14 North Carolina Lunch Classics Worth The Drive
In North Carolina, lunch feels less like a break and more like a search. The road takes you past shopping centers, trailers, and pine stands, but the real markers are smoke rising and signs promising plates inside.
I’ve pulled over for sandwiches in Chapel Hill, leaned into counters at barbecue joints half hidden by trees, and listened as brisket hit the cutting board. Plates disappear fast, sides pile up, and every meal feels rooted in the state’s rhythm.
What follows are fourteen places where lunch is part of how North Carolina gathers and keeps its word.
1. Merritt’s Grill
On a quiet stretch in Chapel Hill, Merritt’s Grill feels like a sandwich shop that grew up charming.
Their claim is “Home of the World Famous BLT.” Founded by Ruby and Eben Merritt back in 1929, the place is still locally run.
I go for the BLT with extra bacon. The bread-to-bacon ratio always lands right. It’s the kind of lunch that doesn’t mess around.
2. Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen
Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen hits early, the kind of place where your breakfast can still count as lunch.
They’ve been doing biscuits, chicken, and Southern breakfast combos for decades. Their biscuit sandwich feels more lunchable than many diners’ midday fare.
Order their Chicken & Cheddar biscuit. It doesn’t pretend to be elegant. It’s solid. It fills you. And in my book, that’s enough.
3. Saltbox Seafood Joint
You smell salt first, then fryer oil, then something fishy in the best possible way.
Saltbox is a coastal chain that leans hard into seafood platters, oysters, sandwiches, and fish tacos, especially along the NC coast.
I tend to skip traditional BBQ when I can come here instead. Their fish sandwich’s batter snaps in a way that freshwater fries usually don’t manage.
4. The Roast Grill
Charcoal smoke bleeds through windows here, and the smell follows you into the parking lot.
The Roast Grill in Winston‑Salem is more famous for its charcoal-grilled hot dogs, burgers, and old‑school grill combos than for meats like barbecue.
When I’m logging miles, this is where I pause. Their dogs are simple, no fuss, but so well done that you wonder why more places don’t try.
5. Lexington Barbecue
The meat’s kissed with pink and still glistening by the time it lands on your plate.
Lexington Barbecue, sometimes called Honey Monk’s, has been smoking pork shoulders over hardwood coals since 1962. It’s the gold standard for western-style NC ‘cue, red slaw, dip, hush puppies, and all.
I don’t argue with purists, but I will say this: their coarsely chopped pork tastes like someone finally slowed down and listened to what smoke has to say.
6. Skylight Inn BBQ
A pile of wood sits beside the building, chopped and ready. It’s not decoration.
This Ayden joint has been working whole hog barbecue since 1947, run by the Jones family for generations. Pitmaster Sam Jones helped turn it into a national landmark.
Get the tray: chopped pork with cornbread and slaw. No sauce necessary. If there’s a better smell than burning oak and pork fat mid-morning, I haven’t found it.
7. Wilber’s Barbecue
The smell inside Wilber’s feels old, like woodsmoke that settled into the beams and never left.
Wilber Shirley opened this Goldsboro institution in 1962. After it briefly closed in 2019, a local team brought it back, preserving the original pits and whole-hog approach.
I’ll admit I’m sentimental about this one. There’s something steadying in watching a place refuse to modernize when it already knows what’s right.
8. Parker’s Barbecue
Waiters still wear white paper hats and move with practiced rhythm, like it’s 1954.
That’s when Parker’s opened in Wilson, serving Eastern-style chopped pork, fried chicken, and Brunswick stew. The menu hasn’t changed much, and neither has the pace: fast, efficient, slightly chaotic.
Their corn sticks are criminally underrated. I always get an extra order, even if I regret it on the drive home. Parker’s isn’t fancy, but it’s faithful. And that counts for a lot.
9. Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge
Fat renders into bark, and bark turns into memory. The scent lingers like a campfire you didn’t want to leave.
Red Bridges in Shelby is known for its Lexington-style pork, they smoke shoulders over hickory and chop it tender, then add just enough tangy dip to wake everything up.
This is the kind of place where regulars don’t read the menu. If you know, you know. If you don’t, the red slaw will teach you.
10. Snappy Lunch
A battered pork chop hangs out the edges of a soft white bun. You’ll need both hands.
Snappy Lunch in Mount Airy is home to the “Famous Pork Chop Sandwich,” and it really is. Breaded, fried, dressed in slaw, mustard, chili, and a slice of tomato, the whole thing barely holds together, and that’s part of the charm.
People like to mention this place was on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’. I think the sandwich is the better legacy.
11. Brooks’ Sandwich House
Two brothers ran this no-frills burger shack in Charlotte until one was tragically killed in 2019. The surviving brother kept it going.
Their burgers are cooked on a griddle with onions smashed right into the patty. Add chili, slaw, mustard, nothing fancy, just solid, messy perfection.
You order at the window. There’s no seating, and they only take cash. Honestly? That’s part of the appeal. Come early, or risk the shuttered window and your own disappointment.
12. Johnson’s Drive-In
There’s only one kind of cheese here: hoop cheese. And yes, it matters.
Johnson’s in Siler City grinds their beef daily, hand-patties it, cooks it to a true medium, and melts that bright orange hoop cheese on top. The burger is deeply juicy, not “run-down-your-arm” juicy, but real.
They’re only open for lunch, and the line builds early. I respect a place that doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: excellent at what it does.
13. Sutton’s Drug Store
Red booths, white straws, tiled floor, the kind of soda fountain that feels like it never gave up.
Sutton’s in Chapel Hill has been around since 1923, still part pharmacy, still serving burgers, BLTs, milkshakes, and baskets of crinkle fries. College kids and retirees eat side by side.
I don’t care how many brunch spots pop up nearby, I’ll keep coming here. It’s not about nostalgia. It’s about something better: consistency with heart.
14. Yum Yum Better Ice Cream And Hot Dogs
Pink bricks and hand-painted signs welcome you to a Greensboro institution with a name that promises a lot, and somehow delivers.
The hot dogs are steamed and tucked into paper boats, topped with mustard, slaw, and a finely ground chili that sticks like paste. They’re small, cheap, fast, and good.
I like mine with a scoop of watermelon sherbet, eaten on the bench outside. There’s something magical about getting ice cream and lunch from the same window.