Our great NC barbecue revival, slowed by the pandemic, will heat back up in 2022
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What’s the Future of Dining Out?
Nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic, diners are more accustomed to navigating menus on their phones, flashing vaccine cards and reheating takeout. Now the choice of where to go out includes a new option — whether to go out at all. We explore how COVID has reshaped dining, what it looks and feels like to go out for a meal and how the Triangle’s celebrated dining scene advances. Plus, we’ll tell you which new restaurants — and meals — are drool-worthy.
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Our great NC barbecue revival, slowed by the pandemic, will heat back up in 2022
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Low and slow. Steady as she goes.
Barbecue believers know these things to be true, that patience and heat can turn a 20-pound hunk of meat into a smoky masterpiece.
Before the pandemic, a rising tide of Triangle barbecue restaurants looked to usher in a new heyday for the state’s most famous food. Things slowed a bit because of COVID, with some restaurant plans still cooking.
But the promise of barbecue glory remains. This new generation of Triangle pitmasters runs the culinary gamut, bringing together backgrounds of fine dining, competition barbecue, self-taught craft and lifelong immersion.
Prime BBQ
At the top of the class is Chris Prieto, whose Prime BBQ opened in Knightdale in May 2020 after two years of construction. May 2020 was not an ideal time to open a dream restaurant, to build a dining room with large communal tables and space for a slicing line, only to debut in takeout boxes.
But Prime made it through and emerged as one of the most talked about restaurants to open since the pandemic.
There wasn’t much of a line culture in North Carolina barbecue, but that’s changing. Every day a line forms before the door opens, and every day Prime sells out of barbecue, Prieto said. On the weekends the line starts three or four ours before the doors open, and if it wraps around the building Prime hands out free beer.
Hailing from Texas, it’s no surprise Prime specializes in brisket. But the modern barbecue order isn’t a plate, it’s a platter, filled with ribs and pulled pork and housemade sausage. Prieto said that variety is the expectation these days, along with a dining room and service that rivals most restaurants. Anything less, he believes, is stuck in the past.
“I think we’ve changed it,” Prieto said of barbecue in North Carolina. “There’s a new generation of what a barbecue restaurant is and you can’t do it the old way anymore. It would be like using a flip phone or wearing an old pair of shoes.”
Lawrence Barbecue
Perhaps the biggest adopter of the no rules mentality of modern barbecue is Jake Wood, who left fine dining restaurants to open Lawrence BBQ in Durham’s Boxyard RTP development. Built around brisket and sticky spare ribs, Lawrence serves a menu with North Carolina oysters, roasted and raw, and specials like brisket birria tacos, which became so popular they started taking over the kitchen’s flattop. The upstairs Lagoon bar pairs island vibes with the barbecue. You’ll wonder if smoked meats have ever been so fun.
Wood says the continued rise of food costs means today’s barbecue has to stay flashy, with shiny subway tiled walls and embracing modern tastes. The menu can still reflect North Carolina, Wood said, but a different side.
“We’ve begun to bring the image of North Carolina barbecue back,” Wood said. “The mom and pop, side of the road joint where you pay $5 for a huge plate of food, I have a soft spot for it, but those days are gone.”
Sam Jones BBQ
Sam Jones is one of the top torchbearers in America for whole hog barbecue. His barbecue bloodline connects the iconic Skylight Inn in Ayden, founded by his grandfather Pete Jones, to the trends of today, where pitmasters are the stars of the moment in the restaurant world.
Jones opened Sam Jones BBQ in downtown Raleigh last year, a restaurant devoted to the old ways of whole hog chopped barbecue and crispy skin that appreciates where barbecue’s been and where it’s going.
“It’s a damn diamond,” Jones said of Skylight, a 75-year-old restaurant with a silver dome on top, a pile of wood out back and a James Beard medal hanging in the dining room.
Jones himself has pushed North Carolina barbecue in a new direction, adding a full bar to his downtown restaurant, a formidable cheeseburger and a baked potato stuffed with barbecue. Jones said it’s a new world, but that creating a new barbecue center isn’t done overnight.
“I don’t think no town is going to replace all the places that dot the countryside in North Carolina,” Jones said. “You can’t replace the experience of driving to Dudley and eating at Grady’s or walking into Skylight and hearing the cleavers pounding.”
Big Belly Que
Big Belly Que is the barbecue project of former “Top Chef” contestant Garrett Fleming, which has been part of Blue Dogwood Public Market in Chapel Hill for two years.
Next year, Big Belly Que is moving into its own larger space, planning a counter-service restaurant farther down Franklin Street, but the same wood-smoked menu.
BBQ Lab
The first Redneck BBQ Lab opened in a gas station off of Interstate 40 in Johnston County. Owner Jerry Stephenson’s future plans are a bit more grand, starting with a new slightly trimmed down BBQ Lab opening in North Hills. That restaurant is slated to open in the spring.
To those who think North Carolina might be falling behind Texas in the barbecue arms race, Stephenson says to take another look.
“People underestimate how good North Carolina barbecue is,” said Stephenson, who came to barbecue through competition success with his sister Roxanne Manley. “You can fly into RDU and within a two hours drive I’ll take you to 30 of the best restaurants you’ve ever been to. In Texas, it would take a 24-hour drive to get to every good restaurant.”
Stephenson hopes to build a barbecue destination of his own after purchasing land in Johnston County. He said that project is months away, but he is referring to it as “The Redneck Biltmore.”
Longleaf Swine
Beginning as a pop-up trailer and planned as a narrow barbecue bar in a food hall, Longleaf Swine has grown into one of Raleigh’s most anticipated openings for 2022.
Adam Cunningham and Marc Russell bought the former Oakwood Cafe space on Person Street in downtown Raleigh and plan to build a restaurant that’s as much outdoor space as indoor, and as much diner as barbecue joint.
Longleaf Swine will open for lunch, with a slicing line serving brisket and pulled pork, beef and pork ribs. In the evenings, it’ll morph into a diner, griddling Raleigh-famous smashburgers, fried chicken sandwiches and late night poutine.
The project has been delayed by a year, surviving as a nomad, popping up around downtown Raleigh bars. Cunningham expects to now be open by the end of spring. He believes there’s still plenty of life in this barbecue moment.
“The more barbecue the better,” Cunningham said. “This should be the barbecue capital of the world.”
On hold
Ed Mitchell and his son Ryan, two of the country’s most recognizable barbecuers, planned to open their first restaurant in years, The Preserve, with the backing of LM Restaurants.
But that project is now on hold while the Mitchells work on a new cookbook and TV series, Ryan said earlier this year.
Canceled
Picnic’s Wyatt Dickson had planned to open Wyatt’s in Raleigh, bringing his name and brand of whole hog barbecue to the big city. But that project has been canceled for now.
This story was originally published December 19, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Our great NC barbecue revival, slowed by the pandemic, will heat back up in 2022."
