Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge — Restaurant in Shelby

I had what I think was the Large BBQ plate, but, to my surprise, it was served in what seemed to be a small tray. However, upon further inspection, I realized that this little tray actually held a respectable amount of pulled pork barbecue and a reasonable helping of fries. In fact, this kind of deep tray might just be the perfect serving mechanism for keeping delicious barbecue moist as it waits to go out to the customer.

It came out topped with some barbecue sauce, and the waitress brought out more a bit later. This is Western North Carolina barbecue style sauce. Eastern NC has tons of vinegar and pepper, but Western is my favorite, with less vinegar, some ketchup, and some sweetener (like brown sugar or molasses) to balance out the sourness.

Long, finger-style hushpuppies were delivered to the table early on and were warm and delicious. The sweet tea is made very sweet in typical southern style, and I enjoyed it with few drops of lemon. I usually like to have conventional coleslaw with my barbecue, but this restaurant does not serve that kind, they only have barbecue coleslaw. Not my thing, but it must work for them because many of the locals really enjoy it.

I found the staff very helpful, friendly, and welcoming. Most of the servers seem to be seasoned veterans of doing what they do, and took great care of us. In a world where often servers are young and inexperienced, it was a joy to be waited on by true professionals who were good at their craft. I'm guessing this restaurant takes good care of their people so that these great folks want to stay around.

The decor probably hasn't changed much in decades. In fact, the sign says that they've been making barbecue for 60 years. But I guess I'm getting to the age where I think that might just be... wonderful. With so many restaurants updating their look regularly, and keeping things fresh, I think that coming to eat here might be a way to step back in time... or at least be somewhere you're familiar with and some place that feels like home. This is a small town restaurant with a small town feel, but top notch barbeque.

At the end of your meal, you do go up and pay at the cash register at the front.

Incidentally, our waitress told us that this restaurant was currently in the top four of a bracket-style BBQ competition between 32 different barbecue cookers in the southern US. After enjoying my plate of pork, I can see why they're still in it.

Another thing to remember about this restaurant is that they make their food fresh every day. This means that it's good, but it also means that they may run out by the end of the day, if they have a lot of business. So... toward the end of the day, it may be wise to give them a ring to make sure they haven't closed early.

This restaurant is about 12 minutes off of I-85 exit 10B, which is what you'd take if you were coming from the Gastonia or Charlotte area. 12 minutes well spent for some very good barbecue and a...

This is listed as one of the top Barbq places in the Carolinas. I'm a straight shooter so I'm going to be exactly that. Here we go...this place is very nostalgic with over 75 years of history. The atmosphere will take you back to the good ole days if you are over 60 years old...still got the old fashioned booths. The place has a true southern charm as well as the staff. I ordered their standard barbecue plate and added a side of onion rings...had a diet Cheerwine in a can served with a glass of ice. Food was out quickly even with the Saturday afternoon crowd. The barbecue is the real deal, Eastern North Carolina style. Their sauce is probably the best NC Eastern style I've had. I'm under the impression that's the only sauce they have, their signature sauce. The fries are pretty standard, not crinkle cut but straight cut. I'm not a big slaw eater, but theirs is the finely grated style. I'm more of the pickled julienne style slaw eater, therefore their slaw wasn't my fave but lots of to-go orders were requesting it. The hushpuppies were good. They were the long slender type. Really good dipped in the sauce. One of my let downs was the baked beans...wasn't the home made kind, straight out of the can. The onion rings were the same, frozen kind not the home made kind. My soda was a can drink ( all sodas are can drinks) so any refill is going to hit you for another $1.50...so $3 just for soda...probably should have opted for the southern tea which seemed really popular. Overall pretty good barbecue by itself but all the trimmings do miss the mark compared to Ray Nathan's, Carolina Country, and Midtown Barbecue in the Gaston-Mecklenburg area. My final cost for meat, fries, slaw, hushpuppies, onion rings and 2 cans of Diet Cheerwine $18.60 plus $4 tip= $22.60...but it's one of the places checked off my...

Drove a long way after seeing this resturant on t.v. From the parking lot there was a retro feel and just seeing that huge wood pile made me excited...but couldn't smell anything...no smoke, no bbq, nothing...The sign in the parking lot was cool! When we stepped in the door, I loved the teal colored booths and home style feel. The place was packed too, had to wait on a booth..Our waitress was very nice but I'm thinking she was hired as a teenager (and this place has been open 60 years) we got a paper menu torn from a tablet in her pocket and immediately ordered. I got pulled pork sandwich with Cole slaw and hushpuppies, my husband got sliced pork sandwich with French fries. We were served a sandwich wrapped in foil ( no plate, she slapped it down on the table) and my hushpuppies were in a basket.She gave us 1/2 a white Styrofoam coffee cup of vinegar bbq sauce between us. The sauce was yummy! The bbq, meat, not so much. My chopped version was large in size but mushy and bland. My husband said his sliced was flavorless as well...this is where we fought over the sauce to give it flavor. The hush puppies were yummy leading us to order another basket. My husband ordered baked beans which were straight from a can and nothing baked about them. I had such high hopes for frequent drives from Black Mountain to Shelby just to eat at Bridges, but we won't be wasting our time for mediocre. I wanted it to be good. I would get hushpuppies again if I just happened to be driving by on my way to Charlotte. My 2 STARS was generous!..and only because of the hushpuppies...