The 2025 Georgia Tour Beer Snob Pig Picking Extension – John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog

After I completed my errand to grab another world-class lunch at Wilber’s and pick up a buttermilk pie as my contribution to the Beer Snob Pig Picking later in the day, I started south toward Lumberton. I still had plenty of time, and to avoid arriving early, I stopped at Grady’s for a bite to eat.

To be honest, I would have made time to grab bite there even if I’d been rushed. Grady’s is perhaps the most endearing barbecue place anywhere. The Gradys are a lovely couple, as friendly and welcoming as can be. So are all of the other employees there. There’s an essence, a purity about Grady’s. It’s a small place, largely unadorned.

Grady’s is set way out in the country, with nothing nearby and nothing fancy on the menu. It has no airs, no pretense, nothing to impress you besides the food and the people.

I went in and ordered a barbecue tray, pork and slaw and, of course, hushpuppies. The pork arrived hot and fresh.   

We can get a better look than that. Here —

That is some delicious pork, the pork that keeps people lining up every day at Grady’s. It’s one of a handful of the best in the state. The only issue I’ve ever had has been pork skin that wasn’t crisp. Almost all of the skin was spongy and lacked the Pop! of flavor you get from crisp skin at places like Bums, the Skylight Inn, and especially Sid’s Catering. And until this and a prior visit, at Grady’s. The spongy skin could have just been my bad luck — they chopped in some non-crisp skins and I wound up with it. It’s happened before, though, and while the spongy skin is okay and doesn’t so much harm the sandwich as offering a mocking reminder of how spectacular the sandwich would have been with the good stuff, instead of “merely” excellent. Call that praising it with a slight damn.

Grady’s offers a good, solid slaw, and no one’s going to complain about the hushpuppies. Once again it was a fine meal, as it always is. As I sat there eating it I noted that they had sweet potato pie.

So I bought one to take to the Pig Picking so I could share something from the good folks at Grady’s with the good folks of Lumberton.

Of course you should go to Grady’s. It’s a wonderful place, with good people making good food. And you’ll probably get all the crisp skin, as others seem to do. Do let me know how you fare.

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