Don’t you love it when a grocery stop becomes the best part of the road trip?
This North Carolina market has served travelers since 1954. What began as a small grocery store now includes a full meat counter, classic sweets, and a restaurant next door.
House-made sausage is produced in large batches each week. Pork shoulders roast overnight, while country ham and deli favorites are prepared on-site.
One person can visit the butcher counter while another checks the ready-made meals. The candy aisle handles the road snacks.
A single stop can cover today’s lunch and several dinners back home. Arrive with a short list, and expect it to grow.
House-Made Sausage Gives The Cooler Its First Assignment
The sausage counter can turn a quick stop into a serious packing project.
Smith’s has made fresh sausage daily for more than sixty years. The store produces more than 10,000 pounds during a regular week, with production rising during the holiday season.
That scale begins with a product tied closely to the market’s identity. Country link sausage and patty sausage appear in the store and at the restaurant, giving shoppers several ways to bring the same specialty into breakfast.
Fresh sausage can move from skillet breakfasts to biscuits, casseroles, grilled meals, or freezer packages waiting for a later weekend. Larger purchases also work for families who divide meat into meal-size portions after returning home.
The store’s sausage history reaches back to the growth of its pork-processing operation during the 1960s. What began as one part of the business became one of the products most closely associated with the Smith’s name.
A cooler earns its keep quickly here. Sausage may take the first section, but the meat cases still have several arguments left.
More Than Seventy Years Of History Shape The Store
The current market began with a much smaller footprint.
In 1954, S.B. “Sherwood” Smith started the grocery business in a corner of a feed and fertilizer store inside the old Dortches School House.
Ten years later, the operation moved into a new cinderblock building and expanded to include general merchandise, gasoline, and pork processing.
Bruce Smith joined his father during the 1960s. The business became a full grocery store in 1974, then moved into a new 10,000-square-foot building in 1980.
Another expansion followed in 1987, adding space and a deli department. In 1992, the family built a new store beside the existing building and increased the operation to more than 20,000 square feet.
A third generation joined in 1999 when Derrick Smith began working full time. Bruce and Derrick remain listed as the owners, keeping the market connected to the family that built it.
The restaurant opened beside the store in spring 2010, adding breakfast and lunch to a property already known for meat, sausage, barbecue, and groceries.
The old schoolhouse is gone from the shopping experience, but the business that began there still fills carts more than seven decades later.
Fresh-Cut Meat Keeps The Counter Busy
The sausage may lead the conversation, but the rest of the meat department refuses to stay quiet.
Smith’s cuts meat fresh daily, grinds hamburger in-house, and packages products on the property. The counter includes pork, beef, country ham, ribs, smoked products, and other traditional cuts.
That preparation gives shoppers more than rows of factory-sealed packages. Freshly cut meat, store-ground hamburger, and larger portions give the department the rhythm of a dedicated butcher counter inside a full grocery store.
Country ham carries a strong connection to regional cooking. Smith’s cooks it in-house each week and sells it whole or by the slice, making it useful for breakfast plates, biscuits, holiday tables, or smaller meals.
Ribs receive Smith’s special sauce before joining the store’s prepared specialties. Fresh pork and other cuts give home cooks room to plan around grilling, roasting, slow cooking, or freezer storage.
The counter can handle a focused shopping list, but browsing usually adds another idea. One package becomes dinner, another becomes next week’s breakfast, and a third quietly claims space for a family gathering that has not been scheduled yet.
By the time the wrapping is finished, the cooler may need a second draft.
Thirty Pork Shoulders Roast While Rocky Mount Sleeps
Some lunches begin before sunrise. This barbecue begins the night before.
Smith’s roasts thirty pork shoulders overnight, then debones, chops, and seasons the meat inside the store. The process turns the market into a barbecue stop as well as a grocery destination.
The finished pork can leave as part of a meal, a take-home container, or a larger purchase meant for family gatherings. It also appears at the restaurant beside other Smith’s specialties.
