The Scene

Lexington, North Carolina calls itself the Barbecue Capital of the World, and the numbers back the boast — a town of roughly 20,000 with more than a dozen wood-fired pits and a one-day October festival that draws crowds by the hundred thousand. The style born here, 'Lexington' or 'Piedmont' barbecue, is built on pork shoulder rather than whole hog: cooked low and slow over hardwood coals, chopped or sliced, and dressed with a thin, tangy tomato-and-vinegar 'dip.' The same dip flavors the region's signature red slaw, made without a drop of mayonnaise. The tradition runs from courthouse-square tent cooks in the early 1900s through pitmaster Warner Stamey to Wayne Monk's James Beard-honored Lexington Barbecue, and the best pits here still cook the old way, over real wood.

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