| rev:text
| - Lunch. Tuesday, March 19. 12:30 PM.
Upon arrival, the parking lot was full, as was the parking lot for the adjacent business. As I circled the full parking lot, I passed someone tending a heavily smoking barbecue in the rear of the building - very promising. Barbecue smoke aroma is one of my favorite smells!
I followed two of North Carolina's finest, NCHP, officers into the building. Hole in the wall is an apt description. I'll bet the place doesn't seat 40 people. There were no seats available so we had to wait at the almost nonexistent foyer for the first available.
One of the patrolmen said hello, and in replying I mentioned that this was my first visit to Kyle Fletcher's BBQ. He said that he eats here twice weekly, and although the BBQ was "good," he said that he usually orders the hamburger. I thanked him, and he and his partner were seated in less than two minutes. I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited - probably twenty minutes for someone to get up so that I could be seated. There are only four chairs in the front entrance to wait and get out of everyone's way.
(By the way, if you are a NC State basketball fan, this place will make you crazy. A large portion of the walls and ceiling are dedicated to UNC basketball, Dean Smith, etc. I was raised watching Carolina basketball in the 60's, when they were legitimately the best team in the United States most years, so I actually liked the decor.)
I noticed that the sanitation rating is 98.0.
I finally grabbed a booth, and the waitress cleaned off the table for me PDQ. That was the highlight of the dining experience, it was all down hill from there.
I ordered the small sliced pork plate, which is supposed to come with meat, slaw, fries, hush puppies, and baked beans. I opted out of the beans because I'm allergic, and I upgraded the fries to onion rings, for an additional eighty cents. (I saw onion rings on several other tables and they looked good.) I ordered lemonade for a change from sweet iced tea.
For some reason, the waitress had a hard time understanding that I didn't want beans, and this seemed to blow her mind. She came back almost immediately and asked if I wanted lemon in the tea that she was about to serve me. What? I said, "no, I ordered lemonade." Massive eye roll from the sixty something waitress. I guess that it was my fault that she couldn't remember my drink order for all of fifteen seconds, not a good sign.
I waited for my food for probably fifteen to twenty minutes, even though the restaurant was now emptying out, and everyone had their food. It seemed like an eternity. When my food finally arrived, here's what was presented to me: five pieces of pale, strange looking, sliced barbecue. (If you've ever eaten at Sonny's BBQ, it was the same product, although not as well executed as Sonny's.) I received a separate tray of onion rings. Two scrawny, scraggly, tiny, pathetic hush puppies. ZERO SLAW. Lemonade that tasted like some cheap, watery, grocery store product. I make better lemonade from lemon juice, water, and artificial sweetener at home. I decided not to complain because, (a) I wasn't "that" hungry, and (b) I had little faith that my waitress could provide the correct order.
Barbecue sauce options: (a) Eastern NC. Thin, WATERY, vinegary "sauce," and I use the term sauce loosely, with red pepper flakes. I poured it on the barbecue and it immediately all flowed off - imparting zero taste, and no heat. Worst eastern style BBQ sauce that I've ever encountered. (b) Western NC sauce. Thicker, sweeter, more ketchupy, but not very good.
The sliced pork barbecue? Hmmm. What confuses me is that there was a pink smoke ring, so it looked semi-legit, but there was no taste, no smoke, no nothin'. It was also borderline dry. I should have ordered chopped barbecue instead, I guess. The only other person that I saw who ordered barbecue order chopped, and it looked good - from a distance.
The onion rings were fairly good, but they paled in comparison to the panko breaded onion rings from both McKoy's Smokehouse in Charlotte and Judge's Express BBQ in Hickory. Even Sauceman's and Ranucci's have far better rings.
The hush puppies? Who serves TWO teeny, scrawny hush puppies? You people are trippin'.
I was also disappointed that I didn't get to sample the slaw, THAT I ORDERED, but it appeared to be the fine minced stuff put onto sandwiches, so it was probably no big loss.
My waitress, Ms. Eye-roll, committed the cardinal sin of letting my cup go completely dry. Sheesh! Just before I arose to get my own refill, a different waitress came by and refilled my cup.
I noticed that almost everyone was eating the hamburger and onion rings. If I ever ate here again, that's what I would order, but since I am not going to eat here again, it is immaterial.
The bill was over $10, which was about three dollars more than I expected, and about $8 more than the food was worth.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)