{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "lexington-barbecue",
 "type": "place",
 "names": {
  "name": "Lexington Barbecue",
  "aliases": [
   "Lexington Barbecue #1",
   "The Honeymonk",
   "Honey Monk's",
   "The Monk"
  ],
  "sort": "Lexington Barbecue"
 },
 "region": [
  "nc-piedmont"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "state": "NC",
  "status": "open",
  "founded": "1962",
  "fuel": "wood",
  "styles": [
   "lexington"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "The pork-shoulder pit on Smokehouse Lane in Lexington, Davidson County, that Wayne Monk opened in 1962 at 26 after working under Warner Stamey, and that he owns with his son Rick. Shoulders cook nearly half a day over oak and hickory coals under four brick chimneys whose white smoke shows from the road; the meat is served chopped or sliced with the 'dip', the thin vinegar-and-ketchup sauce of the Piedmont, and with red slaw dressed with the same. Locals call it the Honeymonk, after Monk and his early partner Sonny Hunneycutt. The James Beard Foundation named it an America's Classic in 2003.",
  "story": "Wayne Monk worked under Warner Stamey, the man who carried the Lexington method out of the Weaver and Swicegood stands of the 1920s, and in 1962, at 26, opened his own place with Sonny Hunneycutt. The partner left; the joined name, Honeymonk, stayed on the town's tongue, and DavidsonLocal, reporting Monk's induction into the NC Bar-B-Q Hall of Fame on March 1, 2024, tied the name to the two surnames. Wikipedia records the 1962 founding and the James Beard Foundation's America's Classic award of 2003, the same year the Skylight Inn in Ayden got one — the two North Carolinas honored together. Our State counts about a thousand customers a day. Wayne and Rick Monk own it together, and the restaurant's own page lists Rick as owner.",
  "how": "Pork shoulders cook nearly half a day over oak and hickory coals. The plate is barbecue — chopped, coarse-chopped or sliced — with red slaw, hushpuppies and fries; a tray drops the bread. The dip is thin, vinegar with ketchup, spices and sugar, and the slaw is dressed with it, which is why it is red. Onion rings and barbecue beans are on the board.",
  "today": "Open Tuesday to Saturday 10 to 9, closed Sunday and Monday, at 100 Smokehouse Lane, Lexington, per the restaurant's site in September 2026. OpenStreetMap lists Monday hours as well; the restaurant's own page is followed here."
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "lexington",
   "as": "the style, in the restaurant most often named as its standing example.",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "pork-shoulder",
   "as": "the cut, half a day over coals.",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "to": "lexington-dip",
   "as": "its sauce, thin and reddened with ketchup, served at the table.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  },
  {
   "to": "red-slaw",
   "as": "on the plate, dressed with the dip.",
   "rel": "serves"
  },
  {
   "to": "hushpuppies",
   "as": "on the plate.",
   "rel": "serves"
  },
  {
   "to": "hickory-and-oak",
   "as": "its fuel, burned to coals in the fireplaces under four brick chimneys.",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "to": "wayne-monk",
   "as": "its founder, at the pit since 1962 and in the state's barbecue hall of fame since 2024.",
   "rel": "person"
  },
  {
   "to": "warner-stamey",
   "as": "the man Monk trained under, which makes this pit a grandchild of the Swicegood stand.",
   "rel": "origin"
  },
  {
   "to": "stameys-barbecue",
   "as": "the Greensboro house of Monk's teacher.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "bar-b-q-center",
   "as": "the other Lexington pit on Main Street, ice cream and all.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "cooks-barbecue",
   "as": "the small brick-pit house south of town, closed since 2022.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "skylight-inn",
   "as": "the eastern pit that received the same James Beard America's Classic award in 2003.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "lexington-barbecue-festival",
   "as": "the October street festival uptown that shares its name and cooks its style.",
   "rel": "event"
  }
 ],
 "confusable_with": [
  {
   "id": "lexington-barbecue-festival",
   "tell": "The restaurant is a pit on Smokehouse Lane open six days a week; the festival is a one-day October street fair uptown, held since 1984, with many restaurants cooking."
