Little Richards - Lexington-style Barbeque in Winston-Salem
In town for a family event, we went looking for barbeque. My brother had taken me to a place nearby and we’d gotten takeout from them as well. In between the synagogue in the AM and the party at night, my cousin and her husband (Manhattanites), my sister and my wife and I got the name from my niece and directions from my brother and piled into the rented mini-van.
Mitch, my cousin’s husband, wanted something authentic. Little Richards looked the part–a small roadhouse kind of place, set incongruously in a road lined with strip malls–and it smelled of wood smoke. Inside, it was bright and covered in old metal signs and the like.
“Coarse chopped plate,” advised my brother so we got three, substituting baked beans for one of the fries. The plates came with a pile of meat chunks that were tender enough to pull and tasting mostly of slow-cooked pork. The fat was cooked out, there was a tinge of woodsmoke, and a light drizzle of vinegar and hot pepper sauce. Lexington style isn’t my favorite barbeque (I confess to being a dry rub rib man and with a hot and sweet tomato sauce on the side.), but this was good. The chopped slaw was marinated in the sauce without mayonaise. The beans were good–sweeter than the meat. The family style boat of hush puppies was amazing. Slightly sweet, crunchy, tasting of corn meal and without grease, they were the best part of the meal.
Some of the Chowhound comments were iffy, but this is the place.