This Barbecue Karen has a major beef with a popular pork dish.
One beloved North Carolina barbecue spot became the center of controversy on Tuesday when a disgruntled customer called 911 to report her slow-smoked pork was too pink, local reports said.
It all started when a diner at Clyde Cooper’s Barbecue, a Raleigh institution since 1938, approached owner Debbie Holt saying her pork was undercooked — even though a slight pink ring or hue is the mark of properly done hog barbecue.
“When she said it to me I said, ‘Excuse me?’” Holt told WRAL. She tried to explain to the customer that the pink color was normal, with other diners chiming in to help.
“I kind of snickered a little bit and told her, ‘Honey, that’s when the barbecue is smoked. It turns pink,’” Holt recalled. “And, she was insistent it wasn’t done.”
Holt said the woman did not make a scene, but phoned emergency services from outside the restaurant.
While police officers were sent to the scene, they knew better than to take the complaints seriously.
“When the cop came in though, he had a cute little smile on his face and rolled his eyes, and just had his arms folded,” Holt explained. “I don’t even think he said much to me except, ‘I got you.’”
Speaking to the News & Observer by phone Tuesday night, however, the unhappy diner — a 30-something native North Carolinian — said she was simply trying to report bad service.
“Every barbecue I’ve had is all the way done, you don’t see pink at all,” she claimed. “I asked if they could cook it some more, that I’m not eating any pink barbecue. They said it’s supposed to be pink, but I’ve never had it that way.”
The customer asked for either a refund or something else from the menu, but says she was refused both.
“If you’re telling me you don’t do refunds or exchanges, there’s a problem,” she insisted. “It was the issue, the way the situation was handled. You have to do either a refund or an exchange. If you’re not going to do either, that’s the issue. That’s the reason I called the cops.”
The woman then explained that she was offered to exchange her meal for fried chicken in between the 911 call and the police arriving. She accepted the switch, and said this likely would have avoided the entire conflict.
“If she had given me a chicken plate I would have gone about my business,” she said.
The woman allegedly left Clyde Cooper’s a one-star Google review with a photo of her barbecue plate later that day. Even so, Holt said she would be more than willing to make amends.
“Tell her to come back and I’ll educate her about North Carolina, southeastern-style barbecue,” Holt said. “I’d be happy to.”
