The South's Best Barbecue Joint 2018: The Verdict

The South is blessed with hundreds of exceptional barbecue joints, and they vary greatly in technique and style, making it almost impossible to declare any particular one the very best. Fittingly, the voting for the South's Best Barbecue Joints ended in a dead heat with the winner of last year's contest, Southern Soul Barbeque of St. Simons Island, Georgia, and the North Carolina icon Lexington Barbecue receiving the exact same number of votes. Which one should be crowned this year's winner?

Despite their differences, Southern Soul Barbeque and Lexington Barbecue are linked by a few common threads. Both are beloved institutions in their respective communities, places where friends and families come together for good food and fun.

They are unwavering in their devotion to slow-cooking meat on wood-fired pits. Their commitment to quality has won both places national fame, luring barbecue fans from around the country and even around the world to the rolling hills of the North Carolina Piedmont and to the shores of southern Georgia. So which one is the best in the South? How about we just leave it a tie? If you love great Southern barbecue, you really owe it to yourself to visit them both.