The Art of Art, Wine and Barbecue

Bob Timberlake's Lexington Gallery.

We began our day in Lexington, NC, with a trip to the Bob Timberlake's Lexington Gallery, where the affable artist greeted us with great coffees and amusing stories.
Timberlake was readying for a show in New York's Hammer Gallery, but was more than willing to give us as much time as we had - never enough.

This is what you see as you walk in. Gallery extends way back.

The gallery, conceived by his son, is a treasure trove of sophisticated Americana, from Timberlake's art featuring rural lifestyles, hunting and nature to his home decor and clothing lines. He comes by his style naturally - his family has been in North Carolina for 250 years as has his wife's.

Bob Timberlake.

Timberlake proves that creativity is infinitely flexible. He has done PSAs for Iron Eyes Cody and designs wine labels for his pal Richard Childress's Winery (their Fine Swine Wine, signed by both, sells out all 90 cases during the annual Barbecue Festival). There are 72 new designs of carpets and rugs with Mohawk and Karastan.

Lots of fun, you realize, wandering through the gallery.

"Ideas hit you everywhere," he said. "I have fun with every one I work up."

Naturally, the Good Girls struck a pose with Bob.

BBQ 101
We had fun at our next stop, an early lunch at Lexington BBQ, also known as Lexington #1, Honey Monks and The Monk. You'd better aim for early or very late because lines form around the building during regular lunch and dinner times.

Bub Wright

Keith "Bub" Wright gave us a lesson in Lexington, N.C. style barbecue and Lexington BBQ style cooking. A few stats:

• an 18-pound pork shoulder yields 6 pounds of usable meat; they smoke 6,000 to 7,500 pounds of usable meat on an average day.Christmas week that goes up to 35,000 to 40,000 pounds.

There's an art to turning at just the right time.

• Pit men must train for at least a year; there's $500 worth of meat in those smokers.
• They sell 60 to 65 gallons of hush puppy batter, 500 to 600 pounds of barbecue slaw and 200 to 300 gallons of tea a day.

The finished product.

It's all good as the lines stretching through and outside the building as we left attested.

This line extended outside of the building.

 Time for a bit of liquid refreshment so we headed to Weathervane Winery.

There's a gift shop, too.

What started in the basement has become a business that produces 4,500 cases a year and has three full-time and seven part-time employees.

Sid Proctor.

Retired radio advertising exec Sid Proctor and his wife offer a variety of wine down evenings, special tastings and festivals as well as daily wine tasting for drop-in visitors. Five different varieties, one white and four reds, and seven fruit-style wines are on the shelves.

Situated at the southern end of North Carolina's Yadkin Valley, they make, as Sid says, no frills wine for the market.

The market wants it a bit sweet for our tastes, but expect improvement in anything produced in North Carolina's first federally-approved American Viticultural Area.

Barbecue or banana - split decision

Nothing fancy but good BBQ. Photo by Judy Wells.

Lexington is the self-described "Barbecue Capital of the World" and after cruising uptown, we, a group of 10 travel and food writers, headed to our first encounter with North Carolina's famous smoked pork.  As we walked into the Barbecue Center a couple walked out who had just driven 96 miles to eat there. Pretty good reference, I'd say.

"Try the banana split," they said.

Pigs outside like this one and inside, too, abound.

Like a typical BBQ "joint," the Center is basic inside and out - lots of pig pictures and statuettes, booths, tables, counter stools and diners of all ages pigging out.

Service is swift and before you could say "Cheerwine," the ultimate liquid pairing, we had hefty cups of it and our barbecue was on the way.

Cecil Conrad shows off one of his smoke ovens.

The Center began in 1955 as an ice cream and milk product store a few blocks away, but as winter weather deterred customers they began smoking pork shoulders to supplement the income. Owner/manager Cecil Conrad's uncle bought the restaurant spot in 1961, His father bought it six years later and the family business has thrived ever since.

Today, each week they sell the meat from 100-150 pork shoulders cooked slowly over hickory and oak embers. No rubs here, just a bit of salt. Shoulders put in one of the three inside smokers at 5 a.m. are done by 3 p.m. No automation here  either; strictly manual labors of love.

Lexingtonians like vinegar with their barbecue; vinegar-sauced red slaw accompanies the vinegar, ketchup, water, salt and peppers-based sauce or "dip," in the local parlance. So do hush puppies, lots of them.

Barbecue plate.

My "plate" came piled with rough chopped pork shoulder, red slaw and fries. I could have opted for sliced, chopped, brown (outside cuts) or mostly white meat plus a variety of sides.

Crisp, hot hush puppies.

Baskets of piping hot hush puppies were never allowed to empty.

Didn't measure the whipped cream but there's about 4 pounds of ice cream.

We thought we were full until the subject of the famous banana split arose. Six of us shared the towering monster with its three to four-pound vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream base (a bargain at under $8!). It was like trying to decimate the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

The best we could do.

We lost. Two-thirds were as much as we could manage.

No one we met in the next three days asked how we liked the barbecue (it was excellent), but they all wanted to know how we did with the banana split.

If you come alone or with only one or two others, you'll have decide, barbecue or banana split.