[NOISE] About 5000
people in Ayden and
I would guess
that all 5000 of
them know about
the Star Light Inn.
You can't live in
Ayden without knowing
about the Star Light Inn.
[MUSIC]
[SOUND] My father made
the statement many time
when I was young that he
put barbecue grease in my
milk bottle to make sure
that it was in my blood.
Sure that's funny, but
I'm sure somewhere deep
down, he wanted me to
have the same outlook on
the place that he did.
My name's Samuel Jones,
I'm 33 years of age, and
I'm the seventh
generation in
our family to cook
whole hog barbecue.
[MUSIC]
Since man figured out.
What fire was.
They been cooking
meat that way.
Some people
chose to stop.
We didn't.
[LAUGH] The old way
is just better.
Which is what
we still do.
It is for
sure not the easiest.
Because standing in
front of that chimney is
like being in
a vestibule of hell.
But the end result,
there's no match for.
[NOISE] Skylight Inn is
a barbecue restaurant.
And it's been here since
July of 1947 the first
sale that our family
did of barbecue was in
the 1830s.
Descendants of our family
served pork out of
the back of a covered
wagon with a piece of
corn bread,
it's very similar to
what we sell here.
Skylight Inn, there
was never a time that
barbecue was not
a part of our family.
Anything that we did,
it rotated around.
This business.
When you come to skylight
in you're primarily
coming for three
things whole hog pork,
cole slaw, cornbread,
barbecue's a big thing
in North Carolina.
It, it was
synonymous with,
with a time of season,
the time of the year it
was a celebratory
thing that took place.
At the end of
the growing season.
When I was in college,
I had an opportunity to
write a paper on whatever
my choice was but
I thought, if I'm gonna
write a, a paper, and
I've gotta fill up
ten to 15 pages,
why not do it
on barbecue?
I got plenty of material.
[MUSIC]
>> [LAUGH]
Maybe I'll use this.
[CROSSTALK].
>> He made me realize
that there was
a heritage there.
There was one,
something to be proud and
two, something that you
could be another link in
the chain, in this
long line of people who
did something great
with something small.
Are you a part of
family history or
are you a part
of food history?
>> Hm, that's
a fabulous question.
>> Or both?
>> Without a doubt I'm
a part of family history.
>> Do you like barbecue?
>> Yeah.
>> Yes.
>> [LAUGH].
>> She loves barbecue.
It's truly her, probably
her favorite thing.
It's her first meat
that she ever ate,
in barb,
the barbecue here.
Would you be okay
if she worked in
the barbecue lineage?
>> Oh, yeah.
I'm not sure I
have much choice.
>> It's, it's optional.
>> Here at Skylight, you
have two options as to
what form you choose
to eat our pork.
And that is,
on a bun, with or
without cole slaw.
Or in a tray with
a piece of cornbread and
coleslaw on the side.
When people pull up
in our parking lot,
they've already made
the decision of
what they're going to
be eating for lunch.
Just a matter fo
how much of it
they're going to
have [LAUGH].
>> Well I've been
coming here for a,
for about 19 years and
I can tell you that.
The wood cooked
barbecue is the best.
All the flavors are just,
just wonderful.
You can, you can taste
the wood that's actually
in the barbecue, which
really just flavors it,
there's no need to
even put salt on it.
In the morning, the bones
will really pop out,
so you really wanna.
Do it while its
tough like this,
otherwise [SOUND]
distintegration.
>> Yeah,
eating at a place with
historic legacy
obviously, you know,
brings a lot back to
the community and
we're just excited to
have them a part of,
Eastern North Carolina,
more particularly Aiden,
North Carolina, and
the legacy that they,
they, prevail throughout
the community.
Whole hog is like the
holy grail because it is
very easy to mess it up.
We cook an average
of 40 hogs a week.
Our primary heat source
is wood coal which
requires a man that will
go out to the wood pile,
put it in a wheel barrow,
bring it in the house,
place it in a chimney,
and as it burns produces
our own charcoal.
Which is hot live coal,
and then have to
shoveled into the pit.
That provide the heat
source by which
we cook our hog.
>> So we're in
a walk-in cooler.
Some people call
it our pig room.
All we have to do is
take the feet and
ears, and finish
splitting the head on it.
You don't have to
do these things.
To aid in the cooking
process we cut the feet
off them simply because
our pit is only so wide.
