the bridge; Olde South Bar-B-Q & Chicken is between the Golden Corral and the small shopping center with the Food Lion next to it.

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