a place · NCWilber's Barbecue

A whole-hog pit on U.S. 70 east of Goldsboro, Wayne County, opened in 1962 by Wilberdean 'Wilber' Shirley and cooked the same way since: split hogs over oak coals in open pits in a cinder-block cookhouse behind a red-brick restaurant with knotty-pine walls and red-checked tablecloths. It closed in March 2019 over unpaid taxes and reopened in July 2020 under Goldpit Partners, a group of Goldsboro natives who bought it and restored the building. The pork is hand-chopped on oak blocks and seasoned with vinegar and spices; fried chicken, collards, fried okra and hushpuppies come alongside.

Wilber Shirley learned the trade at Griffin's Barbecue in Goldsboro and in 1962 bought the former Hill's Barbecue on Highway 70 and put his name on it. He told the authors of Holy Smoke that he cooked 'split halves of whole hogs over oak coals in closed pits,' and that the grease hitting the coals made the smoke flavor. Staff split and cut oak all year; on a Labor Day weekend the pits held up to 130 pigs, and the dining rooms seated more than 300. Shirley worked twelve or thirteen hours a day, six days a week, for more than forty years, with some ninety employees. In March 2019 the restaurant was shut for nonpayment of taxes. Willis B. Underwood III, an insurance salesman and lifelong regular, gathered other customers into Goldpit Partners, bought the place, kept the paneling and the tablecloths, and reopened it in July 2020 — curbside only at first, Wednesday to Sunday, with a shortened menu. 'I just didn't want to see the smoke die,' he told Our State. Shirley's son-in-law Dennis Monk took a management role, and Shirley, who turned ninety in June 2020, advised. He died in April 2021. Pitmaster Jackie Martin, at the pits nearly forty years, works from two in the afternoon to five or six in the morning.

Whole hogs cook all night over oak embers on open pits — nine hours by one account, twelve or more by another — then are hand-chopped on oak blocks and seasoned with vinegar and spices. The plate is barbecue with fried okra and slaw; the sandwich is barbecue and slaw; the 'Bone Box' is a tray-sized pig pickin', the meat left on the bone for pulling by hand. Sides run to hushpuppies, collards, cabbage, macaroni and cheese and fried chicken; the desserts — pecan pie, coconut and carrot cake, banana pudding, Wilber's cookies — are made in the house.

Open Wednesday to Saturday 11 to 7 and Sunday 11 to 3, at 4172 U.S. Highway 70 East, Goldsboro, per the restaurant's site in September 2026. Goldpit Partners own it.