Who gave the ribs permission to take over the whole table?
This North Carolina barbecue stop knows exactly what to do with it. Slow-smoked meats, house-made sauces, and Southern sides turn a mountain-day meal into something much harder to keep modest.
The pits fire nightly, with meats cooked over hickory-smoked hardwoods. St. Louis-style ribs may grab the spotlight, but brisket, pulled pork, turkey, sausage, pork belly, and chicken are all waiting nearby.
Then the sides start making their case. Mac and cheese, baked beans, and hushpuppies give your fork plenty of reasons to change direction.
Can’t agree on one meat? Combination platters make that argument much easier to solve.
The ribs may take over the table, but they are not leaving much room for restraint.
The Ribs Put The Headline To The Test
Start with the full rack if ribs are the whole mission. The current menu pairs it with two Southern sides, which means your first real decision arrives before the meat does: mac and cheese, collard greens, baked beans, potato salad, hushpuppies, fried okra, coleslaw, or fries?
The Pedalin’ Pig also lists St. Louis ribs among the choices for its two-meat and three-meat smokehouse platters. You can line them up beside prime brisket, pulled pork, smoked turkey, spicy sausage, honey pork belly, or pulled chicken while keeping the same two-side format.
Ribs are available in half-rack and full-rack portions in the smoked-meats section too. That makes it easy to add bone-in pork to a larger takeout order or a table that is already comparing several smoked meats.
The presentation stays straightforward: smoked ribs, sides, sauces, and no complicated detour between you and the rack. If you had one tray in front of you, would you give the ribs the whole stage or make them share it with brisket? Your fork can vote after the first bite.
And if the rack wins, the half-rack and full-rack options make the rematch easy to arrange.
Slow Smoking Does The Work Before The Plate Arrives
Long before you sit down, the smokehouse is already busy. The restaurant says its pits are fired nightly, with locally sourced meats slow-roasted over hickory-smoked hardwoods.
Ribs share that process with pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked turkey, pulled chicken, sausage, and pork belly.
That same pit work shows up in very different forms on the menu. Bone-in ribs stay on trays and platters, brisket can be sliced or chopped, pulled meats move into sandwiches and tacos, and smoked proteins can land on salads or green-chile mac and cheese bowls.
The rack itself can take several routes. Order it as a full rack with two sides, choose St. Louis ribs as one of the meats on a combination platter, or add a half or full rack from the smoked-meats section. One smoker, several game plans.
Here is the useful trick when you read the menu: trace the meat back to the pit. The format may change, but ribs, brisket, turkey, pork, chicken, sausage, and pork belly all start with the restaurant’s hickory-smoked program.
sThat makes a mixed order less like indecision and more like research you can eat.
The smoked-meats section also lets you order several proteins by weight, which gives larger tables another route to the same pit.
When you are ready to put that research on the table, head to 4235 NC-105, Banner Elk, NC 28604.
Hickory Hardwood Gives The Menu Its Common Thread
Hickory is the thread running through the smokehouse side of the menu. The restaurant identifies hickory-smoked hardwoods as the fuel behind its slow-roasted meats.
So, the ribs are part of the same smoking program as brisket, pork, turkey, chicken, sausage, and pork belly.
At The Pedalin’ Pig, that common starting point makes the combination platters especially useful. A two-meat order can put St. Louis ribs beside brisket or pulled pork.
A three-meat platter adds another protein, and the Pit Master gathers the full smoked-meat lineup with four sides and a sampling of house-made sauces.
You can turn that tray into a quick texture test. Compare a rib with sliced brisket, pulled pork, and smoked turkey. The hardwood stays constant while the cuts, fat levels, and serving styles change from bite to bite.
No scoreboard is required. Just notice which meat makes you reach back first. If the rib disappears before the brisket, the table has already delivered its verdict.
Keep the sauces on the side for that first round, and the hardwood-smoked base stays easier to compare.
House-Made Sauces Let You Change Course Mid-Rack
The sauce list is where one rack can take several turns. Current house-made choices include Western, Piedmont, Eastern, Alabama, Smokehouse, South Carolina, Hot House, and Honey Chipotle styles.
