Upcoming barbecue spot, The Preserve, unites two prominent, local culinary families.
Sometime way back when, a country boy from Wilson was learning how to cook traditional style, whole hog barbecue from his grandfather, a farmer, while another country boy from the Greek village of Lykovrysi sold produce from his family’s farm, transported via horse and mule, from a market stall.
Life took a series of circuitous turns for both Ed Mitchell, Pitmaster extraordinaire, and Lou Moshakos, the dining and hospitality titan behind the Carolina Ale House and many other brands. But, in their seventh decades, their paths converged: this spring, the Mitchell and Moshakos families will open The Preserve in the original Carolina Ale House location off of Wake Forest Road, serving Eastern North Carolina-style barbecue to hungry Raleigh families.
“I like to say Lou was a godsend, a brother from another mother,” says Ed Mitchell from the second floor of another of Moshakos’ restaurants, Vidrio, on a sunny November afternoon. “We understood exactly what he wanted to do and it was mimicking exactly what I wanted to do. On top of that, the old guy’s still got it. He’s got plenty of energy, as do I.”
The “we” Mitchell refers to includes his son, Ryan Mitchell, who, together with Moshakos’ daughter, Amber Moshakos, president of the Moshakos family’s LM Restaurants, will run The Preserve.
Ed and Ryan Mitchell, Amber and Lou Moshakos; Photo by Felicia Perry Trujillo
“There was a common vision between the two families,” Amber says. “It makes working with one another very easy and natural and collaborative. It’s a lot of fun working with other passionate people who are committed to the craft.”
That common vision for the restaurant brings the Mitchells’ cooking to the forefront; all will be organized around a long bar, the “pig bar,” that intersects the space and will serve as a display table for the food coming out of the kitchen. As guests walk in, a chalkboard will tell them who the pitmaster is for the day, what’s on the menu and from where the meat came. Or they’ll enter from a side door to pick up food to go. Oak wood and charcoal pits in the kitchen will be visible to patrons through glass. Tables will be easy to push together for family-style dining. And outside, where the Creekside Drive property backs up onto the greenway system’s Crabtree Creek Trail, the pig pickin’ atmosphere continues; a patio, fire pit and lounge area will welcome cyclists, runners, outdoors lovers and folks with dogs.
Ryan Mitchell says the space on Creekside Drive, which closed as a Carolina Ale House location five years ago, was perfect for what he and Ed—veterans of local barbecue spots including The Pit in Raleigh and Durham’s now-closed Que—were seeking for their newest venture.
“Barbecue is a very labor intensive, selfish concept,” Ryan explains. “You need your own space, you have to be in a freestanding building like that. For us, the ability to be able to put in the old, traditional smokers that we started with 25 years ago when we entered this business was the resounding ‘find a way to do this.’”
The Moshakos family didn’t need a lot of persuading. Amber says she fell in love with barbecue as a “fun, family food” while she was a college student at Cornell, and the Moshakos family had talked about opening a barbecue spot for a long time. They admired Ed, the Pitmaster’s legacy cooking and his commitment to using free-ranging pigs raised on natural foods for his barbecue.
Photo by Felicia Perry Trujillo
“That reputation precedes me,” Ed says, noting that partnerships are already in place with local farmers with natural, ethical hog-raising practices. “That is the only thing I definitely insist on. You can’t get a good taste if I can’t have what I feel is a good, natural product.”
While traditional, chopped whole hog barbecue will be the star at The Preserve, Ryan says the menu will “mix a little bit of old school and new school.” The ribs Ed Mitchell cooked to win a throwdown challenge against Food Network chef Bobby Flay will appear on the menu, as will grilled vegetables, nontraditional cuts of beef and pork, beef and pork ribs, chicken, brisket and turkey—think of the giant turkey legs you can buy at the State Fair.
