Lincolnton sits almost exactly between Gastonia and Hickory, both around a 20-30 minute drive depending on traffic, which makes BBQ King an easy stop whether you're coming from Gaston County or up from the Hickory/Catawba County side.
That in-between location is actually one of the more useful things about BBQ King for anyone in either city. It's close enough from Gastonia that it can be a normal lunch or dinner run, not a special-occasion drive, and close enough from Hickory that it's a reasonable trip without needing to plan a whole day around it. Either direction, you're looking at a drive shorter than a lot of people's daily commute.
We've been family-owned since 1971, and the pit-smoking process hasn't changed: pork shoulders cooked low and slow over live hickory coals, hand-chopped fresh, no shortcuts. That's the draw for anyone in Gastonia or Hickory who's used to barbecue finished on a gas smoker or shortcut with a smoker box, real wood coals, tended the same way since before the restaurant existed, is a genuinely different thing to eat.
Alongside the BBQ, we're known locally for hand-pattied burgers and onion rings hand-breaded fresh every day, about 200 pounds of onions on an average day. If barbecue isn't what everyone in your car is in the mood for, that's not actually a problem here, the burgers and onion rings are made with the same from-scratch approach and draw plenty of regulars on their own.
It's counter service, no table service, no online ordering, just order at the counter and we'll holler it back to the cooks. That's worth knowing before you make the trip from either direction: there's no app to pre-order on, and no calling ahead to skip the line. You show up, order at the counter like everyone else, and your food comes out fresh a few minutes later. We're at 2613 East Main St in Lincolnton, open Monday through Saturday, 10am-8pm, closed Sundays.