[MUSIC]
Cooking whole
animals is not
like cooking hamburgers,
for instance you know,
it doesn't happen in
the blink of an eye.
So at this point,
as our wood burns and
starts to produce
the charcoal that we use,
we will slowly but surely
bring the heat up in
this pit, probably to
the neighborhood of,
maybe 325 will be the
hottest it will ever get.
From the time our pigs
come out the walk in.
Hit the pit.
And the first heat
is applied to them.
You're looking anywhere
between 16 and
18 hours from that
meat going on,
to the finished product
being chopped and served.
In the cookhouse at
Skylight Inn you will
not see thermometers
on the pits.
You will not see.
A man with a thermo pen.
Cuz I can walk out
there and place my
hand literally just touch
the top of the lid on
the pit I'll know if I
need to stay another hour
you can't expect a man
who's done something for
20 years to
have to rely on
any kind of mechanism
to do his trade.
There's an art
that goes with it.
People whom are a lot
smarter than I
am with food have told me
that the way we prep our
barbecue enhances
the natural flavor of
the pork itself.
>> [INAUDIBLE].
Over season it.
You want to taste the
smoke.taste the meat, and
all everything in
between a little pepper.
Hot sauce.
Some vinegar.
[SOUND].
>> The skin of the pig
is one thing I
think that really
separates Skylight Inn.
Munchies.
For everybody else
in barbecue.
Most barbecue places'
skin, pork skin,
is surely a byproduct of
cooking a shoulder, or
the whole animal.
It's not anything that
they use for the dish.
Well, here, we
direct-heat blister that
skin where it's very
crispy, crunchy.
And it's chopped very
finely in the pork to
where if you're biting
your pork sandwich,
with each bite there's
a little crunch in there.
We mainly use oak wood.
It's created a flavor
profile that people
associate with eastern
North Carolina barbecue.
Especially here at Sky
Light, because we have
[MUSIC]
Continued using wood.
We're not putting
anything on it
that's masking anything.
And you're not having to
get through a sauce to
taste the flavor.
And if a customer
wants to add sauce,
we have sauce
on the table.
And there's Texas Pete,
which is native to
North Carolina.
Made right out in
Winston Salem.
We have our table sauce,
or
our house sauce
that we make.
And then a simple.
Pepper vinegar.
That is basically
a spicy vinegar.
[MUSIC]
There's a variety of
characters that make up
the team here at
Skylight Inn.
James is our, if anybody
would be the pitmaster,
it'd be James.
James worked on the farm
with us from my
earliest memory.
And then he came to work
in the restaurant in
the early 90's.
The specific year is
unknown because if you
ask James, he'll give you
a different
answer every day.
And he's a man
of few words.
[MUSIC]
>> How many hogs do
you think James has
cooked in his life?
>> On an average week,
we'll use 40 pigs,
maybe 45 hogs.
And, so if you just
use that average for
the last 20 years,
that's a ton of pigs.
[MUSIC]
Our guys are pretty
tight knit group.
So they work well
together and and
they're pretty calm to
be honest with you.
They good old Southern
boys outside of
Mike here.
Mike's a transplant
from Illinois.
Speak the truth.
>> He's only been
here 12 years, so
he's not a vested
Southerner yet.
[LAUGH].
>> Chopping barbecue at
a Southern restaurant.
>> Exactly.
Mike is probably the most
dependable person that
has ever been a part
of this business.
That was not family.
Fortunately for us.
He enjoys chopping
barbecue.
[SOUND].
>> That's the sound
we're looking for.
[SOUND].
>> That, to people
who know barbecue,
means that that
skin is crispy.
[MUSIC]
>> I've always.
Sample the meat,
you know, all the time.
Just to make sure
it's up to par.
My standards anyway.
>> This is a custom
butcher block that since
day one all the pork that
has ever been eaten at
Skylight Inn has
been hand chopped on
a board just like this.
I had a customer one time
that asked my dad and
said did that
block used to
be flat at one time and.
He said, Yeah.
And
he said, well that means
some people has eaten
a little bit of wood over
the years, haven't they?
And dad said,
well our wood is
better than most
people's barbecue.
[MUSIC]
>> Being the chopper is
being quality control of
the barbecue going out
of here 95% of all of
the barbecue that goes
out of here, I put out.
So you take the piece
of meat of, of hog.
