What will the Triangle restaurant scene look like in 2021? Think barbecue and the burbs
When the world changes in a moment, we usually remember where we were and what we were doing. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ll remember where we weren’t.
The empty restaurants and bars, canceled baseball games and concerts, shuttered theaters and half-empty breweries, desks and offices still frozen in March.
The food world has changed as well, in some ways for good. Online ordering is likely here to stay, as is delivery and at least a temporary shift to more casual comfort food. But the call of the dining room will always be there, the clink of glasses, the thrill of snagging seats at the bar. Hopefully that’s a world not too far away.
As we wade gently into 2021, here are the biggest restaurant openings, projects and developments expected to happen in the Triangle this year, may likely to become the places we think of when we all come back together.
A barbecue capital, for real this time
At the beginning of last year, in those first couple innocent months of 2020, we declared that it would be the year of barbecue in the Triangle. That Raleigh would become a barbecue capital in the South. That of all the things to happen, there would be nothing greater than barbecue.
That turned out not to be the case.
This year, though, will be the year for barbecue. We’re almost positive.
In 2021, a half dozen new barbecue projects will set the smoked meat spotlight squarely on the Triangle. A new generation of pitmasters looks to pick up the torch of North Carolina’s most famous food and light a new path. In this new barbecue world, there will of course be whole hog and pork shoulders, but also brisket and burnt ends, sausage and beef ribs, beer and frozen drinks. Here are the barbecue projects set to open in the next year.
▪ Sam Jones BBQ: From one of North Carolina’s most storied barbecue families, Sam Jones will open his namesake restaurant in downtown Raleigh this year. A spokesperson said to expect the restaurant to open soon for takeout, with a grand opening later this year. At Sam Jones, whole hog is king, but don’t sleep on spare ribs and mac and cheese.
▪ Wyatt’s Whole Hog BBQ: Another new school spot doing old school barbecue, Wyatt Dickson’s venture into Raleigh will open this summer. Dickson, whose Durham restaurant Picnic is one of the few places to get whole hog in the Triangle, will open up in Raleigh’s Gateway Plaza development, joining Union Special Bread and Mordecai Beverage Company. Wyatt’s will serve a similar menu to Picnic, but says it will also be more adventurous. It is also being built for a future of togetherness, with an event space for up to 100 people, plus the restaurant.
▪ Lawrence Barbecue: From chef Jake Wood, Lawrence Barbecue will open in the Boxyard RTP development in late February. Named for Wood’s grandfather, Lawrence will serve whole hog barbecue and sliced brisket, plus “sticky ribs” and North Carolina oysters. Wood said they’ve added an upstairs bar and expanded beverage program. Eater Carolinas reports that bar will be called the Lagoon and focus on Tiki drinks and a life of leisure.
▪ Longleaf Swine: The homegrown duo of Adam Cunningham and Marc Russell originally planned to put their first brick and mortar restaurant in Raleigh’s Transfer Co. Food Hall. Now that project has expanded mightily and will open instead in the former Oakwood Cafe space on Person Street. Look for pulled pork, ribs, brisket and Flintstone-esque beef ribs. Most of the new dining room will be on a sprawling, partially covered patio. Construction is currently underway, with a summer opening in mind.
▪ The Preserve: Ed Mitchell, North Carolina’s most famous pitmaster, is opening his first barbecue restaurant in years, just inside the Beltline on Wake Forest Road. Partnering with his son Ryan and Carolina Ale House owners LM Restaurants, Mitchell’s new restaurant is unlikely to open by the end of 2021, but will start as a delivery only pop up Jan. 22.
▪ BBQ Lab: The folks behind the Redneck BBQ Lab in Johnston County are opening a new franchise in Raleigh’s North Hills. The barbecue looks to be the same, but the menu will be somewhat pared down. Look for more BBQ Labs soon.
Alas, one planned barbecue restaurant won’t be happening. Jason Howard, owner of the Cardinal Bar in Raleigh, said his chicken-centric barbecue restaurant Friendship has been canceled due to COVID.
BB’s Crispy Chicken
Raleigh chef Ashley Christensen will launch her fast casual chicken sandwich concept, BB’s Crispy Chicken, this year. Christensen partnered with MDO Holdings, which also owns part of the Durham Food Hall, in starting BB’s.
The menu will include five different chicken sandwiches, both grilled and fried, including one doused in Texas Pete and bleu cheese and another with extra, extra pickles. The first location will open around springtime in Raleigh’s Midtown East development, near Wegmans on Wake Forest Road. The two others, one in Durham’s University Hill development and one in Cary’s Parkside Town Commons, will open later.
Suburban surge
In the past two years, the opening of three major food halls in the downtowns of Raleigh and Durham represented the Triangle’s biggest restaurant projects. Suddenly, nearly two dozen restaurants were added within just a few downtown blocks.
Among this year’s openings, many are situated in suburban strip malls and developments, with little new spots, for now, situated downtown. The downtowns of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill remain the center of the Triangle’s dining scene, but 2021 looks to be a year of holding on to what’s there, rather than opening new concepts. The impact of COVID will be felt for years — the deflated lunch hour with office workers staying home, the absence of after-work drinks and nights out.
