Memphis BBQ spaghetti is pulled pork tossed with tomato BBQ sauce over a pile of cooked spaghetti, a city-only Italian-American-meets-pit barbecue mash-up since 1987.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
The Bar-B-Q Shop on Madison Avenue invented BBQ spaghetti when Frank Vernon adapted a recipe handed down from Brady Vincent at the Brady and Lil's BBQ pit. The Vernons opened the Bar-B-Q Shop in November 1987 and put BBQ spaghetti on the menu as a side. By the early 2000s the dish was on Food Network and on most Memphis BBQ counter menus as a side or full plate.
Common allergens: Pork, Wheat
Tip from the editors. Use a mild tomato BBQ sauce. The Dancing Pigs sauce from the Bar-B-Q Shop is the canonical brand and ships nationally.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Frank and Hazel Vernon's Madison Avenue Memphis BBQ room invented BBQ spaghetti and has run dry-rub and wet ribs from a wood-pit smoker since 1987.
Signature: BBQ spaghetti, Dancing Pigs ribs
Order: Half slab of dry ribs with a side of BBQ spaghetti.
Tip: Closed Sundays and Mondays. The Dancing Pigs sauce ships nationally if you want to keep the meal going.
Central BBQ Downtown in Memphis runs the city's most reliable dry-rub ribs and pulled pork from a casual counter across from the National Civil Rights Museum.
Signature: Dry-rub pork ribs, Pulled pork sandwich
Order: Half slab of dry ribs with a smoked turkey sandwich on the side.
Tip: Lines from noon to 14:00; order online and pick up at the express counter to skip the queue.
A&R Bar-B-Que on Elvis Presley Boulevard in South Memphis has run Black-owned hickory-smoke BBQ from a converted gas station since 1983, quiet on tourist maps.
Why locals love it: Tourists on the Elvis Presley Boulevard stretch head straight to Graceland gift shops; A&R is the BBQ counter that Memphis locals quietly defer to for ribs.
Tip: The smoked bologna sandwich is the under-radar order; pair it with mustard slaw on the side.
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