  },
  {
   "id": "lexington",
   "tell": "Lower-case, 'Lexington barbecue' is the style — shoulders, dip, red slaw — cooked at some twenty places in town; capitalized, it is this one restaurant."
  }
 ],
 "geo": {
  "lat": 35.8341,
  "lon": -80.26746,
  "precision": "street",
  "source": "OpenStreetMap"
 },
 "address": {
  "street": "100 Smokehouse Ln",
  "city": "Lexington",
  "county": "Davidson",
  "state": "NC",
  "postcode": "27295"
 },
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Lexington Barbecue — official",
   "url": "https://www.lexbbq.com/"
  },
  {
   "label": "Lexington Barbecue — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington_Barbecue"
  },
  {
   "label": "Murphy to Manteo: Lexington Barbecue — Our State",
   "url": "https://www.ourstate.com/lexington-barbecue-2/"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-lexington-barbecue",
  "s:web-lexbbq-about",
  "s:web-ourstate-lexington-barbecue",
  "s:web-davidsonlocal-wayne-monk",
  "s:sfa-stameys-barbecue",
  "s:wp-skylight-inn-bbq",
  "s:osm",
  "s:web-truecue-nc",
  "s:wp-james-beard-americas-classics",
  "s:unc-nc-postcards",
  "s:flickr-commons",
  "s:flickr-unc",
  "s:flickr-sfa",
  "s:flickr"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-lexington-barbecue"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-davidsonlocal-wayne-monk",
    "note": "Stamey's own lineage from the SFA Stamey's interview; Skylight's 2003 award from its Wikipedia article"
   },
   "text.how": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about",
    "note": "hours as posted 2026-09-15; OSM row way/674159065 says Mo-Sa"
   },
   "geo": {
    "tier": "harvested",
    "source": "s:osm"
   },
   "address": {
    "tier": "harvested",
    "source": "s:osm",
    "note": "harvest row is named 'Lexington BBQ'"
   },
   "images[0]": {
    "tier": "harvested",
    "source": "s:unc-nc-postcards",
    "note": "read on the item's own page 2026-09-16: “Public Domain Work”; the file, its sha256 and that statement are in the sidecar beside it"
   },
   "images[1]": {
    "tier": "harvested",
    "source": "s:flickr-sfa",
    "note": "read on the item's own page 2026-09-16: “CC BY 2.0”; the file, its sha256 and that statement are in the sidecar beside it"
   },
   "images[2]": {
    "tier": "harvested",
    "source": "s:flickr-sfa",
    "note": "read on the item's own page 2026-09-16: “CC BY 2.0”; the file, its sha256 and that statement are in the sidecar beside it"
   },
   "images[3]": {
    "tier": "harvested",
    "source": "s:flickr-sfa",
    "note": "read on the item's own page 2026-09-16: “CC BY 2.0”; the file, its sha256 and that statement are in the sidecar beside it"
   },
   "hours": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "high",
 "needs_verification": false,
 "images": [
  {
   "file": "lexington-barbecue/lexington-barbecue-the-original-lexington-barbecue-postcard.jpg",
   "source": "flickr",
   "title": "The Original Lexington Barbecue -- North of Winston Salem, N.C. -- Hwy. 52 at Motor",
   "url": "https://live.staticflickr.com/725/22475472794_191592a13b_o.jpg",
   "page_url": "https://www.flickr.com/photos/unclibraries_commons/22475472794/",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
   "author": "University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill",
   "credit": "North Carolina Postcards, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill",
   "alt": "A black-and-white postcard of a single-storey roadside restaurant with a stone-faced lower wall and striped awnings over each window. A sign along the roof ridge reads LEXINGTON BAR-B-Q; a tall pole sign stands at the right edge of the frame, and two petrol pumps and a vending machine sit by the right-hand door. A light-coloured car of the early 1950s is parked at the left. Houses and trees on a rise behind. Printed beneath the image: “The Original LEXINGTON BARBECUE — North of Winston Salem, N. C. — Hwy. 52 at Motor Rd.”",
