Dimples BBQ Sauce, the creation of Wake Forest couple Rich and Jan Campana, placed first in the tomato mild contest at the National BBQ Festival's 2012 best of the best barbecue sauce competition in Douglas, GA.

The sauce also won reserve grand champion.

Jan Campana explained that she and her husband moved to the Triangle eight years ago from California and became immersed in North Carolina's barbecue culture. Her husband joined a competition barbecue team and started testing sauce recipes. After lots of positive feedback, Jan Campana, then a stay-at-home mom, decided to try to turn their sauce recipe into a business. Two years ago, Dimples BBQ Sauce was launched.

A 16-ounce jar costs $5 online at dimplesbbqsauce.com. The website also lists local retailers that carry the sauce.

We're giving away a jar of Dimples BBQ sauce, thanks to Jan and Rich Campana. To enter to win, leave a comment below this post before noon, Friday, Jan. 25. I'll choose a winner at random and the Campanas will send you the sauce. Good luck.

Five blog readers have won coupons for a free product in my Stubb's Barbecue giveaway.

Thanks to everyone who entered.

Check out the list of user names below to see if you were among the lucky five:

Two events that may not be on your radar for the weekend:

• Counter Culture Coffee is hosting a free event from 7-9 p.m. Saturday featuring 2012 U.S. Barista Champion Katie Carguilo. The topic is "Fruit Bombs & Fermentation." Attendees will taste exotic and experimental Ethiopian coffees along with Carguilo's award-winning fermentation-inspired signature beverage that helped her win. The event is at 4911 S. Alston Ave., Durham. For more information, go HERE.
• Durham's Southwest Regional Library is hosting a Southern food cultures panel discussion at 3 p.m. Sunday. The panel will be moderated by N.C. barbecue expert Bob Garner and the panelists include chef Ben Barker of Durham's now closed-Magnolia Grill, chef Billy Cotter of Toast in Durham, chef Amy Tornquist of Watts Grocery and Hummingbird Bakery, both in Durham, and chef Walter Royal of Raleigh's Angus Barn.

The N.C. Barbecue Society is offering a barbecue boot camp and certified judges class next month near Wilmington.

The two-day event starts at 5 p.m. Sept. 28 with a cookout and mixer with chefs, pit masters and fellow students.

Classes starts at 8 a.m. Sept. 29 with instruction on how to cook whole hogs, pork shoulders, Boston butts, chicken, pork ribs, beef brisket, whole beef tenderloins, beef prime rib and whole wild salmon. Students are also taught how to make eastern North Carolina vinegar-based sauce and Lexington-style barbecue dip and rubs along with side dishes such as collards, baked beans and banana pudding.

Attendees also are taught how to judge North Carolina Barbecue Society events and leave as certified judges.

The two-day camp ends with a party and buffet from 6-10 p.m. Sept. 29.
The event, which is held in Castle Hayne, costs $395 per person. For more information about the event or to register, go to ncbbqsociety.com.

Developer Greg Hatem is opening a second location of The Pit restaurant, Raleigh's popular cloth napkin barbecue restaurant.

The second location will be next door to Durham's Fullsteam Brewery in a former 7Up bottling plant on the corner of Rigsbee and Geer streets. Hatem says he will close today on the purchase of the 30,000-square feet building that also houses Fullsteam, which will become a tenant. 

That area of Durham is a popular night spot between Fullsteam, Motorco Music Hall, Geer Street Garden restaurant and bar and all the food trucks that park there nightly.

Hatem says he will convert 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of the unoccupied part of the building into the second Pit location. Hatem says a second story on part of the building will enable them to create a 2,000-square-foot rooftop patio with a view of the city.

Hatem says he hopes the new Pit restaurant will open in about 10 months. He noted that the purchase came with a 1-acre parking lot about two blocks away and another along Geer Street. Plus, there will be space in the building for another tenant, Hatem says.

"It will be our biggest restaurant," Hatem says.

His company also owns The Raleigh Times, The Morning Times, Sitti and Gravy, all in downtown Raleigh.

I was on furlough last week and out sick Monday. I want to make sure you saw these stories in the N&O while I was out:

• Wilbur's Barbecue in Goldsboro marked 50 years. Read Josh Shaffer's story.
• Kathleen Purvis wrote a story about the popularity of Greek yogurt.
• Greg Cox offered a list of good burger joints in Friday's Cheap Eats list.
• Bolt Bistro & Bar will open in the former Mint location in downtown Raleigh. Go HERE to read that business story.
• And Durham photographer Kate Medley has a collection of food photos up at UNC-Chapel Hill until mid-August. Go HERE for that story.

For pork and barbecue fans, there is a new truck on the road now and another in the works:

Porchetta RDU is a truck devoted to the Italian-style slow roasted pork sandwiches that got on the road two weeks ago. The owners are chef Nicholas Crosson and Matthew Hayden, former co-workers at Raleigh's 18 Seaboard.

Crosson explains that they make the truck's signature dish, porchetta (pronouced por-KET-a), by roasting pork that has been seasoned with sage, fennel, garlic, rosemary and red chile flakes. Their sandwiches are made with shredded and chopped pork. They also serve seasonal sausages, pork burgers and a veggie burger.

For more information, go to porchettardu.com or follow them on Twitter: @porchettardu

The Humble Pig is the work of husband and wife, Ross and Jessica McCarthy of Cary. Until last fall, Ross McCarthy worked in corporate sales. When he got laid off, this avid backyard barbecue cook decided to launch a truck devoted to smoked local meat. His wife, Jessica, says they plan to be on the road by July 10.

They will serve pulled pork, chicken and brisket. (The pork and chicken come from Mae Farm in Louisburg and Cozi Farm in Mebane.) They smoke the meat using a combination of apple and cherry wood. They do not pre-sauce anything. They will offer several styles of sauce: western North Carolina, eastern North Carolina, a South Carolina mustard sauce, and an Alabama white sauce for the chicken.

Their home base will be Deep South Bar in downtown Raleigh. They will be serving food every night there is a concert at the downtown Raleigh amphitheater.

For more information, go to thehumblepig.com, Facebook or follow them on Twitter: @thehumblepig
 

I dined at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen recently in Cary. And I noticed that chef Jay Pierce has started bottling his popular Voodoo Sauce, which is on their Voodoo pig bread, fried green tomatoes, etc. Manager Shane Garrity handed me a jar and since it would be unethical for me to take it for my own use, you -- my dear readers -- get to benefit. And so, you can enter to win this very bottle.

But before we get to that, here's what Pierce has to say about the sauce: "We've altered it a bit to make it taste like Lexington-style sauce was reincarnated in Louisiana.  It starts with Texas Pete Hot Sauce, has its share of sugar and tomato paste and includes enough spices to pair well with just about anything.  We didn't really know how to categorize it, (because "barbecue sauce" just doesn't do it justice) so we listed all of the wonderful things you can do with it all over the label."

A 16-ounce jar is available for $5.99 at Fresh Market stores and the restaurant's Cary and Greensboro locations. They hope to be Harris Teeter and Whole Foods stores soon.

And so, leave a comment below this post before noon Friday, June 22nd. I'll pick a winner at random. Good luck.

Do you think you have the best barbecue sauce in the Carolinas? Well, prove it!

Enter our barbecue sauce recipe contest. You win $100 and bragging rights.

Go HERE for details on how to enter.