Eastern NC Barbecue: Jason Grill, La Grange, NC. New wood burner!

First off, a tip of the hat to David Cecelski for tipping me off to this place. He has a piece on it here:

http://www.ncfolk.org/ncfood/cueshack...

It's a tiny little place, a shack in every sense of the word, and there is no seating. You order inside a tiny screened-in porch on the front. They cook with wood, and there was a plume of wonderful smelling smoke coming from the adjacent pits while I was there.

The barbecue is a fairly coarse chop, and was perfectly seasoned- not too little or too much. It didn't need any additional sauce. There was lots of skin mixed in, as well. The skin was not up to the level of Pete Jones on a good day, but neither was it as poor as Jones on a bad day. The meat itself was great and as good as any of the big names. Sides were really excellent- the slaw is one of, if not the absolute best, that I've had. Taken on its own, it wins hands down versus other slaws. Potato salad was great, as were the hushpuppies. The hushpuppies were a bit idiosyncratic- very large, with a well browned exterior, and less sweet than usual. I liked them a lot, although they were so large that I couldn't finish them all(my plate came with four of these giants). The slaw was really what made the plate for me, though. That's a key part of any eastern NC barbecue plate and superb slaw combined with excellent wood-cooked barbecue is enough to differentiate them, even in this neck of the woods.

This place has been open less than a year and can probably use all the help they can get, so consider giving them a shot if you're in the area. It's located on 903 between La Grange and Snow Hill; less than 10 minutes from US70. They have no phone and irregular hours; I went over from Greenville on a lark this afternoon and they were open in mid-afternoon(3:30pm or so).