Prime Barbecue Announces March 2020 Opening in Knightdale
Knightdale, North Carolina (January 24, 2020) – Prime Barbecue has announced today that it will be opening in Knightdale in late March 2020. The restaurant is located adjacent to Knightdale Station Park at 403 Knightdale Station Run, Knightdale, NC 27545.
Head Fire Maker and Owner Christopher Prieto is a champion pitmaster, author, barbecue judge, teacher and barbecue eating expert. A Texas native, Prieto originally developed Prime Barbecue to inspire, educate and demonstrate the processes, techniques and traditions behind the art of smoking. Since then, he has been featured on Food Network's Chopped Grill Masters, Man Fire Food, Destination America’s BBQ Pitmasters, Fox & Friends, My Carolina Today, Zagat’s BBQ Documentary, “The Cradle of ‘Cue” and the 700 Club. Prieto’s passion for the craft has forged a nationally recognized cookbook with Southern Living, “Ultimate Book of BBQ”, a barbecue school, “Ultimate School of BBQ”, and a therapeutic tool to help organizations such as Wounded Warrior Project.
Prime Barbecue will offer a plethora of smoked meats, including brisket, house made beef sausages—pimento cheese and jalapeno will be their signature, beef and pork ribs, pork shoulder and turkey breast. A traditional Eastern Carolina style whole hog will be featured on Saturdays. As a big non-believer in sauce, Prieto will not sauce a majority of his meats in an effort for his customers to taste the natural barbecue. Although Prime Barbecue will be primarily focused on meats, they will serve a selection of traditional sides with a delicious spin, like smoked gouda mac and cheese, mustard vinegar slaw—a North Carolina meets South Carolina rendition, sweet potato salad, chopped salad, green beans, barbecue rice—a wink at Prieto’s Puerto Rican background, and big boss beans, a base of barbecue sauce with a sweet and sticky style bean with chunks of whole hog. Prieto will work with local farmers to create featured sides once a week, and for dessert you’ll find five different kinds of delectable homemade cobblers, three flavors of chess pies, mini pies and bourbon banana pudding.
The restaurant’s six specially designed barbecue pits will be front and center upon walking up to Prime Barbecue, offering outdoor bar seating directly in front of the pits for patrons to view pitmasters at work. After more than 13 years cooking in barbecue competitions, Prieto boasts that his pits are a culmination of what he decided his barbecue flavor needed to be. Each of the six pits will cook meats in a specific way with different cocktails of wood—the propriety cocktail being a one-year aged pecan mix. Depending on the protein, the pits will use the pecan, oak, hickory or cherry cocktails. Chickens and whole hogs will be cooked over coals.
Prieto chose Raleigh-based architect and North Carolina State University graduate Tony Johnson to develop the space after learning that Johnson was just as obsessed with barbecue as he was. The pair traveled together through different states, eating barbecue and looking at architecture and design elements of various barbecue spots. In the end, Prieto says that Johnson made Prime Barbecue the living proof of what barbecue should be. Additionally, the interior of the restaurant is decorated with murals from local artist Lisa Gaither, who Prieto chose because of her experience creating murals for veteran families. Working with wounded veterans is a top priority for Prieto, Prime Barbecue’s general manager is a retired wounded veteran and they will continue to hire more to work at the restaurant as they see fit.
Prime Barbecue’s counter service menu will be available Tuesday through Saturday from 11am until they sell out. Customers will be able to utilize Prime Barbecue's catering services, place pre-orders for pick up and order whole vacuum sealed meats. The restaurant will be open during the evening to host private events and special functions.
Visit prime-bbq.com for more information and follow @primebbq on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Photograph of Christopher Prieto during the past groundbreaking ceremony before Prime Barbecue was constructed. Photography by Stacey Sprenz.