Message to ‘Dit Dots’ is: Try a red N.C. hot dog

Visitors to the Crystal Coast need to be advised: Hot dogs in eastern North Carolina are often bright red. 

Guests from “Off” are called “Dit Dots” – a term of “endearment” – because they come, spend their money and then go back home…and leave us be. 

Ever seen a tourist wriggle up his or her nose when served a red hot dog at a local eatery? Locals have been eating red hot dogs for more than 80 years now…and loving them.

 

A favorite brand of red hot dog – as well as the original – is “Bright Leaf,” produced by Carolina Packers Inc. of Smithfield in Johnston County. 

The company was formed in 1939 by a group of local businessmen and farmers to process locally grown beef and pork. The plant was built among the old tobacco warehouses that lined a section of highway known as Brightleaf Boulevard.

 

“We adopted the name Bright Leaf as well as the tobacco leaf in our logo, to identify with our agricultural heritage,” said Kent Denning, company president and general manager. 

He started working at Carolina Packers as a high school student but went off to college at University of North Carolina Wilmington. After finishing, Denning returned to Smithfield and worked his way up the ladder with Carolina Packers. 

Kurt Byrd is the company’s chief financial officer. His grandfather began working at Carolina Packers in the 1950s and spent 46 years with the company. “That’s why I feel so strongly about being here. It’s a tradition that we’re passing on,” he said.

 

Kurt Byrd (left) and Kent Denning

Technically, the Carolina Bright Leaf Brand hot dog is a “skinless frankfurter” containing a blend of beef and pork as well as a unique mixture of herbs and spices. (There’s zero poultry product in the Carolina Packers’ recipe.) 

In 2021, Our State magazine dispatched writer Billy Warden to Smithfield to get the scoop. 

He reported: “Hot dog fans throughout the region swear by Bright Leafs with a vigor that’s akin to the way many North Carolinians pledge allegiance to college basketball teams. The franks are associated with everything from church revivals to first dates.”

 

Jeff Holt, Mayor of nearby Pine Level, told Warden: “Eating (Bright Leaf) red hot dogs goes so far back here that I don’t remember ever not eating them. It’s a source of pride and identity. We were nursed on them.” 

Ashby Brame of the Johnston County Visitors Bureau said: “They’re sweeter than an all-beef hot dog. Not candy-sweet, though – they’re tangy.”

 

Warden reported that the Carolina Packers’ factory storeroom “is piled high with the secret spices that give all Bright Leaf hot dogs…their tongue-tingling taste.” 

Still fascinated by “hot dog redness,” Warden dropped in to speak with the lunch bunch at the famous Jones Café in downtown Clayton, famous for its slow-simmer boiled Brite Leaf hot dogs. Asked about his red hot dog, Wendell Norris, said: “I didn’t know there was any other kind.”   

Charles Strickland said: “There is no other kind. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a brown one.”

 

Noted Tar Heel food commentator Bob Garner has eaten at Jones Café for his North Carolina Public Broadcasting Service television show. He chowed down a Bright Leaf hot dog with onion, mustard, chili and slaw and saying “yummmm.” 

For the record, that was just the first course. Garner also ordered a fried Bright Leaf bologna sandwich with tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise. It came wrapped in white bread, lightly toasted and cut diagonally.