a place · NCSpeedy Lohr's Barbecue

A wood-burning pork house on NC 8 south of Lexington, Davidson County, run by Randy and Amy Lohr, who bought the building in June 2013 from Whitley's Barbecue and carried the family name onto it. Randy's father was Sherman Paul 'Speedy' Lohr, who started the first Speedy's on Highway 52 and learned under Warner Stamey. The pits burn wood and the family says plainly that they always will. The tray is the Piedmont tray, chopped shoulder with the dip and red slaw; pork-skin sandwiches come out on Thursdays.

There are three businesses in the Carolinas carrying the Lohr name and they do not cook alike, which is the first thing to settle. This is the NC 8 house. Amy Lohr set out the line herself, in a comment on a visiting writer's post on February 2, 2023: her father-in-law founded the original Speedy's on Highway 52, and Randy bought this building in 2013. She wrote, of the pits, that they still cook over them with wood, have never stopped and never will, Lord willing — which is as direct a statement of method as a pit gives, and it comes from an owner rather than from a listing. Highway work had already cost the family twice: Randy's father's place went in an earlier expansion of Highway 8, and a Speedy Lohr's at Southmont closed in 2005 for the same reason. Then in 2015 this building caught fire and closed. It reopened in August 2016, thirteen months and about $200,000 later, with the pits rebuilt to code. Randy and Amy's son Luke is the named successor, and a visiting writer recorded in 2018 that he means to keep cooking with wood. The Campaign for Real Barbecue certified the pit.

Pork cooks over wood in pits behind the building, rebuilt after the 2015 fire. The meat is chopped and served the Piedmont way, with the dip — thin vinegar reddened with ketchup — and red slaw dressed from the same jug. Pork-skin sandwiches are a Thursday item rather than an everyday one.

Open at 3664 NC Highway 8 South, Lexington, and carried on Visit Lexington's current barbecue list. The map point here is the town, not the building: no street-level coordinate for the address came back from the geocoder. Hours are not on this disk. Check before driving.