One of the Triangle’s top barbecue joints is moving operations to downtown Cary
One of the Triangle joints at the top of North Carolina’s new barbecue class is set to build its dream restaurant in an unexpected location.
Lawrence Barbecue is expanding out of its home at Boxyard RTP and will move into a huge space of its own in downtown Cary. The new Lawrence Barbecue will open at 150 E. Cedar St. in Cary next summer.
“This will be our home for a long, long time,” owner Jake Wood said.
Downtown Cary, a phrase that used to be something of a punch line for the Triangle’s most famous suburb, is now one of the region’s hottest development spots.
As Wood strolls through the vacant building that will be his dream barbecue restaurant, a crane is building a parking deck next door, while new businesses move into the redeveloped blocks nearby. The long-awaited and much-heralded Downtown Cary Park sits a short walk away.
Downtown Cary might just be the most happening place in the Triangle.
“This is very different from the Cary I knew growing up,” said Wood, whose mother worked at SAS. “I had no idea what was going on in Cary. It is a very different vibe....There’s already this community of small business owners. It was a no-brainer.”
Wood believes Lawrence Barbecue can be part of that new vibe.
“We want this to be a part of the community here, a place where families can come and have great barbecue and some beverages,” Wood said.
Wood came up through the fine dining and neighborhood restaurant world in Raleigh, leading kitchens at 17 Seaboard and Plates Kitchen. But in those kitchens he caught the barbecue bug, longing for days spent tending smokers and cooking with wood and fire.
Lawrence Barbecue was born in parking lots, popping up in the early days of the pandemic, before launching in 2021 as one of the major tenants at Boxyard RTP, the shipping container food destination.
Within Boxyard, Lawrence added the Lagoon Bar, which focused on the kinds of cocktails and slushies best sipped pool-side (what Wood calls “leisure beverages”), and Leroy’s Tacos, a taqueria spin-off using smoked meats.
With the move to Cary, elements of all three concepts will be blended into Lawrence Barbecue. That means alongside the pulled pork and smoked brisket, you’ll likely find the insanely popular quesabirria tacos and bright frozen drinks.
When Wood was first putting his idea of Lawrence Barbecue together, he scoured the Triangle looking for a brick and mortar location. Nothing ever came together. Ultimately he brought a cooler full of barbecue to a meeting with the owners of Boxyard RTP and the two parties took a chance on each other.
“The universe looked out for us,” Wood said. “(Boxyard) believed in us.”
From those shipping containers, Lawrence grew into one of the buzziest names in North Carolina barbecue, landing on Southern Living’s 2022 list of the best new barbecue restaurants in the South, and earning shout-outs from Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, who called the beef-fat caramel chicken wings “some of the best I’ve ever had.”
“We just kept our heads down for the first year and worked as hard we could,” Wood said. “Then one day someone texts me that we’ve been named one of the best new barbecue joints in the South. That’s not why we do it, but it was validating. We were blown away by that.”
The new Lawrence space is around 4,900 square feet, and Wood hopes to seat around 250 people in the dining room and front porch patio. Seating will be first-come, first-served, with QR code menus at every table and spread around the restaurants for folks standing up. There will be a three-smoker smokehouse alongside an open kitchen. Lawrence will mostly smoke pork shoulders, but there will be the occasional whole hog.
A full bar will run along one wall, with a retail section for merch and perhaps the most whimsical touch will be an oyster cart passing through the dining room taking raw bar orders and shucking tableside.
The building is owned by Ladd Properties and was formerly a furniture warehouse.
“They really care about downtown,” Wood said of the property owners. “They could have had anybody in here, but barbecue spoke to them.”
Wood and Lawrence Barbecue signed a new 10-year lease this month for the Cedar Street spot. The restaurant will be designed for the next few months, with construction set to begin early next year. A lot needs to happen between now and then, but Wood expects to be serving barbecue in the new Lawrence by summer 2025.
Until then Lawrence Barbecue, Leroy’s Tacos and Lagoon Bar will remain operating normally at Boxyard RTP. The restaurants will close for about three weeks before Lawrence Barbecue opens its doors in Cary.
“We were always working towards this, this was the original concept,” Wood said. “This is a really neat place to call home and a really neat place to grow into...This can be a bigger, better version of everything we do.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "One of the Triangle’s top barbecue joints is moving operations to downtown Cary."
