Stamey's Barbecue: The Root of It All

Chip Stamey, owner of Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Chip Stamey is the grandson of famed Piedmont-barbecue pathfinder and promotor Warner Stamey. In the 1920s, Warner studied and worked under Lexington, NC pit-cooking pioneers Jess Swicegood and Sid Weaver. Warner took what he learned about smoking shoulders back home to Shelby to perfect his techniques and recipes. Moving back to Lexington, in 1938 Warner bought out his mentor Swicegood and renamed the operation Stamey’s.

Stamey’s Barbecue helped tiny Lexington become not only the most ‘cue-centric town in North Carolina, but perhaps the world. With a population hovering around twenty thousand, the Lexington area houses nearly twenty barbecue establishments. 

Like several other pit proprietors we’ve met while constructing the North Carolina BBQ Trail, Chip Stamey left a non-‘cue career to take over the family business. Mirroring a practice found in most every Carolina barbecue joint, Chip’s one rule is to keep everything the same. Commitment to family, history, and preservation is valued above all else. 

Relocated to Greensboro since 1953, Stamey’s recently celebrated its eighty-first anniversary. The house that Warner built continues to fry up hushpuppies (a Stamey’s invention), slow-smoke shoulders over hickory coals, and serve chopped and sliced barbecue doused with sauce, or in local parlance, "dip."


- Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Stamey's Barbecue "dip" lines the wall behind the cash register. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Hickory coals are transferred from the fire to the barbecue pits at Stamey's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Morning light streams into the smokey pit room at Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Ponn Chanuon tends to the pits throughout the day at Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

A typical barbecue plate at Stamey's consists of chopped pork, hushpuppies and red slaw. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

A plate of "brown" barbecue at Stamey's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Homemade peach cobbler at Stamey's Barbecue. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Stamey's Barbecue is an 81-year-old establishment in Greensboro, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Stamey's Barbecue
2206 High Point Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27403


(336)299-9888
Hours of Operation: 
Monday - Saturday: 10 am - 9 pm
Closed Sunday

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

Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q

Worn leather stools line the lunch counter at Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q in Reidsville, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

North Carolina barbecue pit owners and masters that we’ve talked to follow the same business model: consistently cook the same product the same way everyday. This change-nothing attitude is readily apparent at Short Sugar’s Pit Bar-B-Q, where time appears to crawl at the same pace as their pork shoulders’ slow hickory-smoking. Located in downtown Reidsville, Short Sugar’s looks nearly the same as when it opened in 1949 (excluding a dining room addition three decades ago). Sit at the lunch counter and you soon come to terms with the goodness of this antiquarianism. Elbow-jostle with men who take the same stool every afternoon. Wave greetings to second-generation owner David Wilson, who was dressed in a 1950s drive-in cars shirt the day we spent there. Whether you order your chopped pit-cooked barbecue in plate, tray, or sandwich form, you’ll douse it in Short Sugar’s idiosyncratic sauce. The stuff is many shades darker than that found anywhere else in the State; undoubtedly worcestershire-based, it’s runny and salty-sweet. Every week they sell gallons of the sauce because it’s good, it complements their barbecue, and it’s the same as it ever was. 


- Rien Fertel/ The Barbecue Bus

Short Sugar's chopped barbecue sandwich with their unique sauce. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q, Reidsville, N.C. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

Short Sugar's patrons socialize after breakfast at the 62-year-old, Reidsville, N.C. establishment. (Photo by Denny Culbert/ The Barbecue Bus)

1328 South Scales Street
Reidsville, North Carolina

Open 6am-8pm Mon-Thurs & 6am-9pm Fri-Sat

(336)342-7487