Allen & Son Closes After Nearly Half a Century

Posted on Jan. 7, 2019

Allen & Son Barbeque — the roadside restaurant just north of Chapel Hill that Southern Living has called the fifth-best barbecue joint in the South — closed in early December, without warning and with what owner Keith Allen thought would be little fanfare.

But you don’t pack a restaurant for 48 years while garnering such accolades without a slew of interview requests and diners’ appreciation and disappointment.

“It’s always sad when an institution closes,” said John Shelton Reed, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of sociology at Carolina and author, with his late wife, Dale Volberg Reed, of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue. “Now Chapel Hillians will have to drive a lot farther for good barbecue, and it won’t be as good.”

That drive could take them a bit south of town to Chatham County, where the Pittsboro outpost of Allen & Son is still open. Allen already had leased that business to Jimmy Stubbs. It produces barbecue with electric smokers, not the hickory wood that Allen is famous for gathering and splitting himself to fire his pits, but aims to live up to the reputation that comes with the name. “I supply the recipes, and he’s required to make sure the quality is there,” Allen said.

Allen said he won’t be sitting idle: “I’m not going to retire, ever.”

So, why close?

“It was just time to do something else,” Allen said. “Not many restaurants have that kind of longevity, and I felt like we’d done what we meant to do.”

He’ll keep working with his other businesses, including timberland in the mountains and Blackwood Station Outfitters in Pittsboro (next to the remaining Allen & Son). “I have a resort in Belize, and I cook for the customers down there,” he added.

Allen usually reported to work at 3 a.m. to light the hickory wood and smoke the pork shoulders. A giant cleaver in each hand, he then chopped the hot-off-the-pit meat and applied his vinegary secret sauce. The secret? “Oprah asked me the same thing,” Allen said, dropping a name that gives another indication of how far and how high his food’s reputation had spread. “I told Oprah, ‘If anybody could afford to buy the secret, it would be you.’ ”

With his grandmother’s recipes, Allen cooked many of the other dishes, too, from hush puppies to sweet, spicy slaw. “Southern people always ate slaw with their barbecue,” he said. Allen’s wife, Tammy, also worked at the restaurant, waiting tables and making pies and sides.

His father, James (the “Allen” in the name), started the Pittsboro restaurant, bringing in Keith (the “& Son”) when he was 15. When the younger Allen was 19 and taking courses at Sandhills Community College, he ate at a barbecue joint just north of Chapel Hill off N.C. 86. He thought he could do better and bought the place. While working there, he took night courses at N.C. State University, but he never completed a degree, given the restaurant workload. He’s most proud that he was able to put his daughter through college so that she graduated without debt.

He’s also proud of the loyalty of his customers. “They supported us for 48 years, and if the customers don’t come, you don’t have a business.”

More Goodbyes

Cameron’s, the eclectic gift store in Carrboro tagged by some local media as the best place around to buy a last-minute gift, was set to close early in 2019. Twin sisters Wendy Smith and Bridget Pemberton-Smith, who turned 50 in December and have owned the store for the past 16 years, have decided it’s time to try something new. Store founder Danny Cameron, now an artist in Mexico, presided over Cameron’s from 1977 to 2002, when the sisters bought it. In 2012, the store moved from University Place mall to 370 E. Main St. Though Cameron’s intended to liquidate inventory during the holiday shopping period, the sisters were still open to selling the shop. • Sugarland, which served cupcakes and other confections as tasty to look at as to eat, closed in October after more than a decade in the former Julian’s clothing shop space at 140 E. Franklin St. Owners Katrina and Randolph Ryan ’82 (MBA) filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy as well as for the business; its Raleigh shop had closed last summer. Katrina Ryan, former pastry chef at La Residence, told ABC 11 News that medical issues, bakery equipment problems and flooding from recent hurricanes contributed to the closures. • Goldworks in University Place has closed after owner Ted Hendrickson retired. The jewelry store began in 1990 in Durham’s Brightleaf Square, then moved to what was then University Mall, making it a fixture in the Triangle for 28 years.

— Laura Toler ’76

---