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East vs. West: Which Is Best?
North Carolina's BBQ Divide: The fare at the Skylight Inn, above, and, below, Lexington Barbecue.
(Photo by Jonathan Bloom)
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Like most Lexington joints, Lexington Barbecue is heavy on french fries. Fortunately, it also fries up bundles of cornmeal dough into oblong hush puppies, which taste like Burger King onion rings minus the onions. Oddly enough, that's a compliment.
The Skylight Inn, by contrast, serves lukewarm slabs of flat cornbread. These oniony slices aren't bad and even feature bits of crispy cracklins that also flavor their barbecue--yup, pork rinds. But with or without cracklins, fried cornbread always trumps cornbread.
Advantage: Lexington Barbecue.
DESSERT: Lexington Barbecue offers one of the finest homemade peach cobblers this side of Atlanta. There are also pecan, chocolate, lemon and apple pies. The Skylight Inn, by contrast, is dessertless. This one's a rout, folks.
Advantage: Lexington Barbecue.
PRICE: Both spots serve their meat in paper boats they call "trays." At Lexington, a tray of barbecue, slaw and hush puppies or rolls costs $4.60. A plate, which has fries and more meat, is $7.40.
The Skylight offers more size choices, with small ($3), medium ($3.50) and large ($4) trays that include slaw and cornbread. You can also get a pound of meat for $7.50.
Advantage: The Skylight Inn, by a snout.
NEARBY ATTRACTIONS: Every October, more 100,000 people find their way to Lexington for the Barbecue Festival (Oct. 22 this year). The rest of the time, hit one of the 20 barbecue restaurants the town of 20,000 offers; work up an appetite by examining the photos on the history of Lexington barbecue at the Davidson County Historical Museum. Visitors can also tour Nascar team owner Richard Childress's auto museum and, on the outskirts of town, taste his wine.
Ayden has a population of 4,570 and a somewhat charming, quasi-deserted downtown. Each year, there's a Collard Festival -- complete with Collard Queen -- the weekend after Labor Day.
Advantage: Lexington Barbecue.
BOTTOM LINE : If you're the kind of person who happily drives 50 miles off of I-95 for some spine-tingling swine, the Skylight is your place. But if you're looking for a tad more than barbecue bliss -- like a town with more than just gas stations -- Lexington is probably the better bet. Wherever you go, just don't ask them what they think of the other side's 'cue.
Lexington Barbecue (336-249-9814) is at 10 Hwy. 29-70 S. in Lexington. The Skylight Inn (252-746-4113) is at 4618 Lee St. in Ayden. Both are closed Sundays.
