The BBQ Exchange – Gordonsville, Virginia

On this culinary adventure, PashbyMaul Adventures has found the world’s best barbecue place. No question, The BBQ Exchange in Gordonsville, VA, exceeded all our wildest barbecue expectations. Arguably a religion unto itself, barbecue fans all have prefered locations for a fix. We’ve found ours!

The PashbyMaul connection to The BBQ Exchange is via one of Drew’s former colleagues, whose father owns the place. Sitting in the office in Vicenza, Italy, Drew often heard stories of the legendary, award winning barbeque joint in central Virginia, so it quickly made the PashbyMaul USA bucket list for this current summer sojourn. With Alicia busy with professional development in Boston, Drew jumped at the opportunity to enjoy an authentic BBQ experience while visiting his sister and her family in Richmond.

If you read the “about us” section of The BBQ Exchange web page, you’ll learn that the owner, Craig, and his wife Donna, have a lifetime love and respect for food that has ranged over the course of 37 years from the CIA – Culinary Institute of America, with fine dining experience across the United States, eventually bringing them to Gordonsville, where they opened The BBQ Exchange. The final product is mouthwatering barbecue perfection. Prepared old-school, always over a live fire, with the best sourced meat and ingredients, slow cooked, melt in your mouth, BBQ awesomeness.

Upon arrival, with niece and nephew in tow, waiting for us was an unimaginable wonderland of meat. Pulled-pork, pulled-chicken, beef brisket, pork-belly, bacon, sausage, chicken wings, BBQ wings, whole and half grilled chickens, ribs, ribs, ribs, and OMG the ribs! There’s nothing quite like it. No words to describe the taste. No picture can begin to capture the experience. The open fire smokey flavor that oozes barbeque authenticity must be appreciated in person. A BBQ lovers’ Graceland. A cathedral of slow cooked meat. Your pork pilgrimage ends here.

PashbyMaul Adventures gives the BBQ Exchange 5 stars.  Visit them at www.bbqex.com, and be sure to make Gordonsville a stop-over on your next East Coast road trip. Within easy reach of Virginia population centers, The BBQ Exchange is only 30 minutes east of Charlottesville, 1 hour west from Richmond, 2 hours south and west from Washington, DC, and 2.5 hours north and west from Hampton Roads.