Just as The Smoke Pit prepares to open a location in South Charlotte, the Texas-style BBQ spot has lined up its sixth location. It will open in Mooresville in a former Sonny’s BBQ space at 328 West Plaza Drive late this year, spokesperson Justin Sides told What Now Charlotte.
“[Mooresville has] always been a spot we’ve wanted to go, so that was a pretty easy decision,” Sides said. “There’s not a lot of good barbecue in Mooresville, so that was a super easy decision for us, because a lot of people that live out there drive to our Concord store. We’re excited to be able to open up out there.”
The Smoke Pit, founded in 2014 by Joey Graham, Devin Barbee and Jeremy Beaver, have locations currently open in Concord, Salisbury, Gastonia and Monroe. It is known for a diverse BBQ menu, featuring pulled pork, brisket, BBQ plates, ribs, hickory-smoked jumbo chicken wings and sandwiches.
Sides said Mooresville will have some different elements compared to the other locations. At their Mooresville store, they plan to operate old-school offset smokers that are common at famous Texas BBQ joints. The meat will be cooked over wood entirely, but the offset smokers will require someone on site at all times to monitor the fire and meat. They decided to introduce these smokers at the Mooresville locations because they could easily incorporate it into their plans for the space.
“Mooresville is going to be, for sure, a big change,” Sides said. “It’s definitely going to have its unique challenges. It’s going to be a little bit trickier, but something that we’ll be able to fine-tune. It’s just something we haven’t done before at a large scale.”
Construction for the space has also required more attention than the construction currently underway for their forthcoming location at The Arboretum in Charlotte. The original space in Mooresville was a smaller footprint, so they have been working on expanding it.
Moving forward, Sides said there might be more locations on the way for the brand in coming years, but they are focusing on opening up these two locations this year.
“Launching two is definitely going to keep us pretty busy,” Sides said. “It’s a lot to manage and get right, because you don’t want to expand so fast to where quality dips and you can’t control it. So I would think after these two are open, there probably won’t be an expansion for a bit.”
