The old song that says "fools rush in where wise men fear to tread" might well have been written about anyone dumb enough to rate barbecue joints. Given the subjective nature of these evaluations, any hope of a consensus among barbecue fans is unrealistic. Indeed, barbecue beauty is in the eyes, nose, and mouth of the beholder. With these caveats in mind, here are a few personal opinions of some joints offering pulled pork barbecue in North Carolina.

Lexington, NC has one barbecue joint for every thousand inhabitants!

Pulled pork barbecue is traditionally prepared by cooking the meat over hardwood coals. Unfortunately, most "barbecue" joints these days use charcoal, gas, or electricity as fuels. And, folks, while some of the stuff cooked with these fuels can be quite tasty when doctored up with a finishing sauce, it just ain't barbecue. So it is that all the joints on the "Best of the Best" are traditional logburners. Enjoy them while you can. With all the pressure from governmental agencies to shut down the pits for one environmental reason or the other, they may not last forever.

Other places are probably worthy of mention. Unfortunately, with so many to visit and so little time to visit them, these missing joints lack only the iron-clad listing requirement of an on-site visit to sample their barbecue.