Barbecue's "Golden Secret"

Melvin's  barbecue sandwich topped with the "golden secret" sauce. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus) 

Bessinger, certainly the most famous surname in South Carolina barbecue. Mustard sauce, Piggy Park. Icons of South Carolina history and culture and Bessinger family inventions.

One of fourteen children born to Mack Bessinger, restaurant patriarch Joseph Jacob, was known as ‘Big Joe.’ He moved from the family farm near Orangeburg to open the Holly Hill Café in 1939. There, together with the Sweatman family, he concocted a mustard-based barbecue sauce, owning to their shared German roots. That “Golden Secret,” as the Bessingers call it, became the state’s signature sauce.

Melvin Bessinger, like most of his ten siblings, followed his father into the barbecue business. In 1961, with another brother, Melvin opened his first barbecue restaurant in west Charleston. Three decades later, Melvin split off to found his own barbecue joint. Today, third-generation barbecue entrepreneur, David Bessinger, maintains the Bessinger family tradition.

— Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Melvin’s Legendary Bar-B-Q
538 Folly Road
Charleston, SC 29412
(843) 762-0511

Thanksgiving Every Day of the Week

A sampling of the fare from the Brown's Bar-B-Q buffet in Kingstree, South Carolina. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Thomas M. Brown, Jr. is a farmer. He plants soy, wheat, hay, and oats to sell on the market. Additionally, he grows corn, squash, zucchini, and broccoli, okra, butter beans, collards, and cabbage for his restaurant’s massive buffet line. At Brown’s Bar-B-Q, these fresh vegetables are served in season alongside pilau rice and white rice, macaroni, yams, barbecue chicken and fried chicken, barbecue turkey and baked turkey, barbecue ribs, smoked ham, potato salad, coleslaw, and, yes, chopped barbecue.   

A motorcycle accident left a teenage Thomas Brown with a broken leg. Confined to bed and with a hot plate set up within reach, he learned to cook for himself. In 1981, he started serving takeout plates—rice and gravy, yams, barbecue—from a window on the family farm. A decade later, he built the dining room, as large as the buffet table is long.

At Brown’s Bar-B-Q, dinner, or lunch, is like Thanksgiving eating enjoyed every day of the week. The fresh vegetables, the variety of meats; all the desserts that can’t fit on one plate. It’s hard to keep track of all the gravies.

— Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Brown’s Bar-B-Q

809 Williamsburg County Highway  

Kingstree, SC 29556

(843) 382-2753

"Getting your daily fix of barbecue sauce."

David Wilson & John David Wilson of Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q, Reidsville, NC

Click here to see our original text and photo profile of the Wilsons: http://www.thebarbecuebus.com/2011/11/short-sugars-bar-b-q.html

Recorded and cut by Rien Fertel. Shot and chopped by Denny Culbert.

The First Barbecue?

Latham "Bum" Dennis and Larry Dennis, owners of Bum's Restaurant in Ayden, NC. (Photo by Denny Culbert)

According to lore, the Dennis family follows a tradition set half a million years ago when man first roasted a wild animal over wood. Most of humanity quit smoking pigs and other creatures over burning embers, but “We just didn't never stop,” says Larry Dennis, manager and pitmaster at Bum’s Restaurant in Ayden. His father, the namesake “Bum,” opened his place back in 1963, thus placing himself in the innumerable company of Dennis barbecue masters.

The Standard Bearers of Barbecue: Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC

Skylight Inn (Pete Jones Barbecue) and Samuel Jones (Photos by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

At age 4, Samuel Jones told a newspaper reporter that, when he grows up, he wanted to be a trashman and the Prince of Barbecue. Sam’s grandfather, Pete Jones, the designated “King of Barbecue,” opened the Skylight Inn in 1947. Then only seventeen, Pete set out on his own after learning the trade from his extended family, the Dennis clan, whom history shows to be the first in North Carolina to serve pit barbecue to the public.

Brother, Sister, Barbecue - Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge

Natalie Ramsey, center, and the rest of the Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge crew chat between shifts, at the restaurant in Shelby, NC. (Photo by Denny Culbert)

Natalie Ramsey and Chase Webb, sister and brother, have inherited their mother’s smile, finish and start each other’s sentences, and together operate Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge, one of North Carolina’s oldest barbecue houses. Guided by mom, Lodge owner
Debbie Bridges-Webb, Natalie oversees the front of the house, with its plush blue-vinyl booths; Chase sits up all night watching the pork shoulders roast-tender over hickory coals.

Rudy Cobb: The Place is the Space

Rudy Cobb at Jack Cobb & Son Barbecue Place, Farmville, North Carolina. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

No chairs, no tables, just a counter. Take your food and go. Its name is the stuff that could have been dreamed up by a Hollywood script department: Jack Cobb & Son Barbecue Place. It’s a joint where even the owner, Rudy Cobb, can’t pin down exactly how old the establishment is. Could be sixty years, might just be seventy.