   "date": "ca. 1930-1945",
   "primary": true,
   "sha256": "573472c89abdbd3725f6229e3b69f16f6a48f147e4b3be8ed7fdaec799027f63",
   "width": 1200,
   "height": 742
  },
  {
   "file": "lexington-barbecue/lexington-barbecue-shoulders-loaded-on-the-pit.jpg",
   "source": "flickr",
   "title": "shoulders at Lexington BBQ",
   "url": "https://live.staticflickr.com/3300/3500458139_a8595069af_h.jpg",
   "page_url": "https://www.flickr.com/photos/southernfoodwaysalliance/3500458139/",
   "license": "CC BY 2.0",
   "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/",
   "author": "Amy C. Evans; Southern Foodways Alliance",
   "credit": "Southern Foodways Alliance, Southern BBQ Trail",
   "alt": "Raw pork shoulders packed close in rows on the steel grate of a long masonry pit, skin side up. The pit's side is painted brick, red below and blackened above, with a heavy hinged steel lid; a flattened cardboard box rests across the open end. Smoke and steam hang over the meat.",
   "date": "2008-02",
   "primary": false,
   "sha256": "34a1b22d47e702750c5c7e2cf7baaca57fc2ac5f6f21e3aafc6a17409aab5949",
   "width": 1600,
   "height": 1064
  },
  {
   "file": "lexington-barbecue/lexington-barbecue-slicing-a-cooked-shoulder.jpg",
   "source": "flickr",
   "title": "chopping shoulders at Lexington BBQ",
   "url": "https://live.staticflickr.com/3320/3501274532_43e134e1ab_h.jpg",
   "page_url": "https://www.flickr.com/photos/southernfoodwaysalliance/3501274532/",
   "license": "CC BY 2.0",
   "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/",
   "author": "Amy C. Evans; Southern Foodways Alliance",
   "credit": "Southern Foodways Alliance, Southern BBQ Trail",
   "alt": "A man in a blue apron works a long knife through a cooked pork shoulder on a red cutting board, holding the meat steady with his other hand; the crusted outside is dark and the cut face is pale. Two steel hotel pans stand in front of him, one heaped with pulled and chopped pork, the other holding larger pieces in their own juices. Two cleavers and a knife lie on a cloth at the left; stainless kitchen equipment behind.",
   "date": "2008-02",
   "primary": false,
   "sha256": "1766e0c108db6c6607d5fc078ebc7569c8fa7aa036a5617141472d066e918f0a",
   "width": 1600,
   "height": 1064
  },
  {
   "file": "lexington-barbecue/lexington-barbecue-tray-with-slaw-and-hushpuppies.jpg",
   "source": "flickr",
   "title": "bbq with slaw and hushpuppies at Lexington Barbecue",
   "url": "https://live.staticflickr.com/3361/3500459381_7e06bf5ae5_h.jpg",
   "page_url": "https://www.flickr.com/photos/southernfoodwaysalliance/3500459381/",
   "license": "CC BY 2.0",
   "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/",
   "author": "Amy C. Evans; Southern Foodways Alliance",
   "credit": "Southern Foodways Alliance, Southern BBQ Trail",
   "alt": "A paper boat on a formica counter holding chopped pork with flecks of dark bark and red pepper through it, and beside it a heaped mound of finely chopped slaw. Behind, a second paper boat of hushpuppies, a bottle of sauce with a yellow and red label, and a printed card.",
   "date": "2008-02",
   "primary": false,
   "sha256": "c8bf89065b8d92652b069b0cad08683a8470ce5a1f2573c3ad96a62dc6095163",
   "width": 1600,
   "height": 1064
  }
 ],
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "tags": [
  {
   "tag": "wood-cooked",
   "source": "s:web-truecue-nc",
   "tier": "harvested",
   "note": "True 'Cue certified, listed as Lexington Barbecue #1. Shoulders cook nearly half a day over oak and hickory coals under four brick chimneys.",
   "url": "http://www.truecue.org/true-cue-nc"
  },
  {
   "tag": "family-run",
   "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "Wayne Monk opened it in 1962 at 26 and owns it with his son Rick."
