Recognized Across the Country
We Never Chased a List
We Just Cooked
We are a family smokehouse in the mountains of Western North Carolina, cooking the way our family has always cooked it, low and slow over real hickory, every single day. Here is where that has landed us.
National Recognition
2023
Ranked No. 1, Top Brisket Spots in the U.S. and Canada
Yelp put us first for brisket across two countries. Not first in North Carolina, not first in the South. First, measured against Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas City.
Yelp, 2023
2023
Top 25 Hidden Gem Restaurants in the U.S.
TripAdvisor named us to its Best of the Best list of hidden gems nationwide. Only two restaurants in North Carolina made it.
TripAdvisor Best of the Best, 2023, Waynesville
2024
Ranked No. 11, Top 100 U.S. Restaurants
Eleventh in the country, out of roughly 750,000 restaurants. Our Dillsboro smokehouse carried that one.
Yelp, 2024, Dillsboro
2024
Top 10, Top 100 BBQ Spots in the U.S.
Top ten in the country and the highest ranked barbecue restaurant in North Carolina. Yelp's writers pointed to the range of regional styles we run under one roof.
Yelp, 2024, Waynesville
Why the Food Holds Up
Awards are somebody else's opinion. These are the things we actually do, every day, that produced them.
Every piece is probe cooked
All of our meats are probe cooked. They are not cooked by time, they are cooked by temperature. A smoker has hot spots and cool spots, so every single piece is probed on its own and pulled when it is right, not when a timer says so.
Real hickory, every day
Slow-smoked on site, fresh every day, the old-fashioned way. Nothing precooked and rewarmed. Nothing brought in already smoked from somewhere else.
The best of every region
Western North Carolina sits at the crossroads of every great barbecue region in the country. Texas brisket, Carolina and deep southern pork, St. Louis and Memphis dry rubbed ribs, and eight house sauces that run from Eastern Carolina vinegar to Kansas City sweet.
No sauce needed
If meat is cooked right, it does not need sauce to hide anything. Everything comes to the table dry rubbed and unsauced. What goes on it is your call.
More on how we cook, and how the family got here, on our story page and in our frequently asked questions.