“We’re going to have the fair in there all year long with some of the larger smoked meats you can get off the grill,” Ryan says. “We’re going to try to capture the growth of the area, as far as what northerners and southerners know as barbecue. But we want to drive home with what we think is best, which is North Carolina barbecue.”
When The Preserve opens, it will take its place in the new Midtown East development, located just between downtown and North Hills. It’s a swiftly revitalizing area of Raleigh where new energy is helping to shape what the city will become as it continues to grow.
But the restaurant is as much about the past as it is about the future.
“It’s about commitment, about the dual generations of family, continuing and preserving the legacy,” Amber says.
“There’s a lot of wordplay around the name,” Ryan adds. “‘Preserve’ is just so synonymous with what we will be doing. We’re preserving a lot of things, the art of whole hog barbecue, the art of family business, of hospitality, of legacy. Barbecue remains the one thing people in North Carolina are proud to introduce their guests to. It’s ‘Hey, we’re going to show you how we do it, we’re going to show you real barbecue.’ This will be the place that captures that, the go-to place for the history and the good food.”
Celebrity chef Kenny Gilbert, whose Raleigh restaurant Cut and Gather opens in Wakefield early next year, shares the recipe for his popular Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie. Yes, he’s made it for Oprah!
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
• 9-inch raw pie shell • 1 cup bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips • 1 cup chopped pecans • 1/3 cup melted butter • 1 ¼ cup brown sugar • ½ cup Alaga cane syrup • ½ cup molasses • 2 Tbsp. bourbon • ½ Tbsp. cinnamon • ½ tsp. Chinese Five Spice • 4 eggs, beaten • 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Place pecan halves and chocolate chips in the raw pie shell.
3. Place butter and sugar in a pan and bring to a simmer. Cook until the mixture forms a caramel. Add molasses, cane syrup and spices. Mix well. Add bourbon and pull off the heat. Add the remaining ingredients using a whisk and mix well. Scoop the filling into the pie shell.
4. Bake for 50-60 minutes.
High Horse now open
Photo by Nancy Granados
High Horse, the much anticipated restaurant from Top Chef alum Katsuji Tanabe, opened in City Market at 208 Wolfe St. last month. The name references the old horse stables in City Market and the restaurant serves dishes influenced by Mexican, Japanese and American cuisines cooked on two wood-fired grills that are visible to diners. Menu items include okra with bottarga, spare ribs with tamarind vinegar sauce, roasted bone marrow with sweet and sour crab, charred flat iron steak, Skuna Bay salmon, roasted oysters with country ham aioli and lime, North Carolina shrimp marinated in Togarashi (a blend of Japanese spices), churros and a famous cornbread made from a recipe from Tanabe’s grandmother (a portion of the cornbread sales will benefit the pay-what-you-can café A Place at the Table). High Horse’s drinks menu features rosé, green tea and whiskey lemon ice shots, a Cheerwine Old Fashioned and other creative cocktails. High Horse is open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday; expect a brunch service and outdoor dining next year.
Fenton Development
Phase one of Cary’s $850 million Fenton development—a 92-acre project located next to the Wake Med soccer park (the largest in Cary’s history) and future home to Atlanta-based chef Ford Fry’s Tex-Mex restaurant Superica—is underway. The first phase includes 350,000 square feet of retail, much of it already leased, as well as 170,000 square feet of office space. Announced tenants also include Scott Crawford’s upcoming steakhouse Crawford Brothers, Indigo Road Hospitality Group’s Colette (an Italian restaurant), Honeysuckle Gelato and Cru Wine Bar. Shops include Sephora, Bailey’s Fine Jewelry and Free People. A 125,000 square-foot Wegmans and a boutique movie theatre will anchor the project and 400 multifamily housing units will open in the first phase of the project as well.