  }
 ],
 "recognitions": [
  {
   "by": "james-beard",
   "what": "America's Classic",
   "source": "s:wp-james-beard-americas-classics",
   "year": 2003,
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Beard_America%27s_Classics"
  },
  {
   "by": "true-cue",
   "what": "certified wood-only pit, listed as Lexington Barbecue #1",
   "source": "s:web-truecue-nc",
   "url": "http://www.truecue.org/true-cue-nc"
  },
  {
   "by": "our-state",
   "what": "a feature",
   "source": "s:web-ourstate-lexington-barbecue"
  }
 ],
 "hours": {
  "open": [
   "Tu",
   "We",
   "Th",
   "Fr",
   "Sa"
  ],
  "closed": [
   "Su",
   "Mo"
  ],
  "text": "Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 9.",
  "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about",
  "url": "https://www.lexbbq.com/about-us",
  "tier": "cited",
  "checked": "2026-09-16",
  "note": "OpenStreetMap lists Monday hours as well; the restaurant's own page is followed here."
 },
 "blurb": "The pork-shoulder pit on Smokehouse Lane in Lexington, Davidson County, that Wayne Monk opened in 1962 at 26 after working under Warner Stamey, and that he owns with his son Rick.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "nc-piedmont",
   "name": "The North Carolina Piedmont",
   "state": "NC",
   "note": "Lexington, the Triad, Charlotte; 'Western' or 'Lexington-style' in barbecue talk"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "lexington",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "Lexington-style barbecue",
   "as": "the style, in the restaurant most often named as its standing example.",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "pork-shoulder",
   "type": "pit",
   "name": "pork shoulder",
   "as": "the cut, half a day over coals.",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "to": "lexington-dip",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Lexington dip",
   "as": "its sauce, thin and reddened with ketchup, served at the table.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  },
  {
   "to": "red-slaw",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "red slaw",
   "as": "on the plate, dressed with the dip.",
   "rel": "serves"
  },
  {
   "to": "hushpuppies",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "hushpuppies",
   "as": "on the plate.",
   "rel": "serves"
  },
  {
   "to": "hickory-and-oak",
   "type": "pit",
   "name": "hickory and oak",
   "as": "its fuel, burned to coals in the fireplaces under four brick chimneys.",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "to": "wayne-monk",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Wayne Monk",
   "as": "its founder, at the pit since 1962 and in the state's barbecue hall of fame since 2024.",
   "rel": "person"
  },
  {
   "to": "warner-stamey",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Warner Stamey",
   "as": "the man Monk trained under, which makes this pit a grandchild of the Swicegood stand.",
   "rel": "origin"
  },
  {
   "to": "stameys-barbecue",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Stamey's Barbecue",
   "as": "the Greensboro house of Monk's teacher.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "bar-b-q-center",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Bar-B-Q Center",
   "as": "the other Lexington pit on Main Street, ice cream and all.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "cooks-barbecue",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Cook's Barbecue",
   "as": "the small brick-pit house south of town, closed since 2022.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "skylight-inn",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Skylight Inn BBQ",
   "as": "the eastern pit that received the same James Beard America's Classic award in 2003.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "lexington-barbecue-festival",
   "type": "event",
   "name": "Lexington Barbecue Festival",
   "as": "the October street festival uptown that shares its name and cooks its style.",
   "rel": "event"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-lexington-barbecue",
   "kind": "wikipedia",
   "title": "Lexington Barbecue — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington_Barbecue",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-lexbbq-about",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "About Us — Lexington Barbecue",
   "publisher": "Lexington Barbecue",
   "url": "https://www.lexbbq.com/about-us",
   "accessed": "2026-09-15"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-ourstate-lexington-barbecue",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Lexington Barbecue (Bob Garner, 2012-08-31)",
   "publisher": "Our State",
   "url": "https://www.ourstate.com/lexington-barbecue/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-15"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-davidsonlocal-wayne-monk",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Wayne Monk inducted into the NC Bar-B-Q Hall of Fame — DavidsonLocal (10 Mar 2024)",
   "publisher": "DavidsonLocal.com",
   "url": "https://www.davidsonlocal.com/news/wayne-monk-inducted-into-the-nc-bar-b-q-hall-of-fame",
