A fine-dining Chapel Hill ‘Top Chef’ got into NC barbecue. Now it’s time to expand.
When Big Belly Que co-owner Garret Fleming describes the expansion he’s planning for his barbecue restaurant, he says it will be a lot like Shake Shack, the fast casual global burger phenomenon.
That’s not such a bad model.
Big Belly Que, the Chapel Hill barbecue spot owned by Fleming and his sister, Eleanor Lacy, is moving out of Blue Dogwood Public Market and into a space of its own.
The move means more room, more control and, perhaps most importantly, alcohol sales. Big Belly Que spent more than a year as a vendor stall in Chapel Hill’s Blue Dogwood Public Market — the first food hall to open in the Triangle.
All restaurants suffered during the past year as COVID-19 heavily restricted business. Fleming said it was particularly hard for a restaurant counting on foot traffic and students.
“The pandemic really put a squeeze on people wandering around and any sort of foot-traffic,” Fleming said.
The new Big Belly Que will open up in 104 N. Graham St., behind Al’s Burger Shack.
The Big Belly view of ‘cue
Fleming and Lacy came to barbecue through their parents, who met as UNC-Chapel Hill grad students. The Big Belly view of barbecue is broad and narrow, Fleming said. Broad in that the menu often moves beyond barbecue, but narrow in that it’s only barbecue if it’s cooked with wood.
Fleming came to barbecue through fine dining. While a chef in Washington, D.C. he competed on season 13 of “Top Chef” and later opened Motto in downtown Durham. The restaurant was praised by News & Observer dining critic Greg Cox for being creative and ambitious and having the talent to back it up. But Motto closed in 2017 after being open less than a year.
Still, the embers of Motto turned into Big Belly Que, as Fleming’s charcuterie program and smoked meat specials from the restaurant developed into a full fledged barbecue joint.
The new space will have a large bar for more than a dozen, plus indoor and outdoor tables. It will still be counter service, with orders taken from a register and then delivered to tables when ready. Fleming said the new space can accommodate Big Belly now and that a full service version could still happen down the line.
“This is an opportunity to grow whichever way seems most comfortable for us at the time,” Fleming said. “(Counter service) still makes sense for us. ... It’s a lot easier to take away the service component and focus on the craft of making barbecue. But (a full-service restaurant) is not out of the question down the line.”
At Blue Dogwood, the food hall runs the bar and the vendors handle the food. Big Belly Que’s new space means they’ll serve their own alcohol. Fleming said to expect beer and wine and that they’re considering mixed drinks.
For beer, Fleming said the list will have some local options, but also some crisp imported Czech pilsners. For wine he said the list will feature high acid options like vinho verde and lambrusco to help cut through the rich fattiness of the pork.
“Wine and beer are a huge boon for any sort of barbecue restaurant,” Fleming said.
Lessons from the pandemic
Fleming said it was hard, but helpful that the business was shaped by the pandemic, rather than reacting to it. That meant a smaller menu than planned and the addition of weekly take home meals far beyond barbecue, such as a brisket bolognese with fresh pasta, chimichangas and braised beef short ribs.
Over the year the shop has leaned into brunch more than expected, developing a fanatical following for biscuit sandwiches, loaded with toppings like collards, pimento cheese and smoked pork.
“We were just getting our feet wet and everyone was scared,” Fleming said. “We have a very supportive neighborhood and started sending out a newsletter and changing the menu weekly. That worked for us.”
Fleming said construction on the new space should begin soon and last about two months. The new Big Belly Que should open in early fall, a little after students arrive back to UNC-Chapel Hill.
In the meantime, Big Belly Que will continue serving at Blue Dogwood, Fleming said, with no firm end date in mind.
The move falls in the middle of one wild year for North Carolina barbecue, as the Triangle will see a half-dozen ambitious new barbecue restaurants open in 2021. Fleming said North Carolina’s brand of barbecue is shifting, but that Big Belly Que has a lot to offer.
“People are doing things they’ve never done before in barbecue,” Fleming said. “I think we can be a strong part of that. We’ll keep doing what we think will be delicious and intriguing and try to continue making a mark on this community.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 12:58 PM with the headline "A fine-dining Chapel Hill ‘Top Chef’ got into NC barbecue. Now it’s time to expand.."
