Newcomer to Barbecue Scene in Southern Pines, NC

My pulled pork platter with sides, sauce, and a corn muffin.

The birth of a new barbecue restaurant always creates excitement. When plans for Embers BBQ in downtown Southern Pines, NC, were announced, the local community couldn’t wait to know the official opening date. 

Opening of Embers BBQ 

After conducting a test run of its smoker in April 2022, Embers indicated that it would open in late May. Anticipation continued to build in the community. Then the opening day was delayed two weeks, and shelves with Embers merchandise for sale had to wait for buyers. 

Merchandise was ready for sale even before the restaurant opened.

When a new BBQ restaurant opens, you can’t delay going to sample its fare if you are a true barbecue fan. About a week after Embers had opened, the website was still proclaiming “Grand Opening Soon,” while I was at the counter and checking over the menu. 

Embers BBQ proclaims that it is open for business.

Menu Choices 

Platters include pulled pork, pulled pork nachos, ribs, pulled chicken, pulled chicken nachos, and brisket. Sandwiches of pulled pork, pulled chicken, and brisket are also on the menu along with several other options. The surprise of the pulled pork platter that I ordered was finding a couple of fried okra nestled next to the barbecue. The platter also came with slaw, one side (my choice was sweet potato fries), and a corn muffin.  I also added another side (mac and cheese).

The kitchen prep area continually is busy.

Although the pulled pork was excellent, I’m timing my next visit to be on Wednesday or Saturday when a rack of ribs is on the menu. (The availability of burnt ends is also limited; it’s ready only on Thursdays). Don’t wait until closing hours to go; they often run out of barbecue several hours before closing. Occasionally, they post on Facebook that only burgers and pulled chicken are available after a busy day. (Why order a hamburger at a barbecue restaurant?) 

Almost everything on the menu is also sold by the pound from barbecue to sides such as slaw, baked beans, and okra. The menu includes just about everything you would want (but it’s not as extensive as the restaurant’s online privacy policy — it’s amazing how much it covers. 

Many menu items are also sold by the pound.

Great Start So Far 

With a motto of “You Don’t Need a Silver Spoon to Eat Good Food,” Embers is where you might not even need anything more than an appetite and a very cold beverage. With the smoker in the basement, expect warm temperatures on the main level where customers order and most eat. On a nice day, plan to eat outside at one of the front-porch tables. 

Embers is decorated simply with effectively.

New barbecue restaurants are needed to replace the old, historic ones that are struggling and eventually close. While the traditional ones serve excellent barbecue at reasonable prices, their numbers seem to be gradually declining. New ones gauge the market better to determine what should be on the menu and what the prices should be. 

Signs in Embers create a nostalgic look.

Embers took over the location in downtown Southern Pines that had been occupied for decades by Broad Street Bakery. Although I will miss the bakery, nothing better than a barbecue restaurant could have taken its place. An unusual combo of a former golf pro and a restaurant chef, partners in the new venture, have launched a superior barbecue spot that may become the area’s favorite. Let’s hope the new restaurant continues to deliver superior results.

Would You Eat BBQ Prepared in a Container Box?

Beef brisket is prepared for the smoker at Lawrence BBQ.

Of course, you would—if it’s prepared by Lawrence BBQ, the latest addition to the barbecue scene in North Carolina and one of the top new barbecue places in the South. The location is as intriguing as the chef and his barbecue. 

Boxyard RTP is the home of Lawrence BBQ.

Located in the state’s Research Triangle Park in Boxyard RTP, a shipping container startup development (really!), Lawrence BBQ is the most vibrant occupant. In the facility’s more than 18,000 square feet, about 40 shipping containers have been repurposed as restaurants, retail stores, and event spaces. While Boxyard RTP is transforming containers into functional spaces, chef Jake Wood and his wife Brandi are enchanting old and new fans of barbecue. 

The line to order at Lawrence BBQ never seems to end.

Don’t plan on table service. You order from a window and pick up a few minutes later at a second window. And plan to wait to order. The line at Lawrence BBQ seems to never end as RTP workers converge there at lunchtime. The most popular orders are Texas-style beef brisket and traditional N.C. pulled pork. Both are slowly smoked over hard oak and hickory wood. Other popular choices include turkey, chicken, and oysters. 

The pickup window with the kitchen in the background.

A large covered picnic-style outdoor seating area is where most customers sit to enjoy their food and also listen to live music, although some orders are carried back to offices for lunch. Lawrence BBQ opens at 11 a.m. (now four days a week), but it often closes when it runs out of food. Clearly a disappointment. 

Live music is featured on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at Boxyard RTP.

To smoke his meats, Wood uses the huge Lang 108 BBQ smoker, which is respected for how well it maintains an even cooking temperature across the racks. Three smokers are lined up in an adjacent open space outside the restaurant’s kitchen (that is in a repurposed shipping container). They will be eventually replaced by a smokehouse that will be built on site. For pork fans, only shoulders are cooked. Because space at Boxyard RTP is so limited, Wood had to abandon his original plan to cook N.C.-style whole hog. 

Chopped wood is ready for the smokers.

To complement a pork sandwich, my wife and I shared an order of tangy coleslaw and a spirited side of baked beans. (The next time I come, I'll order the three-chess mac and also hope that they haven’t sold out of desserts.) The sides are Wood’s take on classic barbecue sides, and everything is made in-house except for the buns. 

A pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw is a popular choice.

This month Robert Moss, barbecue writer for Southern Living, considers Lawrence BBQ as one of the South’s six best new barbecue joints. If you appreciate creative menus, follow the restaurant on Instagram to learn when footlong pork belly corndogs are available. Long strips of pork belly are smoked on a pit, rolled in cornmeal batter, and fried golden brown. 

The menu board is quite simple and easy to update.

The opening of Lawrence BBQ had been highly anticipated because Wood had previously been chef de cuisine at 18 Seaboard, a now-closed restaurant in Raleigh. His reputation in the region expanded when he was recently featured at the Charleston Wine + Food Festival. Plus he’s a hit with fans of white sauce that Alabama is known for since Wood has it as one of his sauces, although N.C. natives will appreciate his vinegar-based sauce. 

Our sides of cole slaw and cue beans.

The opening, originally planned for early 2020, was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic until June. Eventually the business will expand to the top level when Wood opens a leisure bar called Lagoon on what he calls his “Party Deck.” 

The kitchen is constantly busy once Lawrence BBQ opens.

Although Wood spent many years in fine dining in downtown Raleigh, he grew up cooking whole hogs at family reunions and has been smoking meats with his family for most of his life. He was taught everything about hog butchering by Allen Lawrence, his mother’s father, and the restaurant carries his name. (Another family connection is that Grandma Lawrence’s recipe is used for the sweet potato casserole.) 

The central area includes 300 picnic-style seats (covered and uncovered) with a small stage for live music.

Boxyard RTP promotes itself as a “next-generation” retail destination for the more than 55,000 employees who work in RTP. It definitely is a fascinating place to explore or bring guests, and Lawrence BBQ deserves a visit.

Don't worry about staying cool at Boxyard RTP. (Big Ass Fans keep the air circulating.)

A Place Called Swine

If a restaurant has the name of Swine, would you visit? Imagine standing at the entrance of an upscale eatery and seeing firewood ready for a smoker stacked against the front window. 

Stacks of firewood greet customers at the entrance.

That’s the scene on Ponce de Leon Boulevard, the main thoroughfare that bisects the fashionable business district of Coral Gables, Florida, where Swine entices crowds daily for food and drink. Although the restaurant is decorated creatively with photos and other art (as well as stacks of firewood) and softly lit with amber lighting, the huge lightbulb sign “Run Pig Run” is what captures the attention of new patrons. (Appropriately the website address for Swine is runpigrun.com.)

Run Pig Run says it all for Swine.

The place called Swine has the feel that it was just moved from a farm. Its exposed brick walls and wood structures deconstructed from barns create a comfortable feel that fits well with its comfortable food. The vintage-style bulbs with exposed filaments add to the restaurant’s relaxing atmosphere.

Customers enjoy Swine's relaxing atmosphere.

Officially known as Swine Southern Table & Bar, the restaurant has risen fast to the top of places to dine in South Florida. The Swine burger tops the list of best burgers in Miami by Miami New Times (which has also anointed Swine as the best restaurant in stylish Coral Gables), perhaps because it includes short rib, brisket and smoked pork with double hamburger patties.

The pork shoulder is ready for serving after twelve hours in the smoker.

However, the twelve-hour slow-smoked pork shoulder on the menu under the category “From the Smoker” is the entrée that caught my attention. Adorned with tomato-peanut relish and spiced honey glaze, the pork had been prepared superbly by Chef Cristian Cuevas, whom I sought out in the kitchen so that I could see Swine’s smoker. The smoker is impressive with layers of shelves for smoking beef brisket, pork ribs, and chicken, the other smoked entrees with pork shoulder: All four categories of an event sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society are on the menu.

Every chef, like Chef Cristian at Swine, needs a good smoker.

The sides -- or fixins as Swine describes them -- can delight any follower of Southern food. The roasted chilled beets that I ordered came with pickled red onion, cumin seed olive oil, and blue cheese; thy were a creative complement for the pork shoulder. Because I hadn’t ordered charred okra at Yardbird (a sister restaurant in Miami Beach that I had visited earlier in the week), I had to try the skillet charred okra. Coated in anchovy bread crumbs and charred with brown butter and lemon, the okra was another tasty dish. Because I saw it on several nearby tables, it must be more than an initial fascination but a delight enjoyed by customers more familiar with the menu.

Charred orka may be the most popular fixin at Swine.

Because I had visited Sunburst Trout Farm in North Carolina last year, I appreciated seeing it listed on the menu as the source of mountain trout for Swine, which also serves Florida shrimp, Atlantic swordfish, and Atlantic salmon as fish plates. The sides that accompany these plates (which I’ll have to try on my next visit) are also intriguing. Creamy Carolina gold rice is served with the mountain trout. Sea Island red peas come with the swordfish. Zucchini and red bell pepper succotash complement the salmon plate.

Florida berry cobbler ended my visit to Swine and was as noteworthy as the smoked pork.

Would a name other than Swine fit this restaurant? Because it is distinctly Southern, Swine is definitely the place to enjoy smoked pork and ribs. The customers come initially to taste something from the smoker and keep returning to enjoy the creative fixins -- if only every Southern restaurant that serves pork and ribs could be as imaginative and innovative.

No name other than Swine would be appropriate for this restaurant.