Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
L
$$$
Peninsula Beverly Hills,
9882
hard to get a reservation at Pizzeria Mozza
as it ever was at Spago.
S. Santa Monica Blvd. (
&
800/462-7899
or
310/551-2888; www.peninsula.com). $
Best Western Marina Pacific Hotel,
1697 Pacific Ave., Venice (
&
800/786-7789
or 310/452-1111; www.mphotel.com).
(
Los Angeles International (15 miles/
25km).
Barbecue Heavens
224
Skylight Inn
Going the Whole Hog
Ayden, North Carolina
It's tempting to think that they named Pitt
County, North Carolina, in honor of its
world-class barbecue pits. Even though
legendary pit master Pete Jones has
passed on, the famous Skylight Inn he
opened in 1947 in tiny Ayden, North Caro-
lina, still shines as one of the top barbecue
spots in the Carolinas—no, make that
America.
The gimcrack replica of the U.S. Capitol
dome that tops the squat brick Skylight Inn
is testament to the high opinion folks have
of this bare-bones place—it considers itself
the capital of barbecue, and with good
reason. Given the location, on the coastal
plains of eastern North Carolina, barbecued
pork (it's
always
pork in these parts) is
served with a tangy red vinegar-based
sauce, though most customers don't even
bother with the squeeze bottles of sauce.
And like other eastern North Carolina bar-
becue spots, Skyline splays an entire hog
onto the grate, not just selected cuts. Thir-
teen or 14 hours later, when the hog is
done cooking, they chop up those melt-
ingly tender hunks of pork with lethally
sharp cleavers into a fine mince, mixing in
all the crispy bits of sizzled fat (the “outside
brown”) that add an extra zing of smoky
moist flavor. The chopper seems to work
nonstop,
thunk-thunk-thunk,
on a huge
wood block hollowed out by years of
cleaver-work.
Pete Jones's son Bruce and nephew Jeff
carry on the family tradition—still using
those time-tested Jones clan recipes,
which they claim stretch back over 2 cen-
turies of slow pig-roasting over oak
embers. (“If it's not cooked with wood, it's
not Bar-B-Q,” the Skylight's hand-painted
billboard declares.) The focus is totally on
the meat here, which comes as either a
sandwich or a pulled-pork dinner—“dinner”
meaning a pile of loose chopped meat
loaded onto a red-and-white cardboard
boat with coleslaw and crusty cornbread,
the only available sides. The Skylight Inn is
only open until 7pm, and it's closed on Sun-
days—plan your pilgrimage accordingly.
4618 South Lee St. (old Hwy. 11) (
&
252/
746-4113
).
(
Greenville (15 miles/24km).
L
$$$
City Hotel and Bistro,
203 W.
Greenville Blvd., Greenville (
&
877/271-
2616
or 252/355-8300; www.cityhotel
andbistro.com). $$
Jameson Inn,
920
Crosswinds St., Greenville (
&
800/526-
3766
or 252/752-7382; www.jamesoninn.
com).
