Review of Short Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Q 1328 S. Scales St. Reidsville, NC Phone: 336-342-7487 Hours: Mon-Sat 6:00 AM - 9:00 PM Closed Sundays by H. Kent Craig ©2006

Sometimes it's hard to review a legend that you personally don't know or don't have any direct previous experience with. When you've heard all the stories about all the incredible tales of well-earned fame and glory, of how this or that legend earned their stripes by consistently producing when their competition simply didn't take the time or effort to do the same, when it comes down to it, when it comes down to actually doing a review of one of the Mother Church's of North Carolina-Style barbecue, do you review the food, or do you review the legend? My answer is: you do both.

Without any doubt whatsoever, Short Sugar's deserves its special place in the legend and lore of NC-BBQ. For nigh' close to sixty years, day after day, month after month, year after year they've almost perfectly served great pork barbecue the way their customers want it and done so with a unique flavor twist.

The meat itself is as one-hundred-percent consistently cooked through-and-through without drying it out or undercooking or overcooking it at all, which is one of the hallmarks of great 'cue. When you order it, you can order it sliced, chopped or minced. Myself, unless you just prefer sliced as many do, I always order the chopped, not the minced, since by "minced" they don't mean exactly minced as in minced-meat-pie but barbeque that's actually run through a sausage grinder before being served to you. I like a relatively fine chop as much as anyone but if I wanted pork that's been run through a sausage grinder I'd go to Denny's and order their meat lover's special which is just chock full of real sausage, not bar-b-q sausage. That said, their chop about the size of a large pea to a small marble, big enough to spear with a fork but definitely not large enough to where you have to chew it for five minutes before swallowing.

The meat makes the meal, but in Western-NC-BBQ, it's the "dip", the special house sauce which every barbecue place west of Burlington has that makes the experience what it is, special.

Short Sugar's dip is on its surface nothing spectacular but once it hits your taste buds and you take a few bites and the pleasant aftertaste starts lingering and bouquet'ing inside your mouth, you know that it is indeed unique of all places in North Carolina. With a olfactory-stimulating delight before it even hits your tongue, Short Sugar's cinnamon-flavored dip - which you'd think you would be close to an abomination, the spice's potential for overwhelming the flavor of the meat being always present but doesn't happen because the sauce has been perfected over the decades - actually brings the flavor of the pig to the forefront of the palate and doesn't smother its succulent fleshy goodness.

Now, if you have trouble with spices in general and don't like anything cinnamon-flavor in particular then of course Short Sugar's isn't the place for you, but if your taste in barbecue is anything close to most of the rest of us' then chances are you'll like it. You may or may not rate it 4-pig "best of the best" as I've done here but at minimum you won't be disappointed.

Most of their sides are okay to good, their hushpuppies are good but I've had better and their french fries are french fries, but what surprised me was their Brunswick Stew. At first blush it didn't look or smell like anything special, thing and maybe even a bit watery but at least it didn't have any celery or other too-green bits I'm allergic to but did have lots of meat and potatoes and peas and other kitchen-leftover-stuff which is what makes good stew. Even after the first bite, then another bite, then another bite I still wasn't impressed but its plain slightly-sweet flavor was a perfect balance to the slightly bitter (in a good, pleasant way) enhancement of the cinnamon in the dip-sauce and before I knew it I had eaten every single bite in the cup of Brunswick stew and was scraping the inside of it to get one last taste. No, it's not as good as what Melton's in Rocky Mount used to be - but Melton's is gone and this is damn, damned close to it.

Short Sugar's is located in beautiful (and I mean that sincerely, it's a neat old milltown) downtown Reidsville N.C., easy to get to from Highway 29 and not too far from I-85/40 and easy enough to find your way back to the highway from downtown and is definitely worth a sidetrip for lunch or dinner if you're anywhere near the area. And, unlike many barbeque restaurants, Short Sugar's will actually answer their phone and help you with directions to their place or questions about their fine cuisine.


    {Back To BBQ Page}     {To Personal Page}     {Feedback}