   "accessed": "2026-09-15"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:sfa-stameys-barbecue",
   "kind": "oral-history",
   "title": "Stamey's Barbecue — Chip Stamey, interviewed by Rien T. Fertel, 18 Nov 2011",
   "publisher": "Southern Foodways Alliance",
   "url": "https://www.southernfoodways.org/interview/stameys-barbecue/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-15"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-skylight-inn-bbq",
   "kind": "wikipedia",
   "title": "Skylight Inn BBQ — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylight_Inn_BBQ",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:osm",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "OpenStreetMap — places tagged cuisine=barbecue in North Carolina and South Carolina",
   "url": "https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright",
   "license": "ODbL 1.0",
   "note": "harvested by tools/harvest_osm.py via the Overpass API; share-alike"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-truecue-nc",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "True 'Cue NC — certified pits",
   "publisher": "The Campaign for Real Barbecue",
   "url": "http://www.truecue.org/true-cue-nc",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "Certification, as the page states it: wood coals or charcoal as the sole heat source; no electricity or gas except to ignite the wood, keep the finished barbecue warm, or reheat it. 68 pits listed on 2026-09-16."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-james-beard-americas-classics",
   "kind": "wikipedia",
   "title": "List of James Beard America's Classics",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Beard_America%27s_Classics",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:unc-nc-postcards",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "North Carolina Postcards, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives",
   "publisher": "Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill",
   "url": "https://dcr.lib.unc.edu/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "Postcards of North Carolina businesses, streets and highways, mostly linen and chrome era, from the Durwood Barbour Collection (P077) and the North Carolina Postcard Collection (P052)."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:flickr-commons",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "Flickr Commons",
   "publisher": "Flickr, with participating libraries, archives and museums",
   "url": "https://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "Institutions publish photographs here under the rights statement 'No known copyright restrictions', which is not a public-domain declaration: the holding institution states it has found no copyright, shares that research without warranty, and asks the user to make an independent assessment before a new use. The statement is per photograph. The same institution's stream holds all-rights-reserved photographs alongside released ones, and the same negative sometimes appears both ways, so each file here was checked on its own page."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:flickr-unc",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "UNC Libraries Commons on Flickr Commons",
   "publisher": "University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries",
   "url": "https://www.flickr.com/photos/unclibraries_commons/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "North Carolina Postcards and other Wilson Library material, posted under the Public Domain Mark. The library's own repository at dcr.lib.unc.edu serves the same cards, but there the rights appear only as the free-text words 'Public Domain' typed into a metadata field; the Flickr copies carry a rights URI, which is the firmer of the two statements, so they are the ones this project took."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:flickr-sfa",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "Southern Foodways Alliance photographs on Flickr",
   "publisher": "Southern Foodways Alliance, University of Mississippi",
   "url": "https://www.flickr.com/photos/southernfoodwaysalliance/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "The Alliance's oral-history and Southern BBQ Trail photographs. ⚠ The account is split by project, not by subject: the 2007-2009 sets by Amy C. Evans and Alan Pike carry CC BY 2.0, while the 2012 North Carolina and South Carolina Barbecue Trail sets by Denny Culbert — which hold the Skylight Inn, Stamey's, Bum's, Short Sugar's, Grady's, Cook's, the Barbecue Center, Sweatman's, Hite's and Brown's — are all rights reserved. Nothing from the Culbert sets is used here."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:flickr",
   "kind": "dataset",
   "title": "Flickr — individually licensed photographs",
   "url": "https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "note": "Photographs uploaded by individuals under a Creative Commons licence of their own choosing. The licence is per photograph and the uploader can change it at any time, so what was granted is the statement read on the page on the date in each sidecar. Share-alike files are complied with rather than avoided: the licence and the photographer ride with the file."
