Blue Moon Barbeque & Billiards Raleigh, NC went out of business in the Year 2001, and will be sorely missed!

Blue Moon Barbeque & Billiards, Raleigh, NC, Beef Review


Blue Moon Barbeque & Billiards is an oasis of happy-smiles in-your-face uniqueness and different-drummer-beat eclecticism in the vast conformity mundaneness which often characterizes Raleigh, North Carolina. Possibly the only non-smoking/non-drinking/non-profanity (seriously, no kidding!) pool hall in the United States, those factors alone would be worth a mention in Rough Guide or similar travel guide, and when you combine all that and four brand-new perfectly level and lovingly maintained 4-1/2'x9' Brunswick Gold Crown pocket billiard tables set as a stage where the dining patrons can watch the players, you've got what has to be the ultimate public high-stakes match pool room in North Carolina if not the Southeast, though of course you know since no other obvious vices are permitted that open gambling is not tolerated, either, Smile.

But this is supposed to be a barbeque review, not a review of a unique island for vice-less billiard pleasures. As you come in, walking the twenty-eight steep steps up from the outside entrance next to Jersey Mike's Subs on Hillsborough Street across from the NC State University campus, you'll notice the hotbar portion of Blue Moon on the west wall. Lacking traditional sidedishes such as french fries, hushpuppies, etc., they reinforce their electicism by offering such side dishes as macaroni-and-cheese, potato salad, fresh-cooked green beans, Boston-style beans, and similar. And when you order your Texas-Style beef BBQ, Ayden Branch, partner with Bob Mosely at Blue Moon and a former Master Texas BBQ Chef who ran Texas-Style BBQ joints in Texas for 30-some years before moving to North Carolina, will unceremoniously throw a large hunk of well-cooked beef brisket onto the marble cutting top, and with the practiced but nonchalant skill of a Master Texas BBQ Chef that comes after thirty years, cleave a very generous portion of perfectly near-burned beefmuscle off the larger piece into a perfect medium-to-fine texture, then with the cleaver scoop and toss it onto a paper plate, then generously pour on his special Texas-Style sauce.

At this point, if you're like most people I've taken there, you're thoroughly non-impressed, probably thinking that Ayden's master effort will be okay, but nothing special. As tongue and roof of mouth hits that combination of beef and sauce, though, you'll stop, pause, then smile inside if not outside, usually mumbling something similar to "damn, that is good!" Having traveled a lot on business over the years, having experienced who knows how many variants of barbeque, having eaten Texas-Style beef BBQ in who knows how many little joints in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc., all I can say without excessive babbling is that the beef BBQ at Blue Moon Barbeque & Billiards in Raleigh NC is simply as good as it gets, and everyone I've ever taken there as my guest agrees with me.

That said, a fair warning about something . . . don't order the pork, the Eastern-NC-Style BBQ, it's just awful! I quit trying to eat it after the third time, I stick with Ayden's masterful beef BBQ, and leave the pork BBQ alone. Always undercooked where you can find pink in the meat, a horrendous no-no I told Ayden about and was responded to with a "I'll try harder" answer (all he needs to do is cook his pork the same way as his beef, sigh), the pork BBQ is served with a light vinegar-based sauce which is equally terrible. The sauce itself taste like it has virtually the same ingredients as Park Diner's (read my review of  Park Diner  ), but unlike the great four-pig-rated pork BBQ and sauce combination at Park Diner, Blue Moon's is so sour-mouth-puckering I can't help myself, and always spit it out.

Don't let the bad pork BBQ scare you off, please, though! Just simply don't order it! Do go to the Blue Moon for a most relaxing dining atmosphere, free of smoke, alcohol, and profanity, and most of all do go for the best Texas-Style-Beef-BBQ you'll ever have.

The best time to go is any weeknight, when the crowds aren't there. At lunchtime they do a proverbial land-office business, and you'll often have to wait half an hour or longer from 11AM-1PM for a table, and often will have to end up sharing a table with strangers (mostly from NC State) at lunchtime, which can be fun in and of itself. Because it's directly across the street from NC State campus, parking during the day is a nightmare, if you can find any parking at all. At night, past 6PM, you can park in the right-hand east-bound lane of Hillsborough Street right across from it or at least near it, and there are a few public spaces within sight on it on the north edge of campus which you can sometimes luck up on. A royal-blue awning with "Blue Moon" on it marks the outside entrance to the steps leading up to it right beside Jersey Mike's Subs. Their street address is 2502-1/2 Hillsborough Street, their phone number is 919-743-0090.


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