There are some foods that don’t have to be fancy to earn a permanent place in your memory.
They just have to taste like home.
I can’t tell you exactly when I first had Smithfield’s. Late teens, maybe. Early twenties. What I can tell you is I remember sitting there wondering how on earth a fast-food restaurant could make pulled pork that tasted that good.
I wasn’t expecting much. A drive-thru barbecue joint? I figured it’d be decent enough if I was in a hurry.
Instead, I got barbecue that tasted almost like somebody’s granddaddy had been tending a whole hog all night. Was it exactly like a backyard pig pickin’? No. But it was close enough to make me stop and think, Well, I’ll be…
And the fried chicken?
Lord have mercy.
I’ve never been shy about saying it. It runs circles around KFC, and it isn’t even close.
Mama deserves all the credit for introducing me to Smithfield’s. Truth be told, she deserves the credit for introducing me to barbecue altogether.
My very first taste of barbecue wasn’t at Smithfield’s. It was at Flip’s BBQ over in Wilmington. Grandma and Granddaddy lived one street over, and I swear we ate there so many times I couldn’t begin to count them before they broke Wilmington’s collective heart by closing their doors.
But Mama didn’t stop there.
If somebody was cooking a whole hog anywhere around Wilmington, she’d find out about it. Family reunions. Neighborhood get-togethers. Somebody’s cousin’s wedding. If there was a pig pickin’, chances are we were there.
And I mean every single one.
Looking back now, I realize what a gift that was.
The funny thing is… I didn’t appreciate it.
I was a picky little thing. Vinegar-based barbecue wasn’t exactly what my taste buds were asking for. Give me chicken nuggets and I was happy. Meanwhile, I was surrounded by some of the best barbecue in the world and didn’t know enough to appreciate it.
I sure made up for lost time.
By the time I finally understood what everybody else had known all along, it felt like those old-fashioned pig pickin’s were becoming harder to find. Fewer folks spending all night tending a smoker. Fewer community gatherings built around a whole hog. Fewer chances for the next generation to grow up with those traditions.
Thankfully, Smithfield’s never went anywhere.
They just kept right on doing what they’d always done.
No, it’s not the same as standing around a smoker that’s been going since before daylight. Nothing ever will be. But it scratches that itch when you want real Eastern North Carolina barbecue without waiting for the church homecoming, the volunteer fire department fundraiser, or the annual family reunion.
The story of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q starts back in the 1960s, when Junius and Maggie Moore opened a little restaurant in downtown Smithfield, North Carolina, next to an old movie theater. It wasn’t fancy. Tin ceilings. Cloth awnings. A sink in the dining room where farmers could wash up before supper. They simply called it Smithfield Bar-B-Q, and they served honest Eastern North Carolina barbecue the way it had always been served—whole hog, chopped fine, dressed with a vinegar-based sauce, and without making a fuss about it.
The restaurant caught on.
The family expanded into other towns, but the Smithfield’s most of us know today really took shape in 1983, when their son Gregory Moore opened a restaurant in Jacksonville. That location introduced the drive-thru, streamlined the menu, and became the blueprint for every Smithfield’s that followed.
As the years went on, they added the fried chicken that so many of us swear by, along with Brunswick stew, hushpuppies, sweet tea, and all the fixings that make a barbecue plate feel complete. Today there are more than forty locations across North Carolina, and somehow it still feels familiar every time you walk through the door.
Now, before somebody heads to the comments…
Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q has absolutely nothing to do with Smithfield Foods.
I know the names throw people off.
Smithfield Foods is the massive pork processing company headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia. It was purchased in 2013 by WH Group, a company based in Hong Kong, and that’s the business people are talking about when they mention “the Chinese-owned Smithfield.”
Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q is an entirely different company.
It’s named after Smithfield, North Carolina. It was founded by the Moore family, has remained family-owned ever since, and has no affiliation whatsoever with Smithfield Foods. They simply happen to share part of the same name.
I probably answer that question more than any other whenever I mention Smithfield’s, so I figured it’d be easier to clear it up once and for all.
Every now and then I’ll catch myself thinking about all those pig pickin’s Mama dragged me to when I was growing up. At the time, I couldn’t wait for them to be over. Now I’d give just about anything to go back to one.
Funny how life works like that.
The things you take for granted as a kid are usually the things you miss the most as an adult.
Maybe that’s why Smithfield’s means more to me than just another place to grab lunch.
It’s Mama introducing me to a restaurant I’d end up loving.
It’s finally understanding why she hauled me to every pig pickin’ she could find when I was too young to appreciate them.
It’s realizing that some traditions don’t disappear all at once. Sometimes they survive because somebody cared enough to keep doing them.
North Carolina barbecue isn’t just something we eat.
It’s part of who we are.
And as long as there are places like Smithfield’s still serving chopped pork with that unmistakable vinegar tang and frying chicken that’ll make you rethink fast food altogether, I’d say that tradition still has a fighting chance.