Cook's Barbecue: Born in the Pits

Cooks Barbecue at the end of Valiant Drive in Lexington, NC. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus



In 1969, Doug Cook built his barbecue stand by hand, in a cul-de-sac plot down the road from home. There wasn’t much to Cook’s Barbecue at first: a pit/kitchen, a wooden chopping block, and drive-up window. When customers wanted a place to sit and eat their chopped barbecue plates, Doug Cook felled trees from the surrounding oak grove, and built himself a dining room. 


Brandon Cook and Cook’s Barbecue were born just one year apart. Friends and family jokingly tell the younger Cook that he was born in his father Doug’s barbecue pits. He remembers crawling in the fireplace as a child, flirting with the waitresses as a teenager, and eventually, under his the elder Cook’s tutelage, learning how to tend the pits, shovel-sling the cherry-red hickory coals, and slow smoke the Lexington-style shoulders.      


For years Brandon Cook avoided Cook’s; he viewed the future of barbecue—not just the business but the art form—with skepticism. In 2001, he returned to his family's restaurant, inheriting the role of pitmaster. Fitting for a man born in a pit.

- Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus


Brandon Cook at Cook's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Cook's Barbecue dining room. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)



Brandon Cook holds a shoulder fresh from the pit at Cook's Barbecue in Lexington, NC. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Wood coals glow in the pit at Cook's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)





Pork shoulders on the pit at Cook's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Brandon Cook takes a break before adding wood to the pit fire. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The cat named Barbecue rubs against a statue outside Cook's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The dining hall at Cook's Barbecue. ( Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)



Cook's Barbecue hush puppies. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)



Young cooks fry hush puppies and chop barbecue in the kitchen. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The lean meat is separated from the bone, the fat and the skin before chopping. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)



"Dip" is added the chopped barbecue at Cook's in Lexington, NC. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Cook's Barbecue, Lexington, North Carolina. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Cook's Barbecue
 366 Valiant Drive
Lexington, NC 27292


(336) 798-1928

Hours of Operation:

Wed - Thurs 11am - 2pm & 3:30pm - 8:30 pm

Fri - Sat 11am - 9pm

Sunday 11am - 8:30pm

Parker's Barbecue, Wilson, N.C.

Dried spices, salt and vinegar are added to the chopped pork at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

If barbecue is big business in North Carolina, Parker’s Barbecue is a veritable warehouse of whole hogism. Located in the eastern city of Wilson, Parker’s serves over 150 smoked pigs and 8,000 fried chickens to 20,000 customers each week. Catering to crowds is part of the Parker’s mythos; on one brilliant afternoon in 1954, founders Ralph Parker, Graham Parker, and Henry Parker Brewer fed 17,000 chopped barbecue plates in one day. Despite the crowds here, little details maintain that small-joint feel. Donald Williams and Kevin Lamm (two of the three owners that we met) greet each patron at the entrance. On this Sunday, families came from different church services, greeted one another in the parking lot, and queued up in the ever-increasing line. Inside Parker’s, a group of young men in 1950s-style, white paper caps stood in formation ready to usher the next group to their table. Almost no one we saw needed a menu. The Parkers would be proud to see their dining room so full, in this, its sixty-fifth year in business. Ralph Parker, the last surviving of the three “brothers,” still regularly holds court, sipping a cup of coffee. He recently conceded that Parker’s “barbecue is better than it has ever been.”

- Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Young male servers stand ready to meet the needs of their customers at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Unmarked glass bottles hold the spicy vinegar based sauce at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Two of three Parker's Barbecue owners Kevin Lamm, left, and Donald Williams. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Whole hogs cook to crispy perfection on the pit at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The line of friers in the kitchen at Parker's Barbecue are constantly bubbling full of chicken, hushpuppies, corn sticks or fries. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Charlie, a long time barbecue pit worker, disassembles a hog for chopping at Parker's Barbecue in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

The "Family Style" meal at Parker's Barbecue: (top to bottom) coleslaw, fried chicken, boiled potatoes, chopped pork, Brunswick stew, hushpuppies and corn sticks. 

Families wait in line for a seat inside Parker's Barbecue, Sunday afternoon in Wilson, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Parker's Barbecue
2514 US Highway 301 S, Wilson, NC

(252) 237-0972

Open 7 Days a Week

James Bolton: "Pit Master King" of Clyde Cooper's Barbeque

James Bolton, "Pit Master King" at Clyde Cooper's Barbeque, Raleigh, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Click below to play Rien's interview with James Bolton "Pit Master King."

James Bolton seasons the pork ribs at Clyde Cooper's Barbeque, Raleigh, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Clyde Cooper's Barbeque, 109 E. Davie Street, Raleigh, NC. (photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Clyde Cooper's Barbeque
109 East Davie Street
Raleigh, NC 27601


(919) 832-7614
Hours of Operation:
Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Closed Sunday