After delays, Prime Barbecue is close to bringing Texas-style brisket to Knightdale
If there’s one law of barbecue, it’s that it takes time. It can’t be rushed, the hours can’t be shaved off, the fire can’t simply burn hotter. Any cut corners could be the difference between barbecue perfection and a pair of boots on a plate.
Chris Prieto, owner of Prime Barbecue opening in Knightdale this spring, knows how to handle time. He’s been making barbecue since he was a teenager in Texas.
And while his restaurant has been delayed more than a year, he thinks barbecue takes as long as it needs to.
“I’ve been in barbecue for so long, I anticipated the delays,” Prieto said. “It has taken longer than I expected, the delays were unforeseen, but it only gave me more time to prepare.”
Prime Barbecue is in its last couple months of construction. Prieto held a groundbreaking ceremony in May 2018, but the build out didn’t really begin in earnest until August of last year. The new 7,000 square foot building looks out on Knightdale’s Station Park, with a patio and smokehouse connected to a dining room with tall glass windows. Inside, most of the dining room is covered in white and gray subway tiles, with a cathedral ceiling from which large iron chandeliers will hang.
“I want touches of elegance,” Prieto said. “I wanted it to kind of have a church feel without being too churchy.”
Prieto has appeared in the shows “BBQ Pitmasters” and “Chopped” and locally runs the popular meat smoking classes Prime Barbecue. In 2018, he announced he would open his first restaurant of the same name.
A varied menu
As a Texas native living in North Carolina, he’ll serve predominantly brisket, pork and beef ribs, a variety of housemade beef sausages and on Saturdays, whole hog. There will be a few barbecue sides like a smoky mac and cheese, whole hog baked beans and a smoked sweet potato salad. There will be giant baked potatoes stuffed with barbecue and a chopped salad for some leafy green balance to the menu.
“The menu did evolve as the restaurant came together,” Prieto said. “We added a chopped salad because I started seeing that trend of people eating salad and barbecue. And by people I mean myself.”
For hungry barbecue fans, or perhaps just for those who are indecisive, Prime will have a sandwich called the Full Nelson, named for Prieto’s father. On it will be silced beef rib, pork, sausage, pickled onions and coleslaw.
“Only one person has ever finished the whole thing,” Prieto said.
In the smokehouse there are three rotisserie style smokers that will use only wood to cook, Prieto said, and there will be two pig cookers able to handle four hogs at a time.
“We’ve literally thought through and cooked and done everything we can to create a barbecue destination,” Prieto said.
Prime Barbecue should open in late March for a few weeks-long soft opening phase, Prieto said, leading up to a blowout grand opening party on April 18.
“It’s going to be the craziest meat fest you’ve ever seen,” Prieto said.
Hoping to be a family legacy
The land is owned by a silent partner in Prime, Fred Von Canon, Prieto said. The restaurant is planned for the long haul, looking out decades instead of a few years. He hopes one day it will become a family business he can pass on.
“I built this for generational reasons,” Prieto said. “I have five kids, and I want my sons and daughters to take it over.”
Prime’s hours will be open ended, Prieto said, but he anticipates closing early. Taking his cue from Texas barbecue spots, which have helped fuel the national obsession with barbecue, with diners waiting in line for hours for a tray, Prieto said Prime will open in the morning and close up when they run out of food. That way, he believes, the barbecue is as fresh as it can be.
“I will never sell a brisket that is more than 10 hours old,” Prieto said. “I’d rather throw it away. If one person eats brisket that’s a little too old or too dry, I’ll lose them for life.”
In 2018, Prime Barbecue was out in front of what has become the biggest dining trend in the Triangle, but now the field of pitmasters and chefs is crowded with barbecue. Prieto is confident in the restaurant he has planned, but he said he’s also excited about the coming barbecue scene and the potential for smoky collaboration.
“That’s great for barbecue,” Prieto said of the Triangle’s rush of new barbecue restaurants. “It makes it more of a pop cultural cuisine.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 3:15 PM with the headline "After delays, Prime Barbecue is close to bringing Texas-style brisket to Knightdale."
