a place · NCB's Barbecue

A whole-hog and chicken pit on the edge of Greenville, Pitt County, in a converted country store on a road the county named for it. Bill McLawhorn, the B, opened it in 1978 with his wife Peggy; their daughters Judy Drach, Tammy Godley and Donna McLawhorn have run it since his death in 2007. There is no telephone, no take-out menu and no closing time: the doors open at nine in the morning and shut when the day's barbecue and chicken are gone, usually early afternoon. Cash or check only. The line forms before opening.

Bill McLawhorn gave up farming in 1978 and bought a convenience store just inside Greenville's city limits; he and Peggy worked out the sauce together and cooked out back, selling up front. He refused a telephone — 'If you need me, come get me' — and the refusal outlasted him. Bob Garner wrote it up for Our State in 2012 as a place of red picnic tables and cafeteria-style counter service with no promise the food would still be there at noon. Judy Drach told the Southern Foodways Alliance in 2009 that the family could have built something bigger with more staff and a day off, 'but when you start doing all that, then it's like any other restaurant and that's not what we wanted it to be.' Bill died in 2007 and the sisters took it on. The pits were once wood-fired brick; after fires the family went over to charcoal, and the pigs go on around nine at night to be ready by nine in the morning. The county renamed the road B's Barbecue Road.

Whole hogs and chickens cook overnight over charcoal, the hogs going on about 9 p.m. The pork is chopped by hand, never ground, and dressed with the McLawhorns' vinegar sauce; the chicken is sold by the half or the whole bird. In 2016 Our State printed the board: barbecue dinner $7.75, sandwich $3.75, a pound $8.50, half a chicken $7, a whole one $11.50. The customer orders at the counter and eats at a picnic table or in the car.

Open Tuesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. until sold out, at 751 B's Barbecue Road, Greenville. No phone. Cash or check. Hours pattern from Our State (2012 and 2016); check before driving.