I chop it, seasoned
it I feel, you know,
I am working at a,
you know, historic
restaurant I mean they've
been around since 1947.
Threw my little
part of history.
Chop and barbecue.
It's not for
lifting weights.
That's chop and barbecue.
Like I said I grew up in
kinda grew up
coming here.
But there is space really
hasn't changed much over
the years.
That flavor of that I
don't know if it's that
the grease hitting
the coals or
[LAUGH] or what but that
flavor just cannot be.
>> Duplicated.
>> Duplicated,
there's nothing like.
>> Pickle wood barbecue.
>> We all have
different roles in
the business that
we're good at.
Uncle Jeff is more of
a back-of-the-house guy.
He makes sure that
our meats are right,
things are rolling.
>> I've been working
here ever since I
was a little boy.
My dad got me up, and
then I'd follow
him around, and.
Just enthused about
what he was doing as,
as time moved on,
I was able to learn
certain things on
how to cook and
all about what went
on with the barbecue.
It's part of life I,
every day I enjoy coming,
and each day is
a little bit different.
I just enjoy
passing along.
What I have learned in
having a good product
through the years.
[MUSIC]
I feel like if our
ancestors were looking
down upon us today,
that they'd be real
proud because I think
we've carried the Jones
barbecue Skylight Inn
to a higher legacy.
What do you think of
all these young
guys working here?
>> Some of them I
think a lot of,
some of them I don't.
[LAUGH].
>> Bruce Jones
is my father.
He is one of
the owners here.
Bruce is an institution
within himself.
Anybody who knows
Bruce would buy
a T-shirt that would say,
Bruce.
Enough said.
[LAUGH]
Oh he he's a,
a people person.
He serves food sometimes
all day if he don't have
anything to do.
He's a counter man.
He is the worst guy at
controlling portion,
I will say that.
[LAUGH]
>> We don't have
a register up here.
But the reason for
that is my dad told
us to make change.
I could count when I was
four or five years old.
Sam was the same way.
Most of your cash
registers now
tell you how
much change to
give back when somebody
gives you a bill so
we try not to hire
a bunch of dummies.
We've got folks that
know how to you know,
do calculations
in their head and
if you don't trust us.
Drag out a piece of
paper we'll show you.
[MUSIC]
Growing up you had to
either work on the farm
or you had to work in
the restaurant, and
I hate to say it
basically during
the summer time you
ended up doing both.
And I wanted out,
I figured there had to
be something to life
better than this.
I'd never have to worry
bout the barbecue
business again but then
when I got to college,
and the gentlemen started
bringing everything in
history back to Eastern
North Carolina, and
as I shared that with my
dad, he started giving me
the legacy of
the barbecue business.
And, all of the sudden,
the barbecue business was
no longer a business, but
it was a family
tradition.
That I wanted to be
very much a part of.
>> Every time I
get a chance to
talk with to the younger
generation, I try to
like encourage them to
hold on to those recipes.
Those things that
they are folk,
family did that, so
it don't be lost in time
[MUSIC]
What I hope for this
place, the Skylight Inn,
I hope it goes on to
higher and higher places.
And reach more
people in this
new world of
the internet,
I hope that we can still
hold on to the quality
of cooking good barbecue
over live coals.
Right now barbecue is
trendy, barbecue is cool.
You know, there was
a time when barbecue
wasn't cool.
It was in the armpit
of the culinary world.
The price of pork
affects everybody in
the restaurant business,
because the price of pork
will eventually affect
the price of beef and
the price of poultry, but
for us it's a direct.
Impact because that
is all we sell.
And if you asked
a question do you
want your child to follow
in your foot steps,
some of my foot steps yes
some of my foot steps i
hope she jumps over
them like a hurdle.
If she so chooses to be
in the barbecue business
I hope it's.
On a different level,
you know,
maybe by the time she's
my age, I will have
gotten fortunate enough
that I've grown this
company into
other locations.
You know, I never want
to lose sight of.
[MUSIC]
Why we are Skylight Inn.
If Skylight Inn winds up
being a brand that you
see in other places,
in besides
Ayden North Carolina,
I want it to always be
known that that is what's
going on in the back
of the building.
[MUSIC]
>> And your favorite
memory of Skyline Inn?
>> My favorite memory
of Skyline Inn.
[MUSIC]
Closing time.
Ha ha.
[MUSIC]
[SOUND]
[MUSIC]
[SOUND]
