Playboy.com Names Top 10 Barbecue Joints for 2009

Pork Shoulders Smoking in Durham, NC

I noticed a restaurant claiming to be in Playboy's top 10 for barbecue restaurants, so I had to go check that out. Sure enough. Playboy.com does have a list of barbecue joints across the nation.

Hum. I don't think I'd go to a barbecue restaurant looking for naked women (or anywhere else for that matter), and I don't know that I'd go with Playboy for my restaurant advice. Then again, they do have some excellent articles. I first discovered that when they ran the interview with President Jimmy Carter where he said that he had lusted in his heart. I guess I was in middle or high school, but I managed to get a look at that article, since it caused quite a stir at the time. That's kind of funny, I guess, given that it seemed more shocking at that time than the Clinton scandal did for this generation.

In any case, the list does span the map which probably annoys most anyone who is big on barbecue. Why? Barbecue varies greatly depending on the area of the country. Ribs in Kansas, beef in Texas, and pork in North Carolina are very different. It makes for a strange list as far as lists go. But, at least, they did define barbecue as being something other than cooked over gas or electric (meaning wood or perhaps charcoal I gather).

The only North Carolina barbecue joint to make the cut is Wilber's out of Goldsboro which makes me wonder if the writer tried out the barbecue joints or just picked one well known bbq place from the state. I'm not saying Wilber's isn't great. I'm just wondering how it was deemed the very best across the entire state. There's a tiny blurb about the number of sandwiches sold. Perhaps the list was based on volume of sales. Hard to tell.

I'd say, "Go out and try any of the restaurants listed if you're in the state where you see one." They appear to be the well known barbeque places that you can find listed online over and over. So, you're likely to get a good meal. If you're looking for the hole in the wall or mom & pop bbq places known mostly to locals, then you will not find those in Playboy. After all, you can tell those girls do not eat much barbecue or they would not be so thin.

Feel free to add your favorite barbecue joint in the comments.