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-lexington-barbecue"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-davidsonlocal-wayne-monk",
   "note": "Stamey's own lineage from the SFA Stamey's interview; Skylight's 2003 award from its Wikipedia article"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about",
   "note": "hours as posted 2026-09-15; OSM row way/674159065 says Mo-Sa"
  },
  "geo": {
   "tier": "harvested",
   "source": "s:osm"
  },
  "address": {
   "tier": "harvested",
   "source": "s:osm",
   "note": "harvest row is named 'Lexington BBQ'"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": {
  "file": "lexington-barbecue/lexington-barbecue-the-original-lexington-barbecue-postcard.jpg",
  "source": "flickr",
  "title": "The Original Lexington Barbecue -- North of Winston Salem, N.C. -- Hwy. 52 at Motor",
  "url": "https://live.staticflickr.com/725/22475472794_191592a13b_o.jpg",
  "page_url": "https://www.flickr.com/photos/unclibraries_commons/22475472794/",
  "license": "Public domain",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "author": "University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill",
  "credit": "North Carolina Postcards, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill",
  "alt": "A black-and-white postcard of a single-storey roadside restaurant with a stone-faced lower wall and striped awnings over each window. A sign along the roof ridge reads LEXINGTON BAR-B-Q; a tall pole sign stands at the right edge of the frame, and two petrol pumps and a vending machine sit by the right-hand door. A light-coloured car of the early 1950s is parked at the left. Houses and trees on a rise behind. Printed beneath the image: “The Original LEXINGTON BARBECUE — North of Winston Salem, N. C. — Hwy. 52 at Motor Rd.”",
  "date": "ca. 1930-1945",
  "primary": true,
  "sha256": "573472c89abdbd3725f6229e3b69f16f6a48f147e4b3be8ed7fdaec799027f63",
  "width": 1200,
  "height": 742
 },
 "tag_facts": [
  {
   "key": "wood-cooked",
   "label": "Cooks over wood",
   "icon": "🔥",
   "group": "pit",
   "evidence": "True 'Cue certification, the NCBS Historic Barbecue Trail, the SCBA, an SFA interview, a press piece describing the pit, the pit's own site",
   "resources": [
    "r:true-cue",
    "r:ncbs-trail",
    "r:scba-trail"
   ],
   "source": "s:web-truecue-nc",
   "note": "True 'Cue certified, listed as Lexington Barbecue #1. Shoulders cook nearly half a day over oak and hickory coals under four brick chimneys.",
   "tier": "harvested",
   "url": "http://www.truecue.org/true-cue-nc"
  },
  {
   "key": "family-run",
   "label": "Family-run",
   "icon": "👪",
   "group": "ownership",
   "evidence": "a press profile or the business's own history",
   "resources": [],
   "source": "s:web-lexbbq-about",
   "note": "Wayne Monk opened it in 1962 at 26 and owns it with his son Rick.",
   "tier": "cited",
   "url": ""
  }
 ],
 "recognition_facts": [
  {
   "key": "james-beard",
   "label": "James Beard Foundation",
   "what": "America's Classic",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Beard_America%27s_Classics",
   "year": 2003,
   "source": "s:wp-james-beard-americas-classics"
  },
  {
   "key": "true-cue",
   "label": "True 'Cue (Campaign for Real Barbecue)",
   "what": "certified wood-only pit, listed as Lexington Barbecue #1",
   "url": "http://www.truecue.org/true-cue-nc",
   "year": null,
   "source": "s:web-truecue-nc"
  },
  {
   "key": "our-state",
   "label": "Our State magazine",
   "what": "a feature",
   "url": "",
   "year": null,
   "source": "s:web-ourstate-lexington-barbecue"
  }
 ],
 "acclaim": 3,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "lexington",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "Lexington-style barbecue",
   "as": "Wayne Monk's pit beside U.S. 29/70 since 1962, an America's Classic since 2003.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "lexington-dip",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Lexington dip",
   "as": "Wayne Monk's 'dark, rather thin' dip, neither too mild nor too fiery, in Bob Garner's description.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "barbecue-sandwich",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "barbecue sandwich",
   "as": "where the sandwich is chopped or sliced, with slaw, and where a pork skin sandwich sits on the same menu.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "barbecue-tray",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "barbecue tray",
