The Skylight Inn has been on my list for some while. Here’s a link to more information about them from roadfood.com:
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=5373
(you can cut and paste it if you have trouble clicking)

Laura Giovanelli on 05/08/2008 (10:58 am)

Another real deal ENC place is The Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC. It won a James Beard award two or three years back. Everything thing is served on a paper tray, wood cooked BBQ - with crispy skin chopped in- slaw and old timey flat cornbread. When I first started going there, and as late as the mid-90’s, the cash register was a cigar box.

Radio Smuggles on 05/08/2008 (9:58 am)

Radio Smuggles, I’ll let you in on a secret - I tend to agree. I love Allen and Son so.

Lexington is undisputedly a pork-happy haven, though. They have got to have the highest concentration of barbecue restaurants in the state. That was more the point of my comparison. I was probably reaching.

Laura Giovanelli on 05/07/2008 (1:56 pm)

Sorry Laura I can’t resist. I agree with your comparison of Lexington versus Lyon but only because Lexington cooked pig does not compare favorably with eastern NC BBQ. I agree, especially now that I have lived in W-S going on 4 years, with the following quote from Dennis Rogers, retired columnist with the Raleigh News Observer:

“Residing as we do in perfect Eastern North Carolina, it is tempting to look down our fortunate noses at those miserable wretches forced by bad circumstances to eat inferior Western North Carolina BBQ.”

Sorry Laura I couldn’t resist.Even giving Lexington some benefit of doubt it is probably not a true apples to apples comparison.

Radio Smuggles on 05/06/2008 (11:03 pm)