Oct 25

Oct 25 Restaurant Workers Appreciation: Barbecue restaurants reopen with new names and ownership

Five Lexington-style barbecue restaurants have closed since the first of the year but two of them have recently reopened under new names and ownership.

Smiley’s Lexington BBQ closed in late February due to a N.C. Department of Transportation project to widen Winston Road to alleviate traffic congestion on a major entrance into the city. Steve Yountz, owner of the restaurant for the past 20 years, said the 70-year-old building will be torn down for the project.

Farther down Winston Road, Speedy’s Barbecue is still operating but will soon be relocating for the same reason, according to owner Roy Dunn.

Lexington-Style Trimmings BBQ owner Mike Swing closed the restaurant on East Center Street Extension on July 30 after 31 years. The business continues to sell containers of cole slaw, barbecue slaw and pimento cheese during limited hours. The Butcher’s Block in uptown Lexington recently started selling those items as well.

Cooks & BBQ Still Smoking on Valiant Drive announced on its Facebook page on July 28 that it would be closed “indefinitely” but was going to be sold. There has, so far, been no announcement about new owners.

Rick’s Smokehouse on Old Highway 52 in Welcome closed without notice April 30 but reopened Oct. 1 with a new owner and name but the same pit-cooked pork barbecue as well as barbecued chicken, brisket and ribs.

Newlan Spears, a firefighter with West Lexington Fire and Rescue Station 71 and a body shop owner, has renamed the longtime Welcome restaurant Café 71 Smoke House BBQ. Spears, a Welcome native and a longtime customer of the restaurant, going back to when it was called Andy’s Barbecue, noted he and his brother would walk or ride their bikes to the business on a regular basis. He and his wife and children frequented Rick’s in recent years. He noted it’s been a community meeting place for decades and he wants to preserve that.

Newlan Spears (left) is the new owner of Cafe 71 Smoke House BBQ in Welcome, formerly Rick’s Smokehouse. Glenn “Speedy” Holbrook is the kitchen manager. (Vikki Broughton Hodges/Davidson Local).

While Spears said he has been cooking barbecue for friends and family for years, he has enlisted the help of Glenn “Speedy” Holbrook to be the kitchen manager, a position Holbrook held for 13 years prior to Rick’s closing. Holbrook said he has cooked barbecue for 43 years at various restaurants in Welcome and Lexington. “Me and Speedy make a good team,” Spears noted. “At the end of the day, we’ve got the same vision.”

Holbrook said he is enjoying trying out some new items as specials, such as smoked pork chops, smoked turkey breast, smoked chicken wings and ribeye steak sandwiches, to see how they’re received before adding them to the expanding menu.

Spears said soups and chicken stew will soon be added to the menu as the weather cools and cobblers and cakes have been added to the dessert menu. He said ice cream and banana splits will also be added.

“There’s no place to get ice cream in Welcome,” Spears noted. “A lot of the regulars are back,” he said. “We’ve been blessed.”

Café 71 is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. If he can hire enough help, Spears said would consider Sunday hours as well.

On N.C. Highway 150 in northern Davidson County, Arcadia Q closed in late August when owners Leon and Becky Simmons, who opened the restaurant in December 2018, decided to focus their attention on their other restaurant, TarHeel Q restaurant on Old Highway 64 in Reeds.

Toni London is the new owner of Southern Fire Pit Barbecue and Home Cooking restaurant, formerly Arcadia Q. {Vikki Broughton Hodges/Davidson Local).

On Sept. 6, Toni London, former manager of Arcadia Q who has worked in restaurants most of her life, reopened the restaurant as Southern Fire Pit Barbecue and Home Cooking restaurant with many of the same employees.

“I’m here, really, because of the people,” London noted.

The name change reflects an expanded menu beyond barbecue to include classic diner fare of a meat and two sides such as meatloaf, hamburger steak, chicken casserole, spaghetti and sides such as homemade mashed potatoes, green beans and pinto beans as well as cornbread, dinner rolls or hushpuppies.

In addition to pork barbecue, the restaurant will offer barbecued chicken on Friday and Saturday and pork chops on Thursday. She employs two longtime pitmasters, Mike Cox and Alex Loris, who have worked in area barbecue restaurants. There are daily sandwich specials at lunch such as hand-patted hamburgers, hot dogs and BLTs. “People wanted more options and they also wanted breakfast on weekdays,” she said. “I listened to the customers.”

The restaurant now serves breakfast from 7 to 11 a.m. weekdays in addition to Saturday and Sunday. Menu items include eggs, omelets, pancakes and sausage gravy with biscuits.

Lunch and dinner are served from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday with Sunday hours from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. “It’s a nice little community place,” London said. “It’s a hangout for the locals.”