Jeri Rowe

You could easily miss Jon G’s Barbecue, tucked beside U.S. Route 74 in a rural stretch of northern Anson County. But people don’t. Jon G’s is only open on Saturdays, and barbecue mavens come from everywhere. Some arrive Friday night to sleep by the front door or camp out in their cars in the nearby parking lot. They want to be first in line because many just like them will make the same pilgrimage. More than a few will roll in at sunrise. Who knew? Garren and Kelly Kirkman didn’t. Still don’t.

An hour before sunrise, I cross the longest bridge in North Carolina to find “Bearman,” the singing storyteller of Manns Harbor. I pull into White’s Shopping Center, greeted by the scent of sizzling bacon, and park just past the gas pumps. Under the fluorescent lights, White’s Harbor Grille’s cerulean-blue awning seems to glow like a theater marquee. It’s appropriate, especially when I walk in and hear someone singing.

When Josh Holmes starts into how he discovered Saluda, he begins with barbecue and God. He had once been an executive chef and ran a restaurant at a resort in Florida. Now, he dreamed of running a barbecue food truck. While living in Rutherfordton several years ago, he drove through Saluda’s tiny downtown and passed a red-brick building with two Coca-Cola signs out front. They were as big and round as catering platters. In the moment, he didn’t think anything of it.