That lineup gives you room to move from tangy to sweet, smoky to spicy without changing the meat underneath. Instead of covering the rack from end to end, keep a few bites unsauced and use the rest as a small tasting flight.
The Pit Master platter already leans into that idea by including a sampling of house-made sauces. Larger containers are also listed for takeout and catering, while smoked chicken wings can be ordered with a barbecue sauce choice.
Try a three-bite experiment: one rib plain, one with a tang-forward sauce, and one with something sweeter or hotter. Same rack, three directions. Which one gets the repeat dip?
That is a much more useful question than arguing about one ‘correct’ barbecue sauce. The kids menu also points diners toward the current house-made sauce list with several smaller smokehouse meals.
Smokehouse Platters Turn Dinner Into A Group Project
If your table has more opinions than chairs, the smokehouse platters can handle the debate. Two-meat and three-meat combinations can include prime brisket, turkey breast, honey pork belly, and pulled chicken, with two sides on each platter.
The Pit Master goes wider. It combines brisket, ribs, pulled pork, sausage, turkey, pork belly, and pulled chicken, then adds four sides and a sampling of house-made sauces. That is the menu’s broadest look at the smoker in one order.
The same meats keep reappearing in other formats. Pulled pork, brisket, turkey, pulled chicken, ribs, and sausage can be ordered by weight.
Sandwiches feature pulled pork shoulder, smoked beef brisket, smoked turkey breast, pulled chicken, and brisket grilled cheese.
Tacos use pulled pork, pulled chicken, smoked turkey with bacon and cheddar, and green-chile brisket.
Make the platter do one job: settle the table’s curiosity. Give everyone a rib, pass the brisket, split the pork belly, and compare notes before somebody quietly claims the last piece. Group project rules apply, except this time nobody can say they forgot their part.
If the platter sparks a clear winner, meats sold by weight make it easy to add more without rebuilding the whole order.
Southern Sides Keep The Rack From Flying Solo
A full rack comes with two sides, and choosing them can take longer than expected. The current lineup includes mac and cheese, baked beans, potato salad, collard greens, green beans, seasoned fries, sweet potato fries, hushpuppies, fried okra, and coleslaw.
Some choices also carry dietary labels on the menu. Potato salad and coleslaw are marked gluten-free and vegetarian. Green beans and collard greens are marked gluten-free, while seasoned fries, sweet potato fries, and hushpuppies are marked vegetarian.
Hushpuppies can be ordered separately as a starter with house-made honey butter. Green-chile mac and cheese also becomes the base for loaded bowls topped with smoked pulled pork, sausage, chicken, pork belly, or chopped brisket.
Now give your two side slots different jobs. Pick one for contrast, such as coleslaw, and one for comfort, such as mac and cheese, beans, or hushpuppies. Suddenly the rack has a supporting cast instead of two random extras.
Which pair would earn a spot in your rotation?
Banner Elk Makes Barbecue Easy To Add To A Mountain Day
The Banner Elk restaurant sits on NC-105 in North Carolina’s High Country, putting it along a road network used for Banner Elk, Sugar Mountain, Boone, Grandfather Mountain, and other nearby mountain stops.
This location opened in 2014. The company describes seating for roughly 185 guests, with indoor seating and a patio for outdoor tables when conditions allow. Current hours run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, covering lunch and dinner seven days a week.
Banner Elk is one of three current locations, along with Boone and Blowing Rock. That gives the restaurant a High Country footprint rather than a single isolated stop, while the Banner Elk address keeps this particular rib run on NC-105.
You can make the timing fit the day instead of building the whole day around dinner. Stop for a rack after mountain time, split a platter between nearby destinations, or pick up smoked meats before the drive home.
The only hard part may be explaining why the side order somehow turned into hushpuppies, mac and cheese, and fried okra.
Some decisions arrive hungry. With the same 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. schedule every day, you do not have to memorize a different weekend timetable before making the turn.