Wayne Monk

Wayne Monk got his first restaurant job as a 16-year-old carhop at a Lexington barbecue joint and later spent several years working under Warner Stamey. In 1962, at 26, he bought a roadside lot on U.S. Highway 29/70 and opened what became Lexington Barbecue. Locals knew it as the "Honeymonk," a name that combined his own with that of his then-business partner. The James Beard Foundation named Lexington Barbecue one of its America's Classics in 2003. In 1983 Monk catered barbecue for President Reagan and the leaders of the world's seven leading industrial nations at the economic summit in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was inducted into the North Carolina Bar-B-Q Hall of Fame in March 2024. His son Rick and other family members work in the business.