The Greatest Hits of American Barbecue: Why We Serve Texas Brisket in North Carolina
October 4, 2026 – Haywood Smokehouse
In 2023, Yelp named Haywood Smokehouse the No. 1 brisket spot in the United States and Canada. A writer once asked why a smokehouse in North Carolina advertises Texas barbecue. Joe has an answer for that.
Philadelphia is known for the cheesesteak. That does not mean you cannot get a good one in Atlanta.
Why does a North Carolina smokehouse serve Texas brisket?
Because Joe believes Texas brisket is, without a doubt, the best style of brisket there is, and because of where we sit.
Joe puts it this way: western North Carolina sits at the crossroads of the great barbecue styles. Texas brisket, Kansas City and St. Louis ribs, the pork of South Georgia and Eastern Carolina. This is where all of those traditions meet.
He did not want to handcuff the place to what one region is known for. Wherever it is good, we bring it here.
Joe's words: wherever we thought it was best is where we learned it, and we wrapped it all up into one package.
What is the difference between Texas brisket and Carolina pork?
Joe's view is simple. Texas brisket is the best style of brisket, and Carolina pork is the best type of pork. So we do both.
Texas brisket is beef, dry rubbed, slow-smoked over real hickory, and served without sauce. Our own brisket rub has no sugar in it at all, which is good news for all our keto and carnivore fans.
Carolina pork is the deep southern tradition, slow-smoked over the same hickory. It gets our own pork rub, different from the brisket.
Both rubs are ours, and they are some of our best sellers when folks visit. When nationwide shipping starts November 1, our brisket rub and pork rub ship too.
What makes St. Louis cut ribs different?
St. Louis refers to the cut. It starts as a spare rib, and then it gets trimmed and squared up, with the brisket bone and some of the side meat taken off. What is left is a more symmetrical slab.
Ours are dry rubbed and slow-smoked like everything else here.
Why don't you sauce the meat?
Because if meat is cooked right, it does not need sauce to hide anything.
Every meat gets a dry rub and comes off the pit unsauced. The meat should be good enough on its own. What you do after that is your business, and that is what the sauces are for.
What is the story with the eight sauces?
They follow how barbecue sauce moved across this country, from the far east coast toward the west.
It starts with vinegar in Eastern Carolina, used as a preservative and to cut through the fattiness of the meat. Somebody added red pepper flakes. Move west into the Piedmont and ketchup enters the picture. Then came the mustard sauces. Keep going west to Kansas City and Texas and the sauces get sweeter, with more ketchup, molasses, and brown sugar.
Eight sauces on our tables, running that whole line from one end to the other. Our East Carolina has a little ketchup in it, which keeps everything from settling on the bottom. The Strawberry Chipotle is our own creation, built on the sweet red.
Joe's own opinion, for whatever it is worth: a mustard sauce is the best thing you can put on brisket.
Why do you call it a smokehouse instead of a barbecue joint?
Because the two words mean different things.
Smoking is low and slow, roughly 250 to 275 degrees or below, over a long stretch of time. Barbecue runs hotter and shorter, up around 300 to 325 and above. What we do is the first one.
As a smokehouse, we can always expand what we offer in the future, like sides of salmon and cured bacons, the kinds of things a traditional smokehouse is known for.
What about the sides?
Nana's Creamy Coleslaw is Joe's great-grandmother's recipe, four generations old.
There is pork in the green beans and the collard greens, and brisket burnt ends go in the baked beans. Our fries go into pure beef tallow, the only fat in our fryers.
Does the greatest hits approach actually work?
Other people have answered that better than we can.
In 2023, Yelp ranked our brisket No. 1 in the United States and Canada. In 2024, we landed in the top 10 of Yelp's Top 100 BBQ Spots and were the top-ranked barbecue restaurant in North Carolina, and our Dillsboro location placed 11th on Yelp's Top 100 U.S. Restaurants, across every kind of restaurant in the country.
If the argument is whether one smokehouse can do Texas beef and Carolina pork and do both well, that is a reasonable place to look for an answer.
Come try the argument for yourself
Put the brisket next to the pork on your next visit. That is the whole case on one plate.
While you are at it, join the Get Smoked VIP Club for 10% off for you and a guest on your next visit, plus weekly deals by text. The Birthday Club gets you a card in the mail the week of your birthday, good for a free dessert with your meal.
And for everybody who is not close enough to drive over, nationwide shipping starts November 1, to all 50 states plus Canada and the United Kingdom.