A top NC barbecue joint is launching a secret backyard restaurant. There are tacos.

Something of a secret restaurant is brewing behind one of the Triangle’s top new barbecue joints.

In the evenings three days a week, Prime Barbecue in Knightdale becomes Primo, a backyard fusion of Puerto Rican, Tex Mex and Peruvian dishes helmed by pitmaster and owner Chris Prieto.

Primo is a nighttime food truck/backyard party behind Prime BBQ in Knightdale, stretching out over artificial turf, picnic tables and strings of lights. There are seats for about 150 people and a small stage for bands.

“In Puerto Rico you always eat outdoors,” Prieto said. “We had more of a story to tell.”

Primo officially opens Wednesday, July 5 at 5:30 p.m. and plans to serve Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights until 10:30 p.m. or all the food is sold out.

Prime opened at 403 Knightdale Station Run in 2020 in the first few months of the COVID pandemic. Since then it has been a leader in North Carolina’s new wave of barbecue restaurants, drawing long lines for weekend lunches and even earning praise from a top Texas barbecue writer.

The Prime / Primo menus

The menu at Prime hits on the modern barbecue obligations, serving pork and spare ribs and, most importantly, brisket. But within those barbecue traditions, Prieto expressed his Puerto Rican roots, serving a whole hog lechon that blends the oldest North Carolina barbecue style with Latin America.

“We realized this is the food we’re feeding ourselves in the back each and every day,” Prieto said. “There’s still more of our story to tell, but I didn’t want to inundate the Prime menu.”

With Primo, Prieto said he’s looking to flip that and give more space to Latin dishes.

“This is the alter ego of Prime,” Prieto said. “At Prime I weave the Latin cuisine into barbecue. Here wanted a place where I could weave in the barbecue side into Latin cuisine.”

One slammin’ taco

Prieto said he wanted to pay tribute to the Tex Mex tacos he ate growing up in Texas, and the many wonderful North Carolina taquerias. He started working on a flour tortilla made with brisket fat, the rich, chewy vessel for a thick slice of brisket, guacamole and a smear of charro beans.

“It’s one slamming taco,” Prieto said. “It became an obsession. We got a custom (tortilla) press from Mexico, I switched the beef fat to olive oil to make it vegetarian friendly.”

The taco offerings at Primo will be the brisket taco and a chicken version of al pastor, marinated in the same peppery sauce, then grilled.

“My favorite taco is al pastor, but this marinade, I love it in chicken better,” Prieto said.

Other possible dishes include empanadas, a tostone relleno made by pressing mashed plantains into a bowl, frying it and filling it with skirt steak and other fixings.

Primo is also working on a version of Peruvian chicken, where highly seasoned chickens are smoked over coconut wood.

“All last year I had a custom pit built in Peru, and have been seasoning it over the winter and summer,” Prieto said. “We want to serve the best Peruvian chicken ever.”

For the sweet side, Prieto said Primo could serve what he calls dessert nachos, which are churros topped with Chantilly cream and a pico of kiwi, pear and strawberry.

Secret restaurant

Despite some whispers on social media and agreeing to an interview, Prieto plans to keep Primo a bit under the radar. There won’t be a separate website or social media account. He’s tipped off some regulars, he said, and the word is already starting to spread.

“We just want this to be a natural organic process,” Prieto said. “Just getting together in the back. We told 25 people and 75 showed up. Last Friday we sold out in 90 minutes in the rain.”

Prieto built Prime BBQ for years and then a global pandemic dashed the opening he always dreamed of, forcing him to open his doors starting with takeout. He said he’s embraced that and built Primo as an ode to restaurants of decades ago that had to amass their following meal to meal, not on social media.

“I had to open in this somewhat special way and I love that,” Prieto said. “I want that feeling of people having to find out what’s great and interesting to eat near them. We used to have to just figure out what’s good and now it’s all on Yelp and I miss that. I wanted it to be organic again.”