The Best New BBQ Joint in America America's Best New Restaurants Bon Apptit

Buxton Hall's chef and pitmaster Elliott Moss will be the first to tell you he's not classically trained. In fact, he got his start in the kitchen of a South Carolina Chick-fil-A. After years of chasing his dream of opening up a BBQ restaurant, Moss opened Buxton Hall in Asheville, NC.

"You can smell great barbecue long before you walk through the door.
Outside Buxton Hall Barbecue, its no different: The air hangs with the faintly smoky aroma of crispy pork. It only intensifies as you enter the brick-walled space, past T-shirts for sale (my favorite: SMOKED WHILE YOU SLEEP). In the open kitchen, pitmaster Elliott Moss stands over a whole pig, picking and chopping hunks of smoked meat. This is hog heaven.

Were in the midst of a barbecue boom. Old-school joints are getting their due, and new-school smokehouses like Buxton Hall are proudly carrying on the tradition while shaking things up. Here barbecue means local pasture-raised pig (not the usual commodity stuff) smoked 18 hours over oak, cherry, and hickory. The pork is juicy and sweet and melts in your mouth. Its how Moss learned it from his grandfather growing up in Florence, South Carolina.

The egg-enriched buttermilk mixture makes for an especially crunchy and craggy coating. This recipe is from Buxton Hall, one of the Hot 10, America's Best New Restaurants 2016."

"We want you to feel like you're at somebody's home, being taken care of really well." -Elliott Moss, pitmaster-owner, Buxton Hall.

"Good cue isnt the only thing that makes the experience. The fried chicken sandwichthe meat smoked before it hits the fryerwas the best version of that now ubiquitous dish I had all year. Mussels, which should have no business in a barbecue joint, were so good I sopped up the smoked tomato sauce with buttermilk hushpuppies.

Sides, so forgettable at other spots, are anything but. Green beans catch drippings beneath the pigs; collards swim with swine bits and cider vinegar; potatoes are smoked, mashed, and topped with hog gravy. A twist on the classics with one thing in common: the flavors of the pig. And thats what Buxton Hall is all about.

Its no secret that were living in the midst of a bona fide barbecue boom. Old-school joints are finally getting their due, and new-school smokehouseslike Buxton Hallare proudly carrying on the tradition while shaking things up a little. Here barbecue means local pasture-raised pig (not the usual commodity stuff), smoked 18 hours over a mixture of oak, cherry, and hickory, until it's juicy and sweetjust how chef Elliot Moss learned it from his grandfather in Florence, South Carolina. That said, whole-hog cue isnt the only thing going on in this gigantic dining hall. (If it appears to be the size of a roller rink, that's because it once was one.) The juicy fried chicken sandwich is topped with creamy white barbecue sauce and pimiento cheese and a slice of American cheese. Sides, often forgettable at other barbecue places, allow Moss to flex his creative muscles: green beans cook under the pig, catching all those fatty drippings; potatoes are smoked, then mashed and topped with hog gravy; braised collard greens are swimming with swine bits and a healthy spike of cider vinegar. All these twists on the classics have one thing in commonthe flavors of the pig. Ultimately, that's what Buxton Hall is all about."

Read more here: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/buxton-hall-asheville

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The Best New BBQ Joint in America | America's Best New Restaurants | Bon Apptit

Cornbread and Butterbeans by page1image15088Whiston Don, performed by Carolina Sunshine Trio from WPAQ: The Voice of the Blue Ridge Mountains (1999) courtesy of Warner/Chappell & Co.

Honey It Must Be Love by Blind Willie McTell from The Postwar Recordings of Blind Willie McTell & Curley Weaver (1991) courtesy of Concord Music Group

Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle courtesy of the artist
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/none_given_2414/peak_beak

Intellectual Flypast by Doctor Turtle courtesy of the artist
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/intellectual_flypast

Animation by Laura Salaberry

RV Roadtrip footage courtesy of Michael Files
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