Bum’s Restaurant, Ayden, North Carolina

I recently drove down to South Carolina to learn more about their barbecue and other local specialities, and that meant driving through North Carolina. That in turn meant a stop for barbecue, which meant a stop in Ayden to eat at Bum’s Restaurant.

Why Bum’s? Why not the legendary Skylight Inn, many of you will ask? Because Bum’s is better. So I determined a while back after back-to-back-to-back meals at Bum’s, the Skylight Inn, and Sam Jones (Winterville). Indeed, I expansively declared Bum’s the best of Eastern North Carolina style barbecue. Since then I’ve discovered additional places, notably Sid’s Catering and Stephenson’s, while Wilber’s, after being struck down by NCDOT, has become more delicious than you can imagine.

Another change, a sad one indeed — Bum Dennis died on December 9, 2022, and I was moved to post an In Memoriam appreciation of his remarkable life the very next day. Dennis, along with Pete Jones, is honored at Ayden’s annual Kings of Q BBQ Cook-Off and Festival.

I rose before the roosters, arrived about 11:00 am, and walked eagerly into the large open space with a long food counter along one wall loaded with choice Southern delicacies.

I sat at the last free booth and ordered a barbecue plate with collards and butter beans, and chose corn sticks as my bread.

Swoon! Let’s take a closer look at the barbecue.

It was sensational, fresh and moist with the seductive aroma and flavor of smoke and pork, enlivened with bits of skin chopped in with the meat. This is the true barbecue, the food that the great barbecue places cook, places like Rusty’s in Alabama, McCabe’s in South Carolina, Ramey’s in Tennessee, and the Dixie Pig in Arkansas, along with the other great Eastern and Piedmont places in North Carolina — pork cooked directly over wood coals, chopped, and graced lightly with a peppery vinegar-based sauce. You can argue about which is best, and I certainly waver among them, but there’s no question but Bum’s is in the Top Tier.

At Bum’s the pork is only the beginning. Their collards are a marvel. They’re an heirloom variety of cabbage collards, certified Bum Dennis Collards, grown only locally on five acres in Pitt County, and celebrated in the annual Ayden Collard Festival. At Bum’s they’re chopped unusually fine, which puts some people off, but the seasoning is a wonder. I think their pot likker is reused much like a sourdough starter, and it gives them an unmatched depth of flavor.

I’m a fan of butter beans, and these are delicious. I believe I’ve written about how much I’ve enjoyed the great beans at Bum’s, and the place just knows how to cook Southern vegetables. The corn sticks were delicious — not quite up to the ones at Parker’s, but delicious.

I caught up with Larry Dennis, Bum’s son and now proprietor. There we are.

We had a wonderful talk about the food and the heritage of Bum’s, and the intertwining of the Jones and Dennis families. One of Pete Jones’ kin was part owner of the collard enterprise, and Bum Dennis worked at the Skylight Inn before he went into the Navy, and so on going back to the 1800s and The Hole, the days when someone — I’m not sure who — would bring a barbecued whole hog into town on a wagon pulled by a mule. That cookhouse, by the way, still stands and people occasionally cook a hog there. Larry also revealed that their amazing warm banana pudding is sold that way — warm — because eager customers just won’t wait for it to cool in the refrigerator.

I also learned of some new products, including cornbread cooked in a pan with dividers, so that each piece has some crust all the way around. Larry forced me to try some (by mentioning that it existed), and had some pulled out of the oven before the crust had fully developed.  

Whoa! This is great cornbread! I took a bite and immediately identified the element of great cornbread: bacon grease and no sugar. There are some whole kernels in there too, which is nice. I also saw that Bum’s sells strawberry pudding in the brief season, and Larry noted that their fried chicken is a big seller. I thought seriously — fantasized may be a better word — about getting some fried chicken and another helping of collards and butter beans, some more cornbread, and a serving of strawberry pudding as well as perhaps banana pudding for comparison. But this was supposed to be a South Carolina trip, and I had two more buffets to go, and miles to go before I slept.

Bum’s is a treasure. There aren’t many places left that make no concessions to what John Shelton Reed calls the International House of Barbecue trend. There is nothing in Bum’s — no brisket, no sweet sauces — that is not tied to place, and to the great tradition that the Dennis and Jones families have built. Larry told me that the place will die with him. It’s a lot of hard work and not a lot of money. As Bum Dennis put it,

In this type restaurant business, what you got to do you got to love it and it’s a way of life. You get up every morning and that’s what you do. That’s your love and that’s your hobby; that’s what you do.

Go to Bum’s. Go now, while you can.

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