- Title
- Our State
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-
- Date
- September 2011
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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Our State
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tar heel tastes
В
ending Barbecue
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lradition
At Luella's Bar-B-Que, customers find enough familiarity to make them comfortable
and enough diversity to remind them they're in Asheville.
By I^ah Hughes
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT ROSE
Jeff Miller knows Southern barbecue. He
knows how lo cook it, how to chop it, iml how
to make a business out of it.
Miller's
япап.
So when he opened IaicI la's Bar-
B-Quc four years ago, he created a restaurant with a
strong sense of place and a deep understanding of its
customers. Located just north of downtown Asheville
on Merriinon Avenue, Luella’s attracts a varied crowd
— 70-year-old retirees, businessmen in neckties, and a
few students from the University of North Carolina at
Asheville just across the strcct.
Luclla's is a North Carolina barbecue joint
marinated in the Asheville vibe. Multicolored lights
trim the dining room's orange walLs. Classic-rock mime
flows through the speakers at just the right volume
— no need to shout. Or sometimes a blucgrass band
strums in the comer.
Behind the wooden bar with a guitar inlay, 14 beer
taps — with six spouts from Asheville microbreweries
— line the wall. Miller worked with an architect to
create the facade on the back wall made of wooden
fence-post ends cut at different lengths. It reflects the
careful balance Luella’s maintains between the wood-
panel isl barbecue bastions that North Carolinians love
and the diverse culture that thrives in Asheville.
Luella’s top seller is still the |>ork barbecue sandwich
with slaw and a Mile of macaroni anil cheese. But the
frcsh-liaked buns come from City’ Bakery just a few
miles away, and the cheese comes from Ashe County ?
Cheese company.
“We wanted to put a new line around barbecue,"
Miller says. I le doesn't know exactly how to define
it. Maybe its the decor. Maybe it's the five different
sauces. Maybe it’s the brisket, turkey, and chicken in
addition to the pork. :
But whatever it is, it's authentic. Nothing about
Luella's feds contrived. It's familiar. When you sit
down with a glass of Cheerwine or Luziannc sweet tea
anil lute into a chopped -pork sandwich doused with a
vinegar-based sauce, you realize that Jeff Miller knows
what hc\> doing.
Culinary quest
Miller grew up in Iowa, w here he wasn't fond of the
local barbecue overpowered by thick, sugary sauces
characteristic of the region. “lowans don't understand
barbecue at all," he says. 'If they think they do. it’s
coining from Kansas City or St. Louis, w hich are great
170 Our SOW SapMmtMr 2011