Shelby and the rest of Cleveland County sit closer to Lincolnton than most people assume, roughly 35 minutes east on NC-150. It is the kind of drive that gets underestimated mostly because Lincolnton does not come up on the usual list of nearby food towns from a Shelby starting point.
But 35 minutes puts it well inside the range of a normal lunch or dinner outing rather than a day trip. That is worth knowing in a part of the state where people will happily drive that far for barbecue that is genuinely cooked the old way rather than just described that way.
BBQ King has been a Lincolnton fixture since September 1, 1971. Pork is smoked fresh every day over live hickory coals, then hand-chopped the same day it is served. It is the same process the Abernethy family started with, still run by the two families who have kept it going -- Steve Abernethy who founded it, Keith Smith who joined at fifteen and became co-owner, and Keith's sons Jordan and Jared carrying it now.
Cleveland County knows its barbecue, which is a fair reason to be skeptical of a drive for more of it. The honest pitch is the process rather than novelty: live coals instead of gas, hand-chopped instead of machine-pulled, hand-breaded onion rings and hand-pattied burgers made the same from-scratch way. Whether that is worth 35 minutes is a decision best made after eating it once.
Counter service, no reservations. Order at the counter and it gets hollered back to the cooks. Call-in orders and curbside are available at (704) 735-1112, though they go into the queue like everyone else's.
2613 E Main St, Lincolnton, open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 8pm, closed Sundays. We cater across Cleveland County too.