One of NC’s best barbecue joints will open a smoky steakhouse in the Triangle
If ever there was any doubt that barbecue belongs among the finest bites in food, five smokehouses in Austin, Texas, recently earned Michelin stars, one of the most coveted restaurant honors.
Prime BBQ owner Chris Prieto always believed barbecue was destined for bigger things. His Knightdale restaurant has become a destination for smoked meat aficionados, earning numerous accolades as it helps redefine the meaning of North Carolina barbecue.
Now Prieto is expanding for the first time.
Next year he will launch Prime STQ in the Horseshoe at HUB RTP development in the Research Triangle Park. Prime STQ will bring upscale wood-fire cooking to the buttoned-up district, offering a barbecue and steakhouse experience that might forever change the expectations for the lunch hour and the after-work dinner.
“I’ve always been fascinated with RTP and if you really want to make something different there, you’ve got to create a true destination,” Prieto said in a phone interview. “You have to create something that could change the whole restaurant game and landscape.”
Prime STQ will be a large space with even larger ambitions, stretching to 8,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor dining and room for 250 people, aiming to help build on RTP’s slim restaurant reputation.
In a former life, Prieto worked an office job after college at the former Quintiles in RTP, counting himself among what he calls the “badge crowd,” referencing the microchip lanyards omnipresent around the necks of workers. While spending nearly a decade in RTP, Prieto said his passion for food pushed him to seek out new bites and restaurants one his lunch break.
“I lived that for nine years and I never ate in the company lunch room — that’s boring,” said Prieto.
Prime STQ joins the new Horseshoe at the HUB development as its second announced restaurant, following the acclaimed Indian restaurant Cheeni.
“We are thrilled to add Christopher Prieto and Prime STQ to the Horseshoe campus,” says Erik Johnson, co-founder of White Point, the developer of Horseshoe at Hub RTP, in a news release. “This unique concept solidifies Horseshoe and all of RTP as a destination for not only forward-thinking companies, but innovative cuisine as well.”
Since it’s opening in Knightdale in 2020, Prime has been named one of the South’s best barbecue joints by Southern Living, the second best Texas-style barbecue spot outside of Texas by the influential Texas Monthly and the top barbecue restaurant in the Triangle by The News & Observer.
The Prime STQ menu
With the new restaurant, Prieto said to expect great barbecue, but in a different sort of setting. It will serve familiar barbecue at lunch and become more of a steakhouse at night.
“Prime STQ will be an elevated barbecue restaurant,” Prieto said. “We’ll be taking my beef rib and center plating it with sides and sauces. There will be one kind of steak and a custom blended burger....We’re going for good feels without the stuffiness (of a steakhouse).”
Nothing could be more important to a barbecue spot than its wood and Prime STQ will use a smoky mix of mesquite, pecan and oak. Like Prime in Knightdale, which offers diners a view of the smokehouse, the pits will be wrapped in glass at STQ. A table in the pit room will be reserved for any military veterans stopping in for a meal.
For years, dining options in RTP were scant beyond on-campus cafeterias. Recently the tide is turning somewhat, with the lunch hour hit Boxyard RTP drawing crowds, plus the elegant Glasshouse Kitchen. Prieto said Prime STQ plans to build on that momentum and leave little doubt that RTP is a serious place for restaurants.
“We’re trying to drive the RTP worker to bring their family back in the evening,” Prieto said. “Prime is known for being a barbecue destination, but also for families.”
Like many of the best Texas joints, Prime in Knightdale offers market style barbecue, where diners order trays of smoked meats by the pound. The new STQ will be somewhat different, set up as a counter service restaurant for lunch and table-service in the evenings.
Prime STQ looks to open in Spring 2025.
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 9:14 AM with the headline "One of NC’s best barbecue joints will open a smoky steakhouse in the Triangle."
