A taste of summer: Barbecue hot spots spring up in Waynesboro

There’s a reason for that wonderful, smoky fragrance hanging over town. Waynesboro has become a barbecue hot spot, with grillmasters dispensing the south’s favorite sandwich from Main Street to the city limits.
Fans will find a great deal of variety to fit their taste: pulled, sliced or chopped; tangy or sweet; beef, chicken or pork; served simply on a bun with slaw or accompanied by a wealth of sides and desserts. Wherever you go, you can be sure the service will be as sweet as the sugar in the tea.
The newest spot is Rick’s, which opened in June at the former site of the Waynesboro Discount Center. Owners Rick and Susan Truslow cook chicken, pork and beef out back, the dense meat flavored by its slow smoking over many hours. The Truslows pull the tender meat for sandwiches and offer them with a selection of sauces: a vinegar sauce balanced with a little sugar, a vinegar- mustard sauce a traditional tomato-based barbecue sauce and a peppery sauce that adds a bit of a tang to the mild meat. Customers add their own sauce to the generous scoop of pulled meat piled on the plate.
Actually, said Susan Truslow, the meat’s flavor could stand on its own, infused with the flavors of charcoal and hickory and cooked so slow and long that the fat dissolves and the meat barely needs a nudge to pull it into serving-size pieces. The Truslows use whole chickens for their pulled chicken sandwiches, Boston butts for their pulled pork and beef briskets for their pulled beef sandwiches and platters.
They’ve got a few other tricks up their sleeves: almost anything, Truslow said, benefits from the mellow flavor of the low hickory flame.
“Last week, we cooked a whole hog,” she said. “We put it out on the buffet and it was all-you-can-eat. People love it.”
For these events, they’ll add a couple of home-style sides to their usual selection of coleslaw, baked beans and macaroni salad. Or they might smoke some chicken wings and fat sausages for a little variation on the barbecue theme.
Truslow said they have a special plan for later this fall.
“We’re going to put out a whole smoked salmon and a smoked turkey,” she said. “We might add some cooked red-skin potatoes to the buffet with them.”
The Truslows had been catering barbecue dinners from their Waynesboro home for several years before deciding to renovate the cavernous space. Picnic tables with print tablecloths give the place a family atmosphere, and there’s a play area for children.
“I think it’s great that the parents can come in here and relax,” Truslow said.
Up the street, Shukri and Lois Simmons operate Shukri’s in the small cheerful space that formerly housed Mad Anthony’s Coffee.
“When Lois first saw it, she said it was kind of a ‘hole in the wall,’ ” said Shukri Simmons. “I encouraged her to think of it as a space where people could come, bring the family, and have a good time with the other customers.”
The petite dining area adds to the informality and congeniality of the sunny dining area giving it a café-type atmosphere. The Simmonses serve an increasing take-out crowd in addition to the five red-and-white covered tables.
Shukri’s will celebrate its first anniversary Sept. 12, and it’s been a good year, said Shukri Simmons. They serve what’s known as a “sticky” barbecue: chopped pork and chicken and the ribs all blanketed in a spicy tomato-based sauce thickened and sweetened by simmering slowly for a long time.
It’s easy to pick out the tomato flavor and the sugar in the sauce, but that’s all Simmons will reveal.
“It’s a secret recipe, after all,” he said.
Also secret is the exact recipe for the banana pudding, a family favorite from Lois’ mother.
“It’s gotten to the point where it seems everyone who comes in here just can’t leave without a taste of that pudding,” Simmons said.
Time is the not-so-secret ingredient in barbecue, and Simmons estimates his pork butts spend at least 12 hours in the cooker, with chicken and ribs taking less time. Once smoked through, Shukri’s product is pulled into bite-sized pieces, and folded into the rich, thick sauce.
For sides, the Simmonses offer baked beans flecked with lean pieces of smoked pork, macaroni and cheese, a mustard-based potato salad and cole slaw. Besides the banana pudding, you’ll find cake for dessert, a different one each day.
Gary and Tammy Cash operate a mobile unit they set up on Broad Street on weekdays and roll down to the Waynesboro Farmers Market every Wednesday afternoon. It’s been a good start for the couple, who began their barbecue venture in January.
“Our main focus is on the chopped barbecue sandwiches,” said Gary Cash. “We serve the lunchtime crowd, and we also have people who pick up barbecue to go later in the day.”
Although they’re new to retail sales, Cash said they’ve been involved in barbecue for a long time. He began by helping a good friend with pig roasts.
“I’d help him on weekends, and began to learn how it was done,” he said. “For instance, I learned not to use any chemicals to start the charcoal.”
Cash began to do parties for friends and developed his own style: “I decided to use all boneless shoulders,” Cash said. “To my mind, they have very little fat, so they cook up better.”
He smokes them over charcoal for 8-9 hours, taking care to keep the heat low. “That keeps the meat from having any hard or chewy parts,” he said.
The Cashes offer a few sides with their sandwiches: baked beans and cole slaw made fresh each day. He’s adapted a Maryland beach favorite as a new selection.
“I’ve seen ‘boardwalk fries,’ at the beach,” he said. “I’m now making ‘Broad Street fries’ as a side.” The long, tender fries are served with a vinegar sauce, just like at Ocean City, Rehoboth and Dewey Beach. The chopped pork gets a vinegar-based sauce as well. When he caters parties, Cash will smoke other meats as called for.
“Things are going real well for us,” Cash said, “Especially since it’s all been word of mouth.” Last week, Still Pork’n catered a party for the Waynesboro First Aid Crew.
Waynesboro’s first, and for a long time its only barbecue shop, once stood at Route 250 West and Pelham Drive. The venerable Peck’s remained there for more than 20 years at the site of what is now the CVS pharmacy.
A new store is going up in Staunton near the Department of Motor Vehicles (closer to the Pecks’ home); meanwhile, a mobile unit serves barbecue there and, until the end of September, across from Sheetz in Waynesboro.
“Once the new store opens, we’ll just operate from there,” said Charles Truslow, a 17-year veteran employee of Peck’s, often working at the Waynesboro trailer.
When the new restaurant opens, it will offer a variety of smoked meats, said Truslow said. The mobile units focus on what customers love best, pork barbecue sandwiches topped with cole slaw.
“We serve barbecue sliced, chopped and coarsely chopped,” Truslow said, depending on what customers request.
“We’ll choose whatever looks good – there are a lot of cuts of pork that do fine: butts, shoulders, tenderloin,” Truslow said.
“Any cut that looks good and is priced right is smoked on hickory charcoal and cooked for hours before it’s served, dressed with the light, North-Carolina vinegar-based sauce and served to satisfied customers.”
Waynesboro fans of Peck’s can grab their sandwiches at the trailer until Oct. 1 or so, Truslow said. After that, Peck’s will offer catering to the Waynesboro area.

Get it Hot!

- Shukri’s BBQ Co., 403 W. Main St., Waynesboro; 932-2644; Monday-Thursday 11-3; Fri, Sat. 11-8; Sunday 12-6
- Still Pork’n Bar-B-Q trailer, 1224 W. Broad St. across from Fred’s Auto; 241-5017; 10:30-2:30 or Waynesboro Farmer’s Market, Wednesdays, 3-7
- Peck’s BBQ, Route 250 across from Sheetz; Tuesday-Friday, 11-3.
- Rick’s, 309 W. Main St., Waynesboro; 949-0010; Mon.-Sat., 11-8