Stamey's Barbecue

Today, Stamey’s has been serving its staple “Lexington-style” barbecue pork and its “secret sauce” to Triad diners for 83 years. Every day, Stamey’s Pitmasters come in before the sun to light the fire and start cooking that famous barbecue, a backbreaking process that can take nine to ten hours. Unlike most barbecue restaurants that have introduced gas or electric cooking methods, Stamey’s still slow cooks its barbecue over a pit of hardwood hickory coals. The brick pits are completely enclosed, except for a bit of breathing room at the bottom, and the hardwood coals are carefully monitored because if they get too hot, they will dry the face of the pork sitting on a wire rack 24 inches above. As each 15-pound pork shoulder cooks, it drips grease onto the hot coals, sending the hickory smoke flavor back up into the pork. Finally, the meat is chopped or sliced to order so customers can enjoy it with what Stamey’s knows to be the keys to lasting barbecue success: Smiling Service, Stamey’s slaw, sweet tea, homemade cobbler and the occasional hushpuppy, a barbecue must-have introduced to the fine chefs of Lexington in the 50’s by Mr. C. Warner Stamey himself.