Longtime Raleigh BBQ restaurant owner dies after cancer battle, community mourns
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- Jerry Hart, co‑founder of Ole Time Barbecue in Raleigh, died May 13 at 73.
- Ole Time Barbecue celebrated its 33rd anniversary on Sunday, May 10.
- Ole Time Barbecue closed at 2 p.m. May 20 and was closed May 21 for the memorial.
The owner of one of Raleigh’s oldest barbecue restaurants has died.
Jerry Hart, the co-owner and founder of Ole Time Barbecue in Raleigh, died Wednesday, May 13 at age 73. In a Facebook post, his family said Hart died from a recurrence of an aggressive throat cancer.
“It is with a heavy and broken heart that we announce the passing of owner Jerry B Hart,” the family wrote on the Ole Time Barbecue Facebook page. “Jerry has laid his working tools down and he is with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Hart family would like to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers, meals and outpouring of love over the past few months.”
On the Facebook post, friends and regulars of the restaurant shared memories of Hart, from warm interactions over barbecue, to his pride in the food at Ole Time and charity work.
Ole Time Barbecue
In 1993, he and his wife Kathy Hart opened Ole Time Barbecue on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, a diner-style restaurant with Hart’s Eastern North Carolina roots at its center.
Now working on its fourth decade, Ole Time Barbecue has been a longtime staple of Raleigh’s restaurant community and celebrated its 33rd anniversary on Sunday, May 10.
The barbecue restaurant was a dream seeded in Eastern North Carolina, where Hart learned how to cook while living with his grandfather, his wife Kathy Hart said in a phone interview.
“They always dreamed of having a little barbecue joint,” she said. “He was very much a people person.”
When they opened the restaurant, Jerry Hart told people he had $300 and a dream, his son Ben Hart said in a phone interview. The family took over an existing restaurant space that had been called Ole Time Barbecue.
“My mom said, ‘If we change the name we’ll have to buy a new sign,’” Ben Hart said. “So they left it Ole Time Barbecue.”
In running Ole Time Barbecue, Kathy said her husband was the “people person” and she was the “paper person,” handling the restaurant’s bookkeeping and operations while Jerry handled the food and customers.
‘He was a jokester’
“He was a big personality, he was a jokester,” Kathy Hart said. “He liked to talk and being in the restaurant, it was like he had a new audience every hour or so.”
Jerry Hart retired from Ole Time Barbecue about seven years ago, just before COVID, with his son Ben taking over. In retirement, Jerry and Kathy went on camping trips and charity motorcycle rides, becoming active in the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation through fundraising rides.
The first year Jerry Hart participated in the NC Triangle Ride for Kids, he put a jar by the register at Ole Time Barbecue and raised $1,500 in only a week, his son Ben said. He ended up being one of the top fundraisers that year. His role grew each year.
“This itty bitty ride grew so big it had to be moved,” Ben Hart said. “We went from having 30 bikes in the ride to more than 1,000 going around the circle in Pittsboro. Miles and miles of motorcycles.”
Ole Time Barbecue will close at 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 20 and will be closed all day Thursday, May 21 for Hart’s memorial service.
This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Longtime Raleigh BBQ restaurant owner dies after cancer battle, community mourns."