In Raleigh’s North Hills, several new spots will open expansions next year. Jubala Coffee will open its third cafe and first roastery as it launches its new brand of coffee beans. The BBQ Lab will open its first franchise location and Durham Italian restaurant Cucciolo Osteria will open a sister restaurant, Cucciolo Terrazza in the fall. Bul Box, which began as a Transfer Co. Food Hall vendor, just opened a new North Hills location last week.
In what will be one of the Triangle’s biggest culinary coups, New York’s famed Di Fara’s Pizza has opened a new location in downtown Cary. Named Di Fara Pizza Tavern, this North Carolina outpost of a Brooklyn icon opened at 111 E. Chatham St. in Cary. Greg Norton, nephew of Di Fara founder Dom DeMarco, is behind the project, telling the News & Observer in 2019 that he and his wife moved to Cary in 2015.
In Morrisville, Boxyard RTP is kind of like a food hall by another name. This development built out of shipping containers will open this spring. Tenants include Fullsteam Brewery as the anchor, Lawrence Barbecue, Beyu Caffe, Carrburritos, flower shop Blossom & Bone, Bulkogi, cupcakery Buzzy Bakes, Game On escape room, CBD store Medicine Mama’s Farmacy, wine shop RTP Uncorked and gourmet cotton candy shop Wonderpuff.
Luang Prabang called off
What was once the most anticipated restaurant in the Triangle looks to be canceled. Luang Prabang was to be the third restaurant from Vansana and Vanvisa Nolintha of Bida Manda, who opened Brewery Bhavana with partner Patrick Woodson. The three planned to open Luang Prabang, a Laotian night market restaurant high up in downtown Raleigh’s The Dillon building.
But Vansana Nolintha left the restaurants last summer following allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment within the restaurants.
A Kane Realty spokesperson and a spokesperson from Brewery Bhavana and Bida Manda each said the project isn’t happening.
A proper opening
Despite the harrowing dining climate of 2020, more than two dozen Triangle restaurants opened up anyway. Many opened as COVID versions of themselves, with stripped down menus and a focus on takeout. Some still haven’t opened up dining rooms, serving only outdoors, and those that have are restricted to 50% capacity.
With the COVID vaccine rolling out, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in a briefing Thursday that the country could approach normalcy by fall if certain vaccine benchmarks are met.
That could mean that the most significant restaurant openings of the year may have already happened months ago, just not properly. The News & Observer published a list of the 2020 openings in December, including cocktail bars Annexe and Corpse Reviver in Durham, the Durham Food Hall, Nomad in Hillsborough and Standard Beer and Food in Raleigh. These and others may be worth revisiting once case counts allow a larger opening.
Restaurant lawsuit
The long-term fate of many restaurants could rest on a lawsuit involving multiple Triangle spots. Out of hundreds of insurance lawsuits, only Durham restaurateurs Matt Kelly and Giorgios Bakatsias have successfully sued their insurer for COVID-related losses. A Durham judge ruled that these losses should be covered after Kelly’s and Bakatsias’ restaurants, including St. James Seafood, Mateo Tapas, Vin Rouge and Kipos, were closed by government order. The Cincinnati Insurance Company has appealed the decision.
Coverage will vary restaurant to restaurant, but the case could set a precedent nationwide, requiring insurance companies to pay business interruption claims for closings and restrictions imposed on restaurants as states tried to stop the spread of COVID-19. The appeals process could take the better part of the year to resolve, unless a settlement is made.
Notable openings
▪ Dram & Draught Durham: One of Raleigh’s most popular cocktail bars will open its third location sometime in 2021, owner Kevin Barrett said. The Durham location, situated on Main Street on the ground floor of the Chesterfield apartment building, follows the company’s sister spots on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh and in downtown Greensboro. Barrett said the Durham location won’t open until COVID-19 bar restrictions are lifted. Currently North Carolina bars are allowed to open with 30% capacity outdoors.
▪ Hank’s Downtown Dive: From the owners of downtown Cary’s cocktail bar Sidebar, Hank’s Downtown Dive will open this year at 111 E. Chatham Street, in the same building as the new Di Fara Pizza. Hank’s brings a food menu to go along with the cocktails, including buffalo popcorn shrimp, a crabcake sandwich and a smash burger.
▪ Rainbow Luncheonette/Pink Boot: From the owner of the Cardinal Bar and Atlantic Lounge, this diner with a rainbow floor will open this year, owner Jason Howard said, whenever restaurant restrictions are lifted. Rainbow will be a breakfast and lunch diner and a weekend steakhouse, and the Pink Boot will be a modern honky tonk.
▪ Trophy next downtown project: Last year, Trophy Brewing’s Wilmington Street restaurant Trophy, Tap + Table closed due to the pandemic. Owner Chris Powers said the next version will reopen this summer with a new chef and new menu. Like Trophy Tap and Busy Bee Cafe, the restaurant will be two stories plus a patio. Trophy fans will be excited to see something new in the downtown space, but there will be a significant departure: the tater tots are not expected to return.
▪ Bond Brother’s Eastside: This satellite taproom for Bond Brothers will open this year less than a mile from the downtown Cary brewery. The Eastside will focus on barrel-aged and experimental beers and function as a venue for live music. Pending permitting, the taproom is eyeing a spring opening.
▪ Gym Tacos: One of Raleigh’s most popular taco trucks will open a brick and mortar location in a matter of weeks. Gym Tacos, known for the bright orange truck parked on Six Forks Road in Raleigh, will move into the former Hieu Bowl space on Hillsborough Road.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
