Wilson gets double dose from Our State

Wilson gets a double dose in the March issue of Our State magazine. Two articles in this outstanding magazine feature Wilson prominently. Wilson is one of the "11 Perfect Weekends" featured on the cover, and a culinary feature on barbecue entrepreneur Ed Mitchell cites his Wilson roots.

The weekend getaway to Wilson is a baseball weekend, featuring the city's historic Fleming Stadium and its adjacent North Carolina Baseball Museum. It's a nice portrait of the city's love of baseball, beginning with sports advocate and hot dog king Lee Gliarmis. Writer Chris Gigley of Greensboro suggests a hot dog at Dick's Hot Dog Stand, owned by Gliarmis, both for the cuisine and for the photographs that cover the landmark restaurant's walls, then a trip to circa 1938 Fleming Stadium. The stadium, as Wilson residents know, was refurbished by the city in the 1990s to provide a home for a college summer league team, the Wilson Tobs, but it still retains the charm and close-up seating of old ballparks. The Baseball Museum gets a few paragraphs, but no mention of plans to expand the museum and no photos of the museum or its exhibits.

While you're in Wilson, the writer suggests, take a side trip to Kinston or Zebulon for more baseball. The Kinston Indians play in the 1949 Grainger Stadium, and the Carolina Mudcats play in modern, new, downright extravagant Five County Stadium. The near-major-league-quality Five County Stadium features a white-linen restaurant, Cattails, on its top deck.

The infobox with the story suggests staying at the Whitehead Inn, the city's only B&B — a natural choice for a travel magazine that garners lots of B&B ads. It also suggests checking out the cuisine at Parker's Barbecue (naturally) and Bill's World Famous Barbecue and Chicken. I thought the old Bill's Barbecue was now named Bill Ellis Barbecue. Maybe I'm behind. But the writer is definitely behind in recommending Inner Banks Market, which has been closed for about a year or more.

If you're going to suggest Wilson restaurants, you shouldn't overlook JAC's Grill, Fifty-Fifty Lounge or Quince for fine food, or Sylvia's for traditional down-home cooking. Or Griff's, Beefmastor or Rocky's for traditional steakhouses. Or Silver Lake or Worrell's for seafood.

And speaking of food, the other Wilson story is about Ed Mitchell's ascent as a barbecue chef. Bob Garner, who did a series with WUNC-TV on North Carolina barbecue and wrote a book on the subject, tells Mitchell's story of being "discovered" by the New York Times' Calvin Trillin and of his setbacks as he expanded his family's former neighborhood store into a big restaurant on U.S. 301. Mitchell is now expanding his legend in Raleigh, where he operates The Pit at 201 E. Davie St. (919-821-3098).

I ate at Mitchell's Wilson restaurant several times before it closed in a financial and legal mess a few years ago, but I haven't been to his Raleigh restaurant. Mitchell is an engaging, friendly guy who is as good at public relations and promotion as he is at barbecuing. His current fame and success are based on more than the taste of his barbecue. In his overalls and cap, he also looks and acts the part of the good ol' hometown boy who's just a natural-born pork cooker.

I miss Mitchell's restaurant in Wilson, but I wish him well in the big city.