There you have it, Raleigh: Another year in the books and 2019 was quite the eventful one. Along with a fairly acrimonious city election that a paltry few of us actually bothered to vote in, we had our share of controversies ranging from the inane and annoying to the offensive, outright racist and blatantly corrupt. Did we behave better in 2019 than we did in 2018? Hmm. Not really. And we certainly continued to drive poorly—worse, you might even say, than in years prior. So here it is again, our year-end roundup of who did what. Once the acorn drops, we’ll forget that auld acquaintance; but before then, bring it to mind with us just one more time.
Bye Bye Bob and the Showgram
G105.com
He said some pretty awful things over the years and, finally, his past caught up with him: This summer, local radio host Bob Dumas—a longtime personality on G105’s popular morning show—was let go. We won’t miss Dumas’ casual racism, his offensive comments about rape victims, his calls to drivers to throw Yoo-hoo bottles out their car windows at bicyclists. We’re sure the folks at G105 won’t miss the suspensions or the fines and legal trouble that Dumas wrought upon the station intermittently, though they might miss the ratings. All told, if there’s one thing about Dumas’ legacy that deserves to live on, it’s his annual fundraiser, Bob’s Buddies. Dumas was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2007 and Bob’s Buddies benefits the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.
Billionaires Being Bad
Robert Brown Public Relations
This year we learned that the Triangle has its very own set of comic book villains. In April, federal prosecutors charged insurance tycoon and owner of at least one multimillion dollar luxury mansion in north Raleigh, Greg Lindberg, with attempting to bribe the state’s Insurance Commissioner, Mike Causey. The billionaire along with co-conspirators including former congressman and state GOP chairman Robin Hayes are alleged to have illegally funneled nearly $2 million to Causey’s campaign. In return, they thought Causey agreed to oust a senior deputy whom Lindberg said was unfairly regulating his firm, Global Bankers Insurance Group. Causey alerted the FBI and wore a wire. Hayes told federal agents he had never spoken to Causey about Lindberg’s company and later pleaded guilty to lying. As it happens, Lindberg, whose case goes to trial in February, has quite the résumé when it comes to unseemly extracurricular activities. This fall, The Wall Street Journal reported that Lindberg paid dozens of “surveillance operatives” to put GPS tracking devices on vehicles belonging to women he wanted to date, to compile dossiers for Lindberg on the women and to work to ensure that none of the women ever accidentally met one another (who says romance is dead, right ladies?). You’d be incorrect to think that Lindberg’s ties to local politics begin and end with Hayes. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is challenging Gov. Roy Cooper for his seat next year, has received nearly $2.4 million in donations from Lindberg via two political committees that support Forest’s campaign. Despite the bad press and general air of corruption surrounding Lindberg, Forest hasn’t, so far, urged the groups to give those millions back. Sounds like Raleigh has a swamp in need of draining.
Voters Be Shopping
CBS17
The New York-based grocery chain Wegmans opened its first location in Raleigh in October, just around the time that Raleigh residents were (supposed to be) voting in the election for mayor and Raleigh City Council. And, as a local reporter pointed out on Twitter, 30,000 people showed up to shop at Wegmans the day it opened; on the first day of early voting, fewer than 10,000 residents cast ballots. In total, 54,969 people in Raleigh Districts A-E ended up doing their civic duty this year, some 15 percent of the total electorate; with the average voter’s age being 54 years old, the youth decidedly did not #voteRaleigh. That being said, have you been to Wegmans yet? The wine and cheese selection really is something!
The Comments Are Closed
Go to WRAL’s website to see the “Best of the Triangle;” scroll down to the comments section to see the worst. It’s an old joke in these parts but it had enough truth to it (plus bigots, bots, spewers of conspiracy theories and the like) for WRAL.com to finally end commenting on its news stories this year. We looked on reddit.com/r/raleigh to guage the local reaction to this move and found it to be generally positive. Comments were an “unmoderated cesspool” wrote one redditor, full of “ranting psychos” and “boomers with too much time on their hands” wrote others. “This kind of self-awareness from WRAL is pretty refreshing, actually,” wrote another observer. A redditor by the name of GettinNaughty summed it up best: “Man, that guy whose profile picture is him wearing hunting sunglasses in his truck is going to be so disappointed.” Indeed. Though we’re sure Sunglasses Guy has already taken his game to Facebook.
