What does NC take more seriously than politics? Barbecue, as Senate hopeful learns.
With a single tweet, Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham managed to unite all of North Carolina around a single position: Grilling is not barbecue.
On Monday night, Cunningham tweeted a photo of himself next to a gas grill, a spatula held deftly in hand, a plate of buns lying in wait. It looks like a lovely time. There’s only one problem, the tweet itself appears to suggest, wrongly, that barbecue can be made on a gas grill, or worse, that grilling falls within the realm of barbecue.
“There’s nothing better than BBQ — except for winning this Senate seat, of course,” Cunningham said in the tweet.
Social media, always eager to seize upon the latest barbecue controversy, has been breathless ever since. Conflating grilling with barbecue in North Carolina appears to have opened Cunningham up to a political spit-roasting.
“Sir. Respectfully, unless there is a hog hiding in that gas grill, the only BBQ in this photo is written on your apron,” tweeted Associated Press political reporter Meg Kinnard, with the hashtag “blasphemy.”
“Nothing like vinegar based hot dogs on a warm North Carolina evening,” read one tweet.
Grilling, beloved though it is in North Carolina, is not barbecue. One is searing over a hot flame until crispy and charred, the other is a low and slow lullaby, gently smoking pork while a sizzling symphony of fat drips on hot wood coals for hours and hours. You can love whole hog, you can love Lexington pork shoulders, but in North Carolina one can never confuse grilling and barbecue.
‘Self-respecting son of Lexington’
The News & Observer reached out to the Cunningham campaign to clarify his barbecue stance. Cunningham copped to hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill in the photo, but was unequivocal on the state’s most famous food, saying he would never call grilling barbecue.
“No self-respecting son of Lexington would ever do that,” Cunningham said Tuesday in a phone interview, saying he was only modeling a new campaign apron with “Ambassador for North Carolina BBQ” written on it.
Cunningham, a Lexington native, defended his barbecue credentials and took the uproar in stride, rattling off his Lexington favorites, the Bar-B-Q Center followed closely by Lexington Barbecue and his 1982 whole hog introduction via Wilber’s in Goldsboro. He said he loves and respects both North Carolina styles, but will always pick the pork shoulder and tomato-based Lexington style he’s known all his life.
“I’ve probably been eating Lexington barbecue since before I had teeth,” Cunningham said. “Barbecue is a deep part of our culture. ... North Carolina barbecue is something I love very much.”
Republican state representative Steve Jarvis issued a statement calling on Cunningham to apologize for saying grilling was barbecue. Jarvis represents Davidson County, home of Lexington.
The North Carolina GOP also issued a statement, calling the tweet a scandal.
“In North Carolina, we have Eastern BBQ and Western BBQ but neither involves a spatula, hot dog buns or gas grills,” said NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley in a party press release. “Cunningham is an elitist trial lawyer, and this BBQ gaffe demonstrates that he is out of touch with North Carolina voters who actually know what North Carolina BBQ is.”
Thom Tillis and a barbecue tweet
But Republicans might not want to seize too strongly on this supposed gaffe, as Twitter has also resurfaced a 2014 tweet from Republican Senator Thom Tillis, which appears to also mix up grilling and barbecue.
“Nothing like a good snow storm for a backyard BBQ. Surf n turf: cedar plank salmon and tenderloin steaks,” Tillis tweeted in February 2014, using the hashtags “foodie” and “whole30,” referring to the Whole 30 diet.
This is far from the first North Carolina barbecue controversy and doubtful to be the last, but it’s certainly not the worst. That dubious honor falls to Rufus Edmisten, who while campaigning for governor in 1982 referred to barbecue as “that damnable stuff” and said he was sick and tired of it.
Edmisten went on to lose that election.
This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 1:12 PM with the headline "What does NC take more seriously than politics? Barbecue, as Senate hopeful learns.."