Barbecue gives the trip an immediate reward. Sausage and fresh cuts may be headed for the freezer, but chopped pork can solve lunch before the cooler lid closes.
The deli side adds more possibilities. Smith’s prepares more than 1,000 pounds of slaw each week, giving barbecue a familiar partner without requiring another stop.
Collard greens follow a two-day cooking process with ham seasoning. The store prepares them in multiple kettles, adding another eastern North Carolina staple to the selection.
A plate can move from pork to slaw to greens without leaving the property. The remaining containers can head home and repeat the meal after the road trip ends.
The roasting begins overnight so the next day’s appetite does not have to wait.
Chicken Salad, Pimento Cheese, And Candy Fill The Gaps
The meat counter handles the main plan. The deli and candy sections take care of everything between meals.
Smith’s cooks chicken daily for its chicken salad, increasing production during busy holiday periods. The prepared spread can cover sandwiches, crackers, lunch plates, or a cooler snack once the drive resumes.
Pimento cheese is made daily with extra-sharp cheese. It can move into sandwiches, burgers, crackers, celery, or any moment when opening a container sounds easier than cooking.
The store also prepares large quantities of slaw each week, giving barbecue, fried foods, sandwiches, and family meals a ready-made side.
Old-fashioned candy brings a completely different kind of selection. Smith’s expanded that department in 2009 and now offers more than sixty flavors that shoppers can mix and match.
That section can turn adults into careful decision-makers and children into highly motivated shopping assistants. Colorful jars and familiar sweets add a lighter finish after the serious work of choosing meat.
Preserves, peanuts, pantry items, and other groceries help complete the cart. A trip built around sausage can leave with breakfast supplies, lunch spreads, side dishes, candy, and enough extras to make unloading take two rounds.
The cooler carries the cold goods. The candy bag gets its own seat.
The Restaurant Turns Shopping Into Breakfast Or Lunch
The restaurant next door gives visitors a chance to eat the products before packing them.
Smith’s Red & White Restaurant opened in spring 2010 beside the grocery store. It serves old-fashioned breakfast and lunch built around many of the market’s best-known foods.
Country link sausage, patty sausage, country ham, and barbecue connect the restaurant menu directly to the store. Breakfast can begin with products that shoppers later carry home by the pound.
The restaurant serves breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Friday. Saturday service is limited to breakfast, while Sunday and Monday remain closed.
That schedule makes a morning visit especially useful. You can sit down for breakfast, cross over to the store, and start filling the cooler after the plates are cleared.
Takeout is also available, giving travelers another option when a sit-down meal does not fit the day. Barbecue, breakfast items, and other dishes can join the road trip without adding a long pause.
The store stays open beyond the restaurant’s service hours, so arriving early provides the widest opportunity to experience both parts of the property.
Breakfast handles the appetite. The grocery store makes sure dinner is already waiting at home.
One Dortches Stop Can Fill An Entire Weekend
The final shopping cart often looks more ambitious than the original plan.
Smith’s brings together fresh-cut meat, sausage, barbecue, country ham, ribs, deli foods, old-fashioned candy, groceries, and a restaurant at one location.
The business has grown across three generations without losing the products that gave it a regional identity.
Daily sausage production, overnight barbecue, in-house ham, fresh-cut meat, chicken salad, pimento cheese, slaw, and collard greens keep much of the experience tied directly to the property.
Its position off Highway 43 in the Dortches community also places it near Interstate 95. A stop can cover a meal, a freezer restock, and several regional foods before the drive continues.
The grocery store opens Monday through Saturday and closes Sunday. The adjoining restaurant follows its own shorter schedule, making an earlier arrival the better way to experience both.
Smith’s Red & White is located at 3635 North Halifax Road, Rocky Mount, North Carolina 27804.
A cooler full of sausage and fresh meat can handle the practical side of the trip. Barbecue, candy, and breakfast next door provide the fun.
What would claim the first open space in your cooler at this North Carolina market?