Auto Aggro
A disgruntled former employee drove her Honda Accord EX-L into a Massage Envy in north Raleigh (she was charged with assault with a deadly weapon). A woman crashed her white sedan onto the sidewalk patio of Lilly’s Pizza (charged with DWI). And a teen without a license was speeding in a stolen car in a residential neighborhood on Milburnie Road. He ran a stop sign, T-boned another vehicle and launched his car up a utility pole, leaving it dangling from some power lines (you can’t make this up). Raleigh, it seems, has a driving problem, or at least a judgment one. And, this year, it felt like not a week went by when we didn’t hear about yet another poor pedestrian or cyclist getting hit by a car. So while most of us aren’t out there driving into buildings on purpose, in 2020, let’s all resolve to slow down, put our phones away and stay focused when we’re behind the wheel.
Sour Grapes
Stefanie Mendell
She lost her re-election bid by 70 percent but that didn’t stop her from taking to social media afterwards to complain about…Well, a number of things. In a thousand-word diatribe presented as a letter to the opinions editor at the N&O and posted to her District E Facebook page, council member Stef Mendell slammed the newspaper’s elections coverage as well as Saige Martin, the candidate who won in District D, and what she describes as the N&O’s failure to investigate claims that Martin made about himself while campaigning. (Mendell also defended her record on council against claims her own opponent, David Knight, launched about her, which, frankly, would carry more weight were those comments not lost in the pile-on against Martin, now the council’s youngest and one of its first openly gay members). All of us have a right to defend ourselves, to criticize elected officials and those running for political office—it’s the American way. But there’s also a way to lose gracefully. This ain’t it.
A Side of Racism
CBS17
Time was when the very worst people among us would take pains to hide the very worst parts of themselves, only to let those parts emerge in similarly horrible company and not in the public trappings of polite society, such as, say, in the Bonefish Grill at North Hills. And when the horrible people got caught saying or doing horrible things, they generally used to apologize and make themselves scarce. Sadly, that time is not now, anymore. This summer, a video of Nancy Goodman, 71, a white woman shouting a racist slur at a group of black women in the Bonefish Grill in North Hills went viral. And when a WRAL reporter confronted Goodman about her behavior, she doubled down and said she’d behave the same way again. Later, Goodman apologized on Facebook to her friends, family and the other people in the restaurant—but not to the group of women she offended and not for saying what she said. What’s changed in the cultural discourse that has emboldened people to believe that overt racist behavior is A-ok these days? We have an idea.
Greatest Hits: City of Raleigh PR Faux Pas
There were some doozies this year, folks, including war games, gross negligence and a trash can dumpster fire. In chronological order:
City officials allowed the U.S. Army to conduct an overnight training exercise at the abandoned Capital Plaza Hotel on Capital Boulevard in March. Helicopter noise and simulated sounds of gunfire and explosions were loud, setting off nearby car alarms and traumatizing local souls who freaked out, called 911, rounded up their own munitions and took to social media fearing a terrorist attack or declaration of war. Fliers were distributed and the neighbors were warned, the city said in its defense. But the city manager later said he would not approve of military training exercises in residential areas again—the right move, surely.
House of Swank
The city paid $30,000 to pilot cutting-edge Scandinavian trash bin technology only to abandon the program after it emerged that city officials never consulted with a nearby business, the M&F Bank, and some bank customers complained about the smell. M&F Bank is the only black-owned bank in North Carolina and leaders in the African American community voiced dismay about not being invited to join discussions about placement of the trash bins. So the city dug up the trash cans (known as Moloks) it had already installed underground at the corner of Wilmington and Hargett streets, damaged a few in the process, and planned to put them somewhere else. That was back in August and we haven’t heard anything further. Moloks, maybe 2020 will be your year.
