On my drive home from Wilmington, NC back to Virginia on Saturday Jan. 27, 2001, I decided to drive through Ayden, NC and visit Pete Jone's Skylight Inn Bar B Q Restaurant. I am sorry to report that I was sadly disappointed I must say. Not that the meat wasn't real wood-smoked cue, it was...but because in this case...that wasn't enough. Upon arrival, it looked very promising. There was a huge billboard beside the place with a picture of Pete Jones saying "If it's not cooked with wood, it's NOT BBQ!" and also the claim "Welcome to the Barbecue Capitol of the World!" and "Upholding a family tradition since 1830." I got out of the car and immediately caught a whiff of hickory smoke that instantly got me hungary! Then I noticed a huge line of all types of people lined up for BBQ in front of the modest building...all very good signs. I went inside and looked at the menu. Sandwiches $2 Tray $2.50 Med Tray $3 Lg Tray $4 That was it unless you were buying by the lb. to take home. There was a guy by the counter with a clever choppin' fresh pigmeat off the crackly skin of half a pig and then dousing it with pure Whitehouse apple cider vinager. On the tables were more bottles of pure Whitehouse apple cider vineger, Texas Pete hot sauce and bottle of hot peppers pickled in vineger. And that's all! Now I like vineger based sauce but this was a bit obsessive IMHO. The wood-smoked pigmeat was great, but a perfect example of the old saying, "Good Meat without Good Sauce does not make Good Barbecue!" IMHO, dousing the fresh smoked meat in raw vinegar gave it a rude twang and also caused the bottom of the bun to get all soggy and mushy. The "tray" consisted of a small paper tray of pigmeat with a slice of cornbread on top and a side tray of slaw. I watched other patrons pour more straight vineger on the meat and eat it out the tray with a fork. I went to take a bite and almost cracked a tooth on a piece of crispy skin that was mixed in with the meat. Upon closer inspection I noticed that there were tiny bits of hard crispy skin mixed all in the meat from the way the guy clevered it. The meat was tasty and so were the bits of skin as long as you chewed carefully. This would have been some great barbecue if it only had a decent sauce on it. I brought home a lb. of meat and put some King's BBQ Sauce ( Petersburg, VA ) on it ( which is also a vinegar-based sauce ) and put it on a kaiser roll and it was awesome to behold!!!! Apparently, the Jones family has done it this way since 1830 and don't need my advice. And I'm sure all the customers that were lined up for it would be happy to kick my Virginia butt for saying so, but I just think straight vinegar for sauce is a bit limiting and close-minded, like some weird Holy Roller cult that forbids dancing and banjos. I guess it's just a "traditional regional cuisine" thing and it was interesting for a change, but for the rest of the way home I kept wishing I'd gone thru Goldsboro and stopped at Wilber's instead! IMHO, you can smoke the best piece of pig in the world but it don't mean diddly if'n you ain't got a good sauce to put on it. The reverse is also true, you can have a great sauce, but it don't mean skwat if ya ain't got good smoked cue ta put it on. Just curious if any of the other cue hounds here have sampled Pete Jones Skylight Inn BBQ and what your thoughts were? BTW, Pete's cornbread was GREAT!!!! IMHO, better than his cue! The man makes some of the best cornbread I've ever eaten, and smoked pig on a slice od cornbread is an interesting way to serve it. ron@cafemojo
Barbecue