Glenns Again BBQ

I was especially excited about the 1^st phase of the road food adventure we’d put together for the area stretching from China Grove, through Landis & Kannapolis, finishing in Concord. Excited, because I was looking forward to eating here — an attempt to resurrect the venerable BBQ house, Glenn’s BBQ on Central Drive in Kannapolis, which closed in 2010 after nearly 40 years of operation, the victim of the poor economy.
The original Glenn’s BBQ was a genuine NC BBQ joint — the pig was cooked over hard wood coals, and most of the time (at least in the early years), it was cooked daily, and hand chopped. It was a cool place, a real place, long before folks starting recognizing restaurants as cool or real, or even understanding what that meant. It was a Farm To Table restaurant 40 years before its time, as were most true NC BBQ joints.
It would have been better, for those memories, had we not made this stop. This simply was not the same place, not nearly the same food, and most certainly not close to the same friendly, small town hospitality, I’d enjoyed more than a few times before.
The food was ordinary at best. This was 99 cent Hot Dog Tuesday — the dog I was served would struggle to claim 99 cents as a righteous price, whatever day of the week it was — thin, watery chili; wiener of dubious parentage; all put together in a sledge hammer manner.
The BBQ sandwich was equally disappointing — no, actually more so. While there was some smokiness, and it was hand chopped (I saw the lady doing it with a dark, miniature cleaver), the pork was dry, and tasted less than fresh. The slaw I had requested on the sandwich was MIA! This was not even close to an acceptable NC BBQ sandwich, especially given the BBQ heritage associated with this name.
But without a doubt, the most disappointing aspect was the cold, unfriendly, unsmiling, unfocused service, which was in stark contrast to the excellent service we’d received in several other local places that same day. There was not a single moment, while there, that I felt a hint that they gave the first damn about our visit, our order.
I watched as twice, the lady filling the orders skipped by our ticket, to complete an order placed after ours. I understand the concept of regulars, and their importance to any business venture, but down right blatant rudeness and inconsideration is usually not good business practice, and rarely goes unobserved.
Obviously, we’ll not be back. But I can remember eating at an excellent NC BBQ joint, something folks dining here now will not know.