   "as": "the pit whose menu fixes the words: chopped, sliced, coarse chop, tray and large tray.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "cheerwine",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "Cheerwine",
   "as": "on the drinks list with Coke and Diet Coke, $2.90 cash in September 2026.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "hushpuppies",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "hushpuppies",
   "as": "sells them by the small or large order.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "outside-brown",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "outside brown",
   "as": "where the brown is lifted off the shoulders and saved for special orders.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "peach-cobbler",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "peach cobbler",
   "as": "on a dessert list of pies and cobbler, with no banana pudding.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "pork-skins",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "pork skins",
   "as": "where skins are sold as a sandwich with slaw.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "red-slaw",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "red slaw",
   "as": "where it is on every sandwich and in every tray.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "sweet-tea",
   "type": "dish",
   "name": "sweet tea",
   "as": "$2.90 cash in September 2026, unsweet on request.",
   "rel": "served-at"
  },
  {
   "from": "brick-pit",
   "type": "pit",
   "name": "brick pit",
   "as": "cooks over oak and hickory coals under a roof of smoking stacks; a new hand trains a year.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "chopping-block",
   "type": "pit",
   "name": "chopping block",
   "as": "chopped, coarse chop or sliced; never pulled.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "pork-shoulder",
   "type": "pit",
   "name": "pork shoulder",
   "as": "cooks shoulders over oak and hickory coals and serves them chopped, coarse chopped or sliced, never pulled.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "bar-b-q-center",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Bar-B-Q Center",
   "as": "the Monk family's pit across town, the other name visitors come with.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "cooks-barbecue",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Cook's Barbecue",
   "as": "the Monk pit across town; Brandon Cook counts himself kin to half the town's barbecue families.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "stameys-barbecue",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Stamey's Barbecue",
   "as": "the pit of Stamey's pupil, still cooking in Lexington.",
   "rel": "descendant"
  },
  {
   "from": "bob-garner",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Bob Garner",
   "as": "Wayne Monk's pit, which he wrote up for Our State in 2012: ten hours over oak coals, the brown set aside for special orders.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "jess-swicegood",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Jess Swicegood",
   "as": "Wayne Monk trained at the stand Stamey bought from him; the pit is his grandchild.",
   "rel": "descendant"
  },
  {
   "from": "sid-weaver",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Sid Weaver",
   "as": "Wayne Monk learned under Stamey, who learned under Weaver; the pit is his grandchild.",
   "rel": "descendant"
  },
  {
   "from": "warner-stamey",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Warner Stamey",
   "as": "the pit of his pupil Wayne Monk, opened 1962.",
   "rel": "descendant"
  },
  {
   "from": "wayne-monk",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Wayne Monk",
   "as": "the pit he opened in 1962 and owns with his son Rick.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "chopped",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "chopped",
   "as": "whose menu lists Chopped, Coarse Chopped and Sliced BBQ — the vocabulary in one line.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "dip",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "dip",
   "as": "a Lexington pit where the dip and the slaw come from the same kitchen, shoulders only, over oak and hickory coals.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "pigs-in-the-city",
   "type": "art",
   "name": "Pigs in the City",
   "as": "the town's best-known pit, a mile from the pigs.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "from": "how-to-order",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "How to order",
   "as": "the Lexington counter where all three textures are on the board.",
   "rel": "place"
  }
 ]
}