Ed Mitchell’s BBQ is making its long-awaited return to the Triangle. Here’s where.
For the first time in six years, Ed Mitchell’s barbecue will be available in the Triangle.
Mitchell and his son, Ryan Mitchell, will launch a new weekend pop-up in North Raleigh, starting Jan. 22.
The new pop-up will preview the Mitchells’ in-the-works restaurant, The Preserve, which is slated to open in the former Carolina Ale House on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. The Preserve will be part of LM Restaurants, one of Raleigh’s largest restaurant groups and the owners of Carolina Ale House.
As the state’s most famous pitmaster, Mitchell has come to symbolize North Carolina barbecue to the rest of the world through frequent television appearances and national press.
In North Carolina, though, the barbecue has been elusive. Mitchell’s last restaurant, QUE in Durham’s American Tobacco Campus, closed in 2015. More recent projects, a food truck and a new restaurant in Brier Creek, struggled to get off the ground.
“It’s an emotional moment for us,” Ryan Mitchell said in a phone interview. “The fact that my dad is still standing there with the same love as when we first came to the Triangle, it’s a big deal. It means a lot to be able to reconnect with customers....That first ticket will be monumental, a huge thank you to those still wanting to have our stuff.”
Pandemic halted plans
The Mitchells and LM Restaurants announced The Preserve at the end of 2019, one of several high profile barbecue restaurants set to open in the Triangle in 2020.
Then the pandemic ground all those barbecue dreams to a halt.
The timeline for The Preserve as a standalone restaurant is still up in the air, but Ryan Mitchell said it will likely open near the end of this year, or in early 2022.
Ryan Mitchell said COVID has forced a redesign of the restaurant and that only time will tell what a dining room means in a post-pandemic world. But as barbecue pitmasters, a craft devoted to hours of smoking pigs, Mitchell said they’re patient.
“Barbecue is meant to be eaten together,” Mitchell said. “We have to give customers time to feel comfortable eating in groups again. It will take some emotional healing.”
How to get Mitchell BBQ
Ordering for the pop-up will open Friday, Jan. 22 at 4 p.m.
The Preserve pop-up will be open Fridays for dinner and Saturdays and Sunday for lunch and dinner.
On the menu will be chopped whole hog barbecue, smoked chicken and ribs, joined by coleslaw, mac and cheese and collards as sides. Dessert won’t stray beyond banana pudding, but smoked meat specials could include brisket, pork belly, smoked pork chops and steaks, Ryan Mitchell said.
For the first month, ordering for the pop-up will only be available on the delivery app DoorDash, Mitchell said, but could expand in the future. Orders will be prepared in the kitchen of the North Raleigh Carolina Ale House and the barbecue will be smoked by the Mitchells in the parking lot. Initially there won’t be any walk-up service, but Mitchell said that could change in the future.
Katherine Goldfaden, LM Restaurants director of marketing, said the run for The Preserve pop-up is open ended and could go for months while the restaurant is built.
She said the aim is to get the Mitchells’ barbecue back out there while the dust settles from the COVID-19 pandemic. Exactly what kind of restaurant landscape The Preserve will ultimately join is still up in the air, Goldfaden said.
“We hope this will get people really hungry for barbecue,” Goldfaden said. “The Mitchells will be smoking the pigs, it’s their menu and their food. It’s cold nights and warm pigs.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 2:58 PM.
