Favorite Dish: Pulled Pork Sandwich From Greenwood BBQ in Lighthouse Point

With so many restaurants in South Florida and more opening all the time, just picking where to go for dinner on a Saturday night or lunch on a Wednesday can be an overwhelming task. Sometimes, you just need a reason. This ongoing list of the favorite dishes from food writers who know the local scene will help you discover new restaurants, cafés, and eateries and maybe even a new favorite dish of your own.

There’s nothing fancy about a pulled pork sandwich: succulent, smoky shredded meat smothered in a vinegary mop sauce, topped with sweet coleslaw, and stuffed in haystack-like piles between a simple white-bread roll.

And yet, when done right, Carolina barbecue is pretty close to food perfection. As basic as it sounds, finding a good pulled pork sandwich this far south of the Mason-Dixon Line isn’t always easy. Slow cooking and smoking the pork butt (or a boneless shoulder roast) can be an all-day affair, a task that takes skill and patience if you don’t want to wind up with a greasy, fat-slicked mess or —  worse — a pile of dry, overcooked meat. 

Good thing the chef at 2-month-old Greenwood BBQ in Lighthouse Point has the time, patience, and experience needed to master the technique. He begins with topnotch meat: a pork shoulder cut from pigs raised on a GMO-free vegetarian diet and without antibiotics and steroids.

Next, the meat is smothered in a special dry-rub seasoning and slow-cooked, yielding pork that’s tender and lightly flavored — the stuff sandwich dreams are made of. From there, it’s “pulled” and shredded into a tangle of velvety-soft pork that pairs extremely well with a cheap hamburger bun and a bath of Greenwood’s own vinegary mop sauce.

The Carolina mop is just one of three sauces you’ll find as standard table accoutrements at the restaurant, plastic squeeze bottles that include a Kansas City-style barbecue, Memphis-style hot sauce, or mango- and garlic-infused takes. Feeling adventurous? There are also a few glass bottles at the order counter that house apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, a habanero and jalapeño vinegar, and cayenne pepper sauce.

If you don’t finish every bite, we’ll chalk it up to the incredible amount of meat they serve in each sandwich. It certainly won’t be for lack of trying.

Greenwood BBQ is located at 2014 NE 36th St., Lighthouse Point. Call 954-971-1369, or visit gwoodbbq.com.

Nicole Danna is a food writer covering Broward and Palm Beach counties. To get the latest in food and drink news in South Florida, follow her @SoFloNicole or find her latest food pics on the New Times Food & Drink Instagram.