Chapel Hill restaurant Allen & Son Barbecue landed on a list of “Best BBQ in America.”

Barbecue from Allen & Son

Barbecue from Allen & Son. (Photo by Jeffrey Clayton)

Thrillist compiled a list of the 33 best barbecue joints in the country.  The website typically releases their top choices for various kinds of restaurants, annually.  But, they don’t do that for barbecue.  They do this because, “most of the best places on the list have been the best places for many, many years.”

Allen & Son landed on the list thanks to a personal dining experience by the post’s co-author Liz Childers.  She writes:

“Keith Allen is the stuff of barbecue legend, and his shadow extends far beyond his plates of chopped pork shoulder and his spicy, vinegary sauce, an exemplar of the North Carolina style. His legend (and legacy, really) starts with the giant hickory logs that fuel Allen & Son’s brick pits, and which Allen finds, splits into useable logs, burns down to coals, and then uses to carefully stoke the 12-hour smoking process.”

Not surprisingly, the state of North Carolina is well-represented on the list.  Allen & Son is one of four North Carolina barbecue joints to make the list.  The others are Lexington Barbecue in Lexington, Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby, and Skylight Inn BBQ in Ayden.

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