The Charlotte 500, Laps 52-54: Lexington Day Trip

Lexington, NC, is, as the sign says, The Bar-B-Q Capital. I hate it when people can't just call it "barbecue" but Lexington has the right to spell it how they want as they are the only town I know that has lent its name to a specific style of barbecue.
Lexington barbecue, also known as Western North Carolina style, uses only the dark, fatty meat of the pork shoulder and adds ketchup to the sauce. Also, the accompanying cole slaw is usually a tomato-vinegar based slaw (my favorite), rather than a mustard-based slaw (also excellent), or that awful mayo-based junk you find in the rest of the country. If for no other reason, North Carolina living is great because I actually eat those little sides of cole slaw that come with the meal rather than throwing them away. But, I'm off the track a bit. Those are the basic rules of Eastern versus Western NC barbecue, although the cole slaw rules don't seem to be hard and fast.

Anyway...the next three laps of the Charlotte 500 all revolve around the city of Lexington, about an hour or so northeast of Charlotte on Interstate 85.

Lap 52: Childress Vineyards. North Carolina has become a wine-lovers (which we are not) haven, with a number of vineyards popping up across the piedmont. We chose to go to Childress Vineyards not because of its reputation as wine-maker (to be honest, I don't even know how they rate with the wine snobs), but because it is owned by Richard Childress, NASCAR team owner. We went in the spring, before the grapes had begun to grow, so we didn't see much in the fields beyond bare grape vines, which look rather sickly when they're naked (as most of us do, I'm sure). The tour was very interesting and educational, at least for people like me who only knew that making wine had something to do with grapes. As for the tasting, we both felt the Scupperdine Red, a twist on Scuppernong, the classic poor-man's wine of the South, was great. I also enjoyed the sweet dessert wines - Polar and Starbound (made with blueberries). Even if your not big on wine, Childress is beautifully situated and worth a visit. And the in-house restaurant serves up some nice, unique but simple sandwiches.

Lap 53: Lexington Barbecue. We chose to have dinner at Lexington Barbecue - it's the name of the town, it's the name of the style of barbecue, so we had to eat at the bbq joint that also carries the name. So far, after numerous samplings, Lexington Barbecue, founded in 1962, is my favorite. The meat was hickory smoked, and the taste came through wonderfully. Also, the hush puppies were among the best, with a nice corn meal flavor. The slaw was a bit on the vinegary side, but still good.

Lap 54: Monty's Ice Cream. Just outside the entrance to Childress Vineyards, Monty's carries on the NASCAR theme. The ice cream is wonderful. I don't normally like the overly sweet flavors like cotton candy but Monty's version is fantastic. The owner also was very friendly and we had a nice long conversation covering myriad topics, as it wasn't busy at all (since the rest of the businesses in the complex had yet to open their doors).

All in all, a great day, especially as the sky was deep blue and the temperatures were in the 70s.