We made a stop along the BBQ Trail to visit Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q in Willow Spring, NC. Located between Benson and Raleigh, NC on Route 50, they weren’t too hard to find. We detoured off I-95 North onto I-40 West to hunt them down. If you enjoy a nice ride through the country, you will like this ride. They are located in a really beautiful area off the beaten path.

The Restaurant and Staff:

Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q is a well-established restaurant with a large local customer base. They have been in business since 1958. Started by a hog farmer, Paul Stephenson Jr. who decided he was on the wrong end of the profits when it came to the hogs he was selling.

The actual restaurant is shaped like a very long barn on the outside. When you go in you find an older restaurant which is well maintained and has plenty of seating. We went in and chose our table. We weren’t sure if we should order at the counter or if a waitress would take our order. After sitting a little bit we asked someone at a table close by and they said the waitress would take it. Ours finally came over to get our orders. She was friendly but as it turns out not very good as a waitress. She didn’t check on us much and I think she may have forgot to put Tammy’s chicken order in. A couple of the other waitresses helped pick up the slack and they were very good at waiting on tables.

 

Our Choices at Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q:

When we placed our order our waitress brought us a basket of hushpuppies. They were wonderful. Tammy ordered a Quarter Fried Chicken with Cabbage and Fresh Cut Fries. They do tell you up front that the chicken is cooked to order so it will take 30 minutes. We were ok with that. I’ll talk more about this later. The chicken was delicious and hot from the kitchen. It took closer to an hour than the 30 minutes we were told. Her cabbage was very good with the chicken. Her fries were great, fresh cut and fried up just right.

 

I ordered a Large BBQ Plate with Slaw and Fresh Cut Fries. And since we would have a 30 minute wait on our meals I asked for a cup of Brunswick Stew as an appetizer. The stew was very good. I remembered the tip that a waitress in Galax, VA told me and added a little Texas Pete to it and did that pay off again? Adding just a dash to it turned the stew to awesome.

My pork was very good. At Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q they use the whole hog method and cook it Eastern NC Style. The sauce is mixed in before being served. The slaw was really good. It had a sweet base to it. My

fries would have been better if they had been warm. I don’t know if they sat under a heat lamp waiting on Tammy’s or what happened.

What Went Wrong at Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q:

I honestly think our waitress forgot to turn our order in. I checked the time on the pictures I had taken of the hushpuppies and it was 7:07. We had placed our order about 5 minutes prior to that. Our food arrived at 7:47. At one point the waitress came out and asked Tammy if she’d like bbq chicken instead because the kitchen was backed up. They were not that busy and food was going out all around us, even fried chicken to one table. Tammy turned down that offer and continued to wait.

 

After the food was delivered our waitress didn’t come back to check on us. We finally had one of the other waitresses send her to us for more tea. And she never came to ask if we wanted dessert.

So I’m thinking this was a waitress issue and not the restaurant. In fairness to our waitress, could it have been a bad or off day? Certainly. We all have them. By the same token I have to write what we see and not make assumptions. So if she were having a bad day I’m sorry for her and Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q that it had to happen today.

Sauces:

The bbq comes with sauce already mixed in so you don’t have to add any. However they do have a bottle of sauce on the table which I figured I needed to try. And I did. It was good but I made that part of my bbq have too much vinegar to it. Totally my fault here. You don’t need to add sauce. I added a little hot sauce to some of it and that was good if you like to spice it up a bit.

Desserts:

A young waitress, Elizabeth, helped pick up the slack where our waitress was failing. She was wonderful and very friendly. She brought me an awesome bowl of Banana Pudding. Tammy started sharing it and I ended up having to chase her off. It was that good.

Final Thoughts:

First let me make perfectly clear that I would stop here again. If you want some good NC Style whole hog bbq, they do it well. The part that saddens me is having a bad experience based on one person which I believe is what happened with us here. I believe that it boils down to a bad waitress. Bad thing for the restaurant is that the waitresses are their first line representatives. People form opinions about the business based on the experience they have at the table. The positive side is where the other waitresses helped out and did a great job. So when you read about our food and the other waitresses you begin to see that maybe the problem was not in the kitchen. Another customer even commented on our long wait when they were leaving.

So based on the food I’d say give them a try. However, I wish you luck on the waitress selection.

Now For Your Thoughts:

So I’ve put it out there for you to see both good and bad. How do the rest of you feel? Have you visited Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q? How did your visit go? Drop some comments off to let us know what you think and I’ll post them along with this article.

What do you regulars think?

I’d really like to hear from some regulars. Though I’m not sure how this will reach you. I’ve been unable to locate a website or a Facebook page for them. So we will have to see how it goes. If it does reach some of you we would love to hear back from you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

I encourage you to share this review on Facebook and other social media sites. Follow us on Facebook to see where else we go.

I was unable to locate a website or a Facebook page for Stephenson’s Bar-B-Q. I guess we’ll have to spread this one the old fashioned way, word of mouth.

Enjoy the ride, good eating and thanks for stopping by.