AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025 - 55

The Pik-N-Pig restaurant in Carthage offers outdoor seating for patrons to watch the visiting aircraft land on either the grass
strip or the paved runway at Gilliam-McConnell Airfield; Steve and Gerri Grady are celebrating nearly 40 years running their
Dudley restaurant; a typical blue-sky North Carolina day welcomes an assortment of pilots and their aircraft to Carthage.
Aviator Brewing Co. is located south of Raleigh
in a small town named Fuquay-Varina. Fuquay was
once a mineral springs destination for those seeking
to " take the cure, " and Varina was named for the
wife of Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's president
during the Civil War. The two towns merged in the
1960s. It's a cute little place with wide streets, but
what's truly remarkable is how pilot Mike Doble, who
started Aviator Brewing Co. in 2008, has taken over the
town. He has a tap room and restaurant, smokehouse
barbecue restaurant, pizzeria and beer shop, and opening
this year, a five-acre brewery with a Douglas C-54
Skymaster as its bar.
I knew of Doble from the late Mike Collins, an
AOPA technical editor who was a beer aficionado
and wrote about Doble ( " Pilots: North Carolina Craft
Brewer, " December 2015 AOPA Pilot). Doble also
provided beer to an AOPA Fly-In at Beaufort, North
Carolina. So, I knew he fit some of our basic criteria-
a pilot who owned a barbecue restaurant. But how
would Auchmutey rate the food?
After a tour of all his holdings and a peek at the
new brewery, Doble took us behind the scenes at his
barbecue restaurant, Aviator Smokehouse. There we
sampled brisket right out of the smoker.
" What's interesting is that this place represents
sort of a new style of barbecue. This is not a traditional
North Carolina barbecue place, " said Auchmutey.
" Number one, they do brisket. And there are a lot of
people in North Carolina who will tell you brisket
doesn't belong here. Brisket's something that ought
to be in Kansas City or Texas. But the way barbecue
is now, people want to have everything everywhere.
People are curious; they are curious about different
meats and different styles of barbecue. And the people
at Aviator Smokehouse do a wide variety of meat,
not just the North Carolina pork. "
Had I steered us wrong on the first stop?
" They do it well, " he said. " It was delicious. Highly
recommend. "
Whew.
Types of barbecue
North Carolina-Usually pork shoulder, smoked with a
thin vinegar-based sauce.
South Carolina-Also pork with either a heavy tomato
and sugar/spice sauce or a mustard and vinegar brown
sugar/spice sauce.
Texas-More use of beef in a sugary tomato sauce or
molasses-based marinade.
Kansas City-Tomato-based sauce on beef, ribs,
and chicken.
Memphis-Beef and pork ribs in a spicy tomato-based
sauce or dry rubbed.
Alabama-Pork in a white barbecue sauce, which is
mayonnaise-based with mustard, brown sugar, and spice.
Kentucky-Uses mutton in a Worcestershirebased
sauce.
St. Louis-Beef ribs in a sweet tomato-based sauce.
On to Mount Olive (W40)
Now we were on our way to Auchmutey's picks-
places he's written about and recommends for the
" true " taste of North Carolina barbecue. Tulis flew our
tasters southeast to Mount Olive Municipal Airport
(W40). It was Auchmutey's introduction to GA flying,
on board what Tulis has dubbed " Air Dave. "
Tulis is recorded by our videographer: " All right,
so Jim, we're in the air, on Air Dave now. You got your
life in my hands in this Skylane. We're going to Mount
Olive, a little bit to the east. We're not going there for
its famous pickles; where are we going? "
Tulis chattered away on the intercom, not waiting
for answers, detailing for the new passenger his flight
AOPA PILOT / March 2025
55

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025

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