Pierce's Pit BBQ Sandwich

Name: Pierce’s Pit Bar-B-Que

Location: Williamsburg,VA

Meal: Jumbo Pulled Pork Sandwich with Cole Slaw and Hot Sauce, French Fries, and Sweet Tea

Type: Barbecue

While technically in Williamsburg, VA; Pierce’s can best be described as just off Interstate 64 in the middle of nowhere. You have to exit the highway and spend a few minutes on back roads to get there but your travels will be well worth it. Pierce’s is a quintessential road side barbecue joint. The pulled pork is the star of the show: smokey, hints of vinegar in the sauce, chopped fairly small, and with just enough bits of charred pork to know real fire and smoke were involved.

As seems to be required with a good southern meal you can pair your sandwich with something fried and a glass of sweet tea. The fries at Pierce’s don’t come from a good background, likely brown food service freezer bags, but they receive a good upbringing in Pierce’s well tuned deep fryers. To their credit Pierce’s does serve some of the best generic pre-frozen french fries I’ve ever tasted. The sweet tea is spot on, extra sweet, approaching within a percentage points of uncomfortable lip smacking sweetness. One of the secret joys of Pierce’s is the ice; I don’t know what it is about but their soda fountains dispense an light, small ice cube that just begs you to chew away. I’m not normally a big ice chewer but something about Pierce’s ice gets my molars going.

Next time you find yourself anywhere between Hampton Roads and Richmond, take the time, swing out of your way, and visit Pierce’s. When you order your food order a few extra sandwiches; ask them to be unassembled. Unassembled, you’ll get a plastic container of your meat, another of your cole slaw, and a roll free of any sogginess. Once you have a pulled pork sandwich from Pierce’s you’ll be wanting another so you can thank me later.

Pulled pork sandwich

Name: Buz and Ned’s Real Barbecue

Location: Richmond, VA

Meal: Pulled pork sandwich, potato salad, cole slaw, and sweet tea.

Type: Barbecue

Good barbecue has to be below the Mason-Dixon line. Check. Good barbecue can’t be too fancy. Check. Good barbecue has to have some smoke. Check, check, and check. Buz and Ned’s delivers on all three: Richmond used to be a little thing called the home of the Confederacy, you eat on picnic tables under a permanent tent, and they deliver on the smoke. I must admit that Buz and Ned’s was found for me, they appeared on the Food Network show Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and beat Bobby Flay. At BBQ. So yeah, they make pretty good barbecue.

East of the Appalachian Mountains I am partial to pulled pork so I naturally that is what I ordered. The meat has a wonderful smokey flavor to it, and being N.C. style it had just a little bit of sauce. I always recommend getting the cole slaw on your sandwich, a shake or two of Texas Pete hot sauce is important too. Clearly the barbecue is start but the sides are also done very well, the potato salad has a well placed crunch of celery to it.

I’ve not been to Buz and Ned’s 4-5 times and have had consistently great food every time. If you are in the area this is should be on your short of Richmond meals.