The Adventurist Magazine: This Is How Sam Jones Got NC Whole Hog BBQ Into the Michelin Guide
“A Michelin Bib Gourmand recognizes restaurants serving memorable food at a fair price, which is a strangely modern way to describe what barbecue was always supposed to be. “Depending on who you ask, some people bellyache about the cost but we don’t cut any corners,” Jones says. Barbecue started as the most economical way to feed a crowd; now, if it is done right, it is anything but. “Well, you don't throw caution into the wind and charge $20 for a sandwich because that's not fair,” he says. “It is kind of a juggling act of wanting to make the best food, stay in our lane as far as barbecue is concerned, and don't price everybody out.”
Whatever Michelin thinks, he insists the work stays the same. “When the guy that gets off the back of the trash truck goes into the restaurant and gets a sandwich, he ought to get the same quality of sandwich that an influential person or food writer would,” Jones says. “At least that's my thought process. Our idea was to try to offer the best food we can, period.”
Ask him, finally, to explain eastern North Carolina whole hog to someone who has never been to Ayden, never seen the pits, never watched him feed a fire all night, and he does not give you poetry. He does not reach for metaphor. “It’s whole hog cooked over wood,” he says. For Sam Jones, that’s always been enough.”