Big Ed's Chicken Pit

105 West Peachtree Drive, High Point, N.C.
This place has no web site!
Note: Cash only
Two Thumbs Up

Jon's Take
This is what I thought it would be like when I moved below the Mason-Dixon line. First, it's called Big Ed's Chicken Pit. Second, it lives up to the name.

Big Ed's Chicken Pit has a homey atmosphere and great food, and it's a great value. There are no frills here. The outside is pretty plain. The inside is all wooden and brick (real wood and brick, not paneling) and it's decorated with antique farming equipment, old photos, license plates, neon beer signs, and -- for good measure -- there's a stuffed rooster and a stuffed boar on the wall. There's also a covered deck but nobody was using it in the rainy weather.

To start with the value factor, I just have to say that Big Ed's offers $1.50 Miller High Lifes every night. Other domestics are just $2.25 and imports are $3.25...also a deal, but let's face it, why would anyone be ordering those when they could be livin' the high life for $1.50? By the way, this is not a bar at all. They only serve beverages with food orders. We started off the food order with Chili Cheese Fries ($5.49) and they were pretty solid.

Now let's get to the meal. This is probably the best barbecue I've ever had. I didn't grow up in the south, but I can't think of any barbecue I've had that was better than this. I ordered the half chicken with a roll and two sides for $7.79. There are few places, if any, in town that can match the quality and quantity for this price.

When I ordered, I thought I was just getting 'barbecue'. In the north it's just barbecue and I think it's usually just sauce out of a bottle from the supermarket. I wasn't prepared for the choices...first I faced "barbecue, buffalo or teriyaki?" I've never had the option of getting a half a chicken buffalo style. I ordered barbecue. Then another three choices: "mild, medium or hot?" I didn't know there would be any difference. I ordered hot. There was also a wide variety of sides; I ordered potato salad and hot chips. Another interlude from being a northerner...hot chips are so fantastic, why don't restaurants in the north make these? They are so great and just about every restaurant in North Carolina offers them. I also got a side of ranch for the chips (an extra $0.60, but the portion is diesel).

I found out what "hot" barbecue sauce was when I took my first bite of chicken. It's not hot like buffalo style, the only way I can think to explain it is that it has bite. If I had a stuffed up nose, I wouldn't have had it by the time I finished. The chicken was excellent and the potato salad and chips were also very high quality. The portions of each were very good. The best part of it, I paid for the appetizer and was still out of there for just 20 bucks. This is my kind of place.

The wait staff all works together, so the service is very fast and friendly. We were able to flag down one employee and asked a few questions. It turns out the Big Ed is just a mythical character...it just was the right type of name for a barbecue chicken place. They do have a chicken pit in the back though.

Jason's Take

Big Ed's Chicken Pit is nestled in a gravel parking lot in a nondescript building near the bowling alley on North Main Street.  Because it doesn't have any road frontage, there is a security company blocking the view of Main Street, it is what I consider on of the best kept secrets in High Point.  When you walk into the place you  enter an atmosphere that is best described as a mix between Cracker Barrel (because of all the stuff adorning the walls) or the kitchen of the family farm (with a few tables added).  The place is decorated with farm equipment and old pictures, as well as 2 neon beer signs and most importantly 3 magazine articles that the Chicken Pit has been featured in.  I don't read Southern Living or Our State Magazine but I know people who do.  If a restaurant is featured in this magazine, there is a good chance that restaurant has some good food.

The food at Big Ed's isn't just good.  It is dank!  Since I have been here quite a few times over the years I thought I would order something a little different in addition to the wings which I love.  So, along with the10 hot barbecue style wings (7.49), I ordered 1 hot dog all the way (1.99), and an ice cold Miller High Life (1.50).  The wings are cooked to order and always come hot.  Everyone has buffalo wings but no one on the planet has the sweet but spicy flavor of the sauce Big Ed's puts on its barbecue style wings.  The hot dog, my first at Big Ed's, was equally delicious.  The slaw was homemade and had a hint of celery seed just like mom's.  The weenie was all beef and was topped off with homemade chili, red onion, and mustard in addition to the slaw.  If the wings weren't so good I might just go to Ed's for the hot dog alone, which says a lot because I am a hot dog connoisseur.  After eating all of that I had no room for dessert.  But for the sake of review, I ordered a slice of cinnabun cake (4.50).  A slice is a huge understatement which is why the cake comes in a to-go box.  It was still a little warm when I got it and the slice is HUGE...probably a 5" by 5" piece of cake that is 3" tall...3/8" of that icing.  It is yellow cake with cinnamon swirls, iced with a thick glaze of cinnamon bun icing...this cake is good but I wasn't hungry so I took a bite and brought the rest home.

