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Raleigh hospitality is heading beyond city limits as growth pushes outward.
The suburbs are calling—and Raleigh’s hospitality elite are answering. While the local dining scene has long been anchored Downtown, a growing cast of restaurateurs are looking outward, opening new concepts in the burbs as booming growth and lower costs reshape where—and how—people eat.
It’s a sign of the times—and mirrored across the region, from the housing patterns to restaurant openings—as affordability and interest rates push more residents toward surrounding towns. And restaurateurs are following suit.
Raleigh hospitality maven Scott Crawford tested the suburban waters with Crawford Cookshop in Clayton (since closed), before planting a bigger flag in Cary’s Fenton development with Crawford Brothers Steakhouse in 2024. Restaurateur Giorgios Bakatsias brought Naōs Hellenic Cuisine to the growing suburb, while Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana’s Lon Bounsanga also crossed lines to open SAAP in Cary.
“The reality is, for a lot of people, living in Raleigh isn’t financially smart,” says Chris Gass, who previously worked under Crawford before opening Bellow Butcher Co. last year in downtown Wendell with his wife, Lauren. The couple returned to their home state after leaving Nashville and found rent in Wendell to be more reasonable. “We didn’t have to pay anything until we opened,” he adds.
Gass saw the benefits of opening outside of the city from the jump, identifying that Wendell’s core demographic lined up with theirs—and the tight-knit community it offered. The eastern Wake County town is thriving, with new housing pursuits on deck and a planned $350 million work-stay-play project bringing apartments, retail, and industrial and flex space to the area—all just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come.
But it’s that small-town feel that Gass credits most for Bellow’s early success. “The first month we had people coming in once, twice a week—people make it a point to work us into their rotation,” he says, noting Raleighites still make the trip out as well. “We’re able to cultivate relationships across the counter… and the community really lifts you up out here.”
Meanwhile, Nunzio Scordo, a fixture of the Raleigh restaurant scene (now-closed Driftwood Southern Kitchen and Driftwood Cantina, plus recently bowed Franko’s Prime) has long seen success on the outskirts of the city, having opened popular restaurants Atlantic Prime Coastal Kitchen and Franko’s Italian Steakhouse in Franklinton. Now, he’s setting his sights on Rolesville for Franko’s Trattoria, anticipated to open by the end of April.
“The cost of opening restaurants and doing business is less in these little towns,” he shares—plus “the need is there.” Rolesville is seeing similar momentum, with an up-and-coming mixed-use development serving up apartments; retail; and crowd-pleasing spots like Mezcalito, Lime & Lemon, and just-opened Jeff’s Bagel Run.
“Everyone is following this path because that’s where all the new building is, where all the new homes are going,” adds Scordo. To wit: “We’re doing the same amount of sales we’d be doing in the center of Raleigh.”
As Wake County’s population continues spreading outward, so too does its dining scene. Once considered an afterthought for ambitious up-and-comers, the burbs are quickly becoming Raleigh’s next restaurant frontier—proof that where people live, great food inevitably follows.
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