A tray at The Dankery is one of Durham’s most popular meals
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Some of the world’s biggest businesses were started in a garage. The Dankery, which specializes in trays of tenders, not tech, is just getting started.
Three years after starting The Dankery food truck in his parents’ garage, owner Ian Burris saw his wings and fries devoured by NBA superstars on private jets, as Dwyane Wade stopped by for a bite to eat after a Duke basketball game in 2019. Now Burris is proving The Dankery is much more than a flash in the pan.
In 2021, The Dankery opened its first brick-and-mortar location of this hugely popular concept, landing in Durham’s Hayti District after five years of serving dinner and late-night food all over the city. The Dankery’s first dining room is part of the new Hayti Kitchen & Collective, which includes Tea Bar Cafe for breakfast and lunch, and eventually a bar operated by Darryl Scott.
Burris said fans of The Dankery have followed its every move.
“The community came out,” Burris said. “I get humbled every time I see people walk through the door.”
Burris has been cooking since he was a kid and working on branding for just as long. At 9 years old, he said, he invented “Ian’s Chicken Finger Sauce,” mixing up ketchup, mayo and mustard with a bit of seasoning, just a preview of the sauces to follow.
In becoming a Durham sensation, The Dankery took its inspiration from places like Cookout and Heavenly Buffaloes, Burris said, but offering its own version of the late-night tray. The top sellers are crispy chicken tenders, fries topped with everything from bacon to crabmeat and a fried chicken sandwich that’s had a viral moment of its own.
“I wanted The Dank to be a thing a lot of people could enjoy, that was easy to reproduce with a high rate of consistency,” Burris said.
When the pandemic hit, The Dankery had the opposite problem as most restaurants. With no dining room and built as a takeout joint, The Dankery saw its lines go from about a dozen people to 50, Burris said.
“Business tripled and initially we weren’t ready for it,” Burris said. “We were doing a full restaurant’s service and had to make it work.”
In the early days of The Dankery, Burris sold meals to diners on Instagram and delivered them around Durham. He grew into his own food truck, parking in the middle of a block of bars on Main Street in Durham, before moving on to a residency at Durty Bull Brewing, giving customers a steady place to find the tenders they craved.
Last fall, The Dankery moved to Hayti, away from Durham’s busiest bar crowd, but in a historic district for Black-owned businesses.
“Moving to Fayetteville Street meant solidifying the brand on its own,” Burris said. “There’s not too much else around there, in a parking lot a lot of my customers might not have gone to (otherwise). We had to create a vibe and atmosphere out of nothing.”
After almost five months, The Dankery is steady and growing, serving Thursday through Sunday from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. The restaurant recently added 401(k) plans for full-time workers and Burris said health care is next.
After that, Burris said he’s looking to open multiple locations and adding his creativity to the cocktail side of the restaurant, with the goal of working on a new Dankery by the end of this year.
“It’s really good for the community to have a flourishing, Black-owned restaurant,” Burris said. “It was an easy decision for me, just to help revamp the area in a way that isn’t the typical gentrification, to still add prosperity and generate the flow of the dollar from a real Bull City business..... It starts with someone giving me the opportunity.”
The Dankery
Where: 908 Fayetteville St., Suite 101, Durham
Hours: Thursday and Sunday, 6 p.m.-1 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m.-2 a.m.
News & Observer readers: Click here for Part Four.
Durham Herald-Sun readers: Click here for Part Four.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 5:45 AM with the headline "A tray at The Dankery is one of Durham’s most popular meals."
