Barbecue Meet Up at Lexington #1 Including a Visit to the Smoke House

Today, I got together with a couple of North Carolina Barbecue buddies (John and Wayne) as well as the Masterbuilt BBQ Smoker winner, Fred from Canada, at Lexington # 1 Barbecue in Lexington, NC.

Yesterday, I had a chance to meet Fred and hand off the smoker that he won here on my blog when Masterbuilt sponsored a nice contest for readers in the fall. We worked it out for him to swing by here on the way to see his parents in Florida.

Here's the barbecue crew in Lexington #1 where the man at the next booth was kind enough to snap a photo for us. I'm easy to pick out, since I'm the only female. Fred is to the left with Eli (my son) sitting beside him. Wayne is close the front with me standing behind him. Then John and his son Johnathan are at the table across, because they would not fit in the booster chairs, and a big church group took up all the large tables.

We all had, of course, chopped barbecue. And, it's Lexington style served on buns with slaw and vinegar based barbecue sauce. Though it could be argued as to has the best barbecue in Lexington, the lines at Lexington #1 would certainly give a clue that they do know how to rock Carolina BBQ.

Today was no exception. The barbecue was yummy as usual. But, I think the really stand out thing at Lexington # 1 is the sauce. That's the mop sauce, and you have to order extra for the table. There's a hotter version they have bottled on the table as well, but that fresh steaming mop sauce from the kitchen is . . . yum . . . all that.

The guys even had room for cobbler with ice cream. I never can eat dessert after a barbecue meal. I should have been born taller I think.

We asked about seeing the pit, and the nice lady at the cash register sent us around back to find Rick and Rick. Yes. That does sound like a radio DJ team, but they are the pitmasters.

We followed one Rick around back. The fire feeds from both sides. And, we found out that he's been the pitmaster at Lexington # 1 for 23 years, and that was his mother at the front register who sent us out back to find the Ricks.

Rick gave us a peek at the barbecue shoulders. Pretty amazing. We'd just eaten, but that meat smelled so good, we were all tempted to eat again.

Here we are with pitmasters Rick and Rick. Yes. This does look like a police line up huh? Everyone can decide who looks like the guilty party (-:

On the way out, I snapped a shot of the smoke stacks. Yes. That's smoke. The sky was a solid beautiful blue. The air was filled with the scent of wood burning and shoulders slowly smoking. Hard to beat that!