Big Ed's is family owned, has a family environment, "NO BEER SERVED WITHOUT FOOD" is clearly stated on the menu, and leaves you with a fully belly and the feeling that you just ate with a friend.  Big Ed's is dank food at a good value.  It's won't break the bank but you might break a toothpick or two getting the chicken out from between your teeth.  I highly recommend this hidden gem of High Point dining.

D.J.'s Restaurant

3800 Sutton Way, High Point, N.C.
djsrestaurant.com
Two Thumbs Up

We decided to start this blog while eating at D.J.'s Restaurant near the corner of Eastchester and Wendover in High Point, North Carolina. D.J.'s opened relatively recently. In fact, the web site doesn't appear to list the High Point location yet.

Jon's Take
This is a quality restaurant with good food and a good atmosphere. It's a very clean place with nice furnishings and decor. It has a dining room, bar room and patio. Needless to say, we sat in the bar room. They have both the MLB and NFL networks, so it could be a solid option for watching a game. This place gets extra points for having my beloved Red Sox and Celtics on simultaneously on side-by-side flat screen TVs (without me asking).

Since it was the first time we were looking at the menu, I ordered the Spinach Dip ($6.95) to give us more time. The dip comes with tortilla and pita chips and it was all average to above average compared to other spinach dips I've had. For my meal, I got the Chicken Madera ($13.95), which is a chicken breast over linguini with a fancy wine sauce and mushrooms. The portion was huge and it was very good. I can eat a lot, but I didn't finish this. I got a side Caesar Salad, which was an extra $0.95...I found that out when I got my half of the bill. Jason has a similar story. A pint of Stella Artois was $3.75.

One complaint I had was the eclectic music selection. "Eclectic" is a nice way of putting it...it was assorted elevator music with other things randomly thrown in. At one point it went from "Fly" by Sugar Ray to John Legend to Lady Antebellum to 'N Sync (thanks for the info Shazam!). There may have been a Ricky Martin song in there somewhere too. That was a head-scratcher and took away from the overall experience, but they could easily correct this.

Overall I think this is a good restaurant, I'd go back.

Jason's Take
At first I questioned the originality of the name but when I discovered DJ's is the second location I realized they had no choice concerning the name. The restaurant occupies the building where Uno's was, near Skeet Club and Eastchester. The menu has a decent variety of food but there is clearly an Italian and Greek influence in the menu.

There was a decent draft beer selection and I got a pint of Natty Greene's Buckshot (3.75). The beer was fresh but wasn't as cold as I prefer. I like my beer in a frosted mug. Heck, I don’t care if a little ice forms when I first get it, as long as it's cold. I ordered the Chicken Souvlaki Platter(12.50) with mixed veggies instead of fries. I thought I was making a healthy choice with the veggies. Instead I got veggie scampi, some nice mixed veggies on a side dish sitting in a pool of butter and oil. They were so greasy they slid down my throat like a raw oyster sucked from its shell. The souvlaki was ok. It is hard to mess up some grilled chicken chunks on pita bread with some lettuce, tomato, and onion. The house dressing on the side salad wasn’t spicy enough for me...basically just some olive oil. It could use a little more spice...of course you will learn that I like the spice. The tzatziki sauce was good and coming from a guy who doesn’t normally like the stuff, a redeeming factor for DJ’s.

I will now dedicate a whole paragraph on dessert. The canoli ($3.25) is absolutely, positively, dank. Keep in mind that in my section of this blog, dank is the highest honor I can possibly give a food. The menu says that the baking is done on site and this isn't a lie. The canoli was nicely presented and the crust had a little crunch but also a little softness. It definitely had not been sitting in the cooler for three weeks acquiring some moisture. The filling was rich and creamy, a nice consistency. There are other homemade desserts here including 5 flavors of cheesecake...I would love to try them all...but I can't afford bigger pants.

The restaurant was clean, but shouldn't that be expected of any restaurant, especially one only open for a few weeks? The crowd was older but there were daily drink specials that college students would really enjoy. I don’t see many 50 year olds buying jager bombs with their Souvlaki. The staff was friendly. The prices were a little too high for what you get and there were extra charges that I would have like to have known about, like the $1.75 I paid for adding some feta to my souvlaki platter. That was a little irritating but since I got the check after the canoli, I couldn't complain. The souvlaki should be about 8 or 9 bucks, but I would give my right little toe for the canoli if it were the last one on earth. All in all my meal was $26.80 and I left a 5 buck tip. This place didn't break the bank, but I think it was slightly over-priced. I wish I had ordered what Jon did.

I give DJ's a thumbs up for the canoli and its potential to be a great place to hang out. When you try DJ's, get 2 canolis and pass on the Souvlaki.