Wilber’s Barbecue

Location

Maybe you think Wilber’s Barbecue doesn’t belong — no matter how good it is — because it’s too far from the interstate. Goldsboro is almost 30 miles from I-95. You will have to budget an extra 30 plus minutes to get there and the same amount of time to get back. So why am I including Wilber’s? Here’s the reason: I would go a long way out of my way to eat with Wilber Shirley. The food is great — especially the barbecue and fried chicken. The experience of eating at Wilber’s should not be denied to any North Carolinian. In North Carolina Barbecue: Flavored By Time, Bob Garner says that Wilber’s is one of only a handful of restaurants in eastern North Carolina “where barbecue is cooked entirely over hardwood coals.” If you ask Charlotte Observer columnist and barbecue expert Jack Betts about North Carolina’s best, here is what he says: “If the question is best barbecue, period, then my answer is Wilber Shirley’s peppery, chopped barbecue cooked the old way — over hardwood coals just behind his one-story, redbrick restaurant on Goldsboro’s east side.”

Hrs: Daily, 6 a.m.-9 p.m.