In the fall, the N&O reported on video footage from 2016 of an elderly man falling down a non-moving escalator during the Raleigh Home Show at the convention center downtown. The man was seriously injured and spent eight days in the hospital following the accident. City of Raleigh employees had failed to barricade the escalator to prevent people from using it and failed to report the incident to state authorities; the convention center’s director at the time told the city’s risk management division that video of the accident didn’t exist. But it did! Video footage from 2018 shows non-moving escalators again without barricades; the city was fined $1,200 and forced to admit liability. Friends, be careful out there.
What is likely to be Raleigh’s greenest development will also house one of its first local cideries. SoHi, the upcoming project from Carpenter Development located on Wilmington Street just a mile south of downtown will be home to anchor tenant Shady Grove Cidery, as well as a taco shop, a coffee shop, a yoga studio, co-working space, short-term rentals and a retail collective that will include a book shop, a tattoo artist, a barber, a home goods store and more. David Meeker, founder and partner at Carpenter Development, says he was drawn to the good energy surrounding SoHi’s future location near Garner, as the area is growing quickly and is currently more affordable than downtown.
“We have loved Garner for a while now,” Meeker says. “People skipped it and moved to Clayton and Holly Springs but Garner is still this great, affordable town just five minutes from downtown Raleigh. It feels like all the young creative folks are moving there now. This property, on the way to Garner, has nice sidewalks and is not as busy as S. Saunders Street.” Meeker and business partner Brent Francese say they are excited to welcome a cider brand to Raleigh and have full faith that Shady Grove’s owner, Oliver Koch, will deliver great cider produced onsite with a bar that’s open to the public.
With solar panels on all four roofs, cisterns to catch rainwater and irrigate landscaping, pavered parking for stormwater runoff and 100 parking spots for bikes and electric vehicle charging stations, SoHi (so named for its location south of the Interstate 40 highway) is shaping up to be Raleigh’s most environmentally friendly project to date. “Our dream [is] for others to see our project and see that going green is worth the cost,” Meeker says. SoHi is currently undergoing review by the city; Meeker says he hopes to have concepts opening in late 2021.
When it comes to big, new growth just north of downtown Raleigh, it turns out Midtown East was the tip of the iceberg. Last month, local real estate development firm Dewitt Carolinas Inc. announced plans for Midtown Exchange, a $1 billion project to be located on the 40-acre property at the corner of Benson and St. Albans drives just north of the Beltline, a 10-minute drive to downtown. We’re not kidding when we say it’s unlike anything Raleigh has ever seen before. Plans for the development include a 790,000 square foot “twin tower” office building with rooftop restaurants and lounges and ground floor retail. The 1,275-unit residential component includes a boutique condo development, high-rise luxury condos, townhouses and apartments with an additional 300 units dedicated for senior living. Hotel space with up to 300 rooms and a convention center will offer more rooftop gathering and entertainment venues with sprawling views of downtown and, in the center of it all, a “central park” will incorporate an interactive water feature that will flow throughout the entire community. Other features include a farmers market, food courts and exercise studios as well as seven acres of green space connecting to Big Branch Creek, which will eventually be part of the city’s greenway system. Dewitt partners Ven Poole and Todd Saieed say that the property was home to Raleigh’s original Isaac Hunter’s tavern—they’ve found pieces of the original tavern on the land—and plan to incorporate that part of the city’s history into the development with an underground speakeasy. “Historically, Isaac Hunter’s tavern was a crossroads, a meeting place, there was an entertainment venue here,” said Poole. “Those are all things we believe are going to be part of Midtown Exchange.” The partners say they believe the development will cater to people of all ages and stages of life. “We are excited about this opportunity to be a part of Raleigh’s continued growth and prosperity by introducing an inspired new community to the list of the region’s growing accolades,” said Saieed. “Midtown Exchange embodies our vision for a home grown, collaborative community that will be the gathering place for many generations to come.”
