A popular Durham barbecue restaurant has been sold. Meet the new owner

When it opened in 2016, Durham barbecue restaurant Picnic felt innovative by smoking whole hog the old fashioned way.

Using pasture-raised pigs from local farms, Picnic aimed for a depth of flavor some barbecue fans said was only in the past.

In a passing of the barbecue torch, Picnic has been sold to a new owner.

Co-founder Wyatt Dickson has sold Picnic to longtime customer and recent partner Chris Holloway. The sale closed at the beginning of July, but Holloway has had an influence on the restaurant for months, including shifting Picnic into a new counter-service model.

“I’m honored and grateful to have the experience I’ve had,” Dickson said. “I feel like I’m passing the torch to someone who has the same values about the institution of barbecue that I do.”

Dickson opened Picnic in 2016 with chef Ben Adams and Ryan Butler, whose Green Button farm supplied the restaurant’s pigs.

The restaurant specialized in whole hog barbecue, the oldest and most labor-intensive style of North Carolina’s iconic food. Picnic opened within a new generation of North Carolina barbecue restaurants expanding the genre, adding beer and brisket to the menu and aiming to reinvigorate a proud culinary tradition.

First as a fan and now the owner, Holloway said Picnic smokes a version of barbecue he’s loved all his life and doesn’t plan to change.

“When I think of Picnic, I love seeing the parking lot full of people, some coming off the Eno River or the golf course, enjoying traditional barbecue in a traditional way,” Holloway said. “I have no intention of changing it...It’s a time machine, when you eat this barbecue, the pigs we use, it’s the same quality of animal you’d find 100, 200 years ago. Clean, pasture-raised, without any antibiotics. I think you can taste all of that.”

Holloway grew up in Durham and still vividly remembers his first bite of barbecue, cooked just down the road from Picnic at the Pleasant Green United Methodist Church.

Fueled by four Cokes and no taller than a picnic table, Holloway said he was running through the churchyard at the annual pig picking when his mom caught him by the arm and put a bite of barbecue in his mouth.

“I stopped, I froze,” Holloway said. “It’s one of those moments you don’t forget.”

Holloway has operated and consulted in restaurants for years, including multiple concepts within Duke University’s dining options and in Durham music venue Motorco’s restaurant Parts & Labor.

Before that he was a bassist in Chapel Hill bands Queen Sarah Saturday and Collapsis. All the while, Holloway said he was cooking.

Last year after months of weekly barbecue and music conversations, Dickson called Holloway on New Year’s Day in need of a fry cook.

“I said I’ll be right there,” Holloway said. “I started lightly treading in, learning what’s going on. And then a few months ago, I think Wyatt began to feel like he’s ready to do something else. And this is exactly what I want to do right now.”

Both Dickson and Holloway said they shared a sense of barbecue’s history in North Carolina and how a restaurant plays a role sustaining traditions.

“Wyatt and I would say we’re like a little preservation society,” Holloway said of barbecue practitioners. “There’s emotion and tradition and nostalgia for this food. My goal is to keep that alive.”

Holloway said that a few years ago he wasn’t sure the kind of barbecue he loved would be around much longer. Then Picnic opened about 90 seconds from his house, followed by a new wave of barbecue restaurants offering distinctive takes on what it means to cook with fire.

“I think this is a great moment for barbecue, but it’s such a subjective experience,” Holloway said. “I’m up against that first bite, that eureka moment every time someone new walks in. You can’t repeat that, but we’ll come as close as you can to recreating it.”

Picnic will remain Picnic, in name and in philosphy. That means whole hog in the smoker, along with brisket and ribs and traditional sides like collard greens and cole slaw.

“When we pull that pig off the smoker, the effect on customers is real,” Holloway said. “It’s clear this isn’t smoke and mirrors, it’s just an unbelievable taste.”

It also means an eye on pushing barbecue’s place in the modern culinary scene, which Holloway said could mean a series of pop-ups in Picnic’s side yard, serving special menus like Thai dishes.

A new chapter for Dickson

For Dickson, who was once a law student at UNC before turning to barbecue, it became time for something new.

“Running a restaurant is hard, but I’ve had a great time doing it,” Dickson said. “I’m a little tired and a little ready for whatever’s next. I’m ready for a change, but I wanted to make sure this thing I’ve built goes to someone who cares about it. That person doesn’t just grow on a tree, but Chris understands North Carolina barbecue and the role it plays in the broader society.”

As for that something new, Dickson didn’t rule out a return to restaurants at some point.

“I’m not done with barbecue,” Dickson said. “It’s in my blood. It’s been a major part of my life and will continue to be.”

The pandemic upended Dickson’s original barbecue plans, which at one time included a large restaurant called Wyatt’s in Raleigh’s Gateway Plaza shopping center. Dickson said Wyatt’s was a brilliant idea in 2019, but as the pandemic made real estate and construction more expensive, it no longer made sense.

The last few years led Dickson to believe his passion lied in the institution of barbecue, not necessarily in the restaurant business.

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s how important barbecue is to lots of folks in North Carolina,” DIckson said. “It’s a vehicle for us to connect. There aren’t that many things that bring us together anymore, but barbecue is one of those things that remains. I see it as having a greater importance today and that’s what will always interest me.”