Winter is coming: Winterville is changing, but barbecue keeps a town--and pork--pure.

• Author: Mims, Bryan
• Position: TOWNSQUARE: Winterville

Farm fields long ribboned with tobacco and soybeans now brim with two-car garages attached to vinyl-sided houses. Streets labeled lane, loop, way, court and place have plowed through the furrows.

But with all the cul-de-sacs and their spokes of driveways, Winterville still has a Main Street, a Church Street, a Railroad Street, a Depot Street--in short, it still has a core, even as suburbia is spreading its branches. The railroad runs through the center of town, flanked on one side by a strip of small businesses with a tapestry of facades. Along a single block, you can get your dog groomed at Pampered Pooches, order a bouquet at the flower shop, take dance lessons, buy a gun or sit down to a breakfast of fried bologna and a bagel at Mary and Vinny's. That said, Debbie Avery would sure appreciate a place to buy a good pair of shoes.

"I would love to get everything I need without having to go across Fire Tower Road," she says, referring to the boundary between Winterville and its much bigger neighbor to the north, Greenville. As executive director of the Winterville Chamber of Commerce, she's witnessed the town blossom in the last decade.

In 2000, census data put the town's population at 4,791; by 2010, that number nearly doubled to 9,261, the biggest 10-year population gain in Winterville's history. Town officials now estimate there are about 10,000 residents. Proximity to Greenville, about 7 miles away, powers the growth. With 90,000 people, Greenville serves as the education and health care hub of North Carolina's coastal plain. It's home to East Carolina University, the third-largest campus--and one of the fastest-growing--in the UNC System, along with Vidant Medical Center, site of ECU's medical school.

The vibrancy of a college town invariably casts its shine on surrounding communities, and Winterville is basking in the glow. Pitt Community College, with about 8,500 students, occupies the far northern prong of town. Education, not farming, rules the roost. Drive down Old N.C. 11, along Old Tar Road or east on Worthington Road, and you'll still see row crops stretching toward the loblolly pines. But head north, and it's hard to discern when you've left Winterville for Greenville, with the bustle from traffic and big-box stores.

How does Winterville reconcile college-town conveniences with rural roots? Though the town may now have a Sam's Club, it also has Sam Jones.

In September 2015, the 36-year-old, fourth-generation barbecue master...