Carolina Barbecue

a person · NCSam Jones

also: Samuel Jones

Samuel 'Sam' Jones is the grandson of Pete Jones and a third-generation pitmaster of the Skylight Inn in Ayden, where he sold chopped pork as a child. With Michael Letchworth he opened Sam Jones BBQ in Winterville on November 10, 2015, and a second restaurant in Raleigh in February 2021. His book with Daniel Vaughn, Whole Hog BBQ: The Gospel of Carolina Barbecue (2019), writes the family method down. He was a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast in 2018, and Sam Jones BBQ holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand from the first Michelin Guide American South (2025).

The story Cited · sfa-skylight-inn

At four, Sam Jones told a reporter that he wanted to be a trash man and the Prince of Barbecue; his father Bruce joked about putting hog grease in his milk bottle. He grew up in the Skylight Inn, quit it at fifteen, and came back after a college paper on barbecue told him what his work was. He described the return to Rien Fertel of the Southern Foodways Alliance in November 2011 as a flag-bearer's job, keeping the standard up on the field: 'I don't want our style of barbecue to be one of them things where you read about it in the history books. I want it to be one of them things where you can go get it and taste it and see it.' Southern Living put him among ten Southern pitmasters in 2012. A cooking event in Charleston in 2013 turned him toward a place of his own; in 2014 he and Michael Letchworth signed for a loan, and Sam Jones BBQ opened in Winterville on November 10, 2015, with a longer menu than the Skylight's — ribs, turkey, chicken, banana pudding — around the same wood-cooked hog. The James Beard Foundation listed him as a semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast in 2018; Whole Hog BBQ, written with Daniel Vaughn of Texas Monthly, came out from Ten Speed Press in 2019. The Raleigh restaurant opened in a former garage on West Lenoir Street in February 2021. He has served as Ayden's fire chief, lives on the farm he grew up on with his wife Sarah and two daughters, and told Garden & Gun in 2019: 'Today I'm proud to be from Ayden, North Carolina.'

Today Cited · web-hoodline-sam-jones-morgan-street-2026

Living. He runs Sam Jones BBQ in Winterville and Raleigh with Michael Letchworth and the Skylight Inn with his father Bruce and Jeff Jones; a stall in Raleigh's Morgan Street Food Hall is planned for the end of 2026, and Sam Jones BBQ holds a Bib Gourmand from the first Michelin Guide American South, November 2025.

Facts

rolepitmaster, founder, family, writer
stateNC
stylesEastern North Carolina barbecue
regionEastern North Carolina, North Carolina
linksSam Jones BBQ — official · Skylight Inn — SFA oral history with Samuel Jones (2011) · Sam Jones — Southern Smoke Foundation biography
confidencehigh · updated 2026-09-15

Its kin

placesSkylight Inn BBQthe family pit he grew up in and still helps run; his grandfather opened it in 1947.and of this page it says: the grandson who carried the method to his own restaurants and wrote it down in a book.placesSam Jones BBQhis own restaurant, opened in Winterville in 2015 with Michael Letchworth and in Raleigh in 2021.and of this page it says: its founder, who wrote the family method down in 2019.peoplePete Joneshis grandfather, whose whole hog over wood is the method he wrote down.and of this page it says: his grandson, who grew up in the Skylight and carried the family's whole hog to Winterville and Raleigh.peopleSkilton Dennisthe ancestor whose 1830 wagon his family's billboard names as the start of the trade.and of this page it says: his descendant, who wrote the family's claim into a book in 2019.stylesEastern North Carolina barbecuethe style he cooks and wrote the book on: whole hog, wood coals, vinegar and pepper.the pitwhole hogthe cut, cooked whole and chopped with the skin, at both of his restaurants.organizationsSouthern Foodways Alliancerecorded his oral history at the Skylight Inn on November 29, 2011, before he had a restaurant of his own.and of this page it says: interviewed at the Skylight Inn for its North Carolina project.peopleRien Fertelinterviewed him for the Alliance in 2011.and of this page it says: the Skylight's grandson, one of the pitmasters his book follows.wordspitmasterSouthern Living named him one of ten Southern pitmasters in 2012.

Who points back

sauces · says of this pageSam Jones BBQ saucethe third-generation pitmaster the bottle is named for.dishes · says of this pagecornbreadwho carries the Skylight cake to his own restaurants.

Sources

Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.

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