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After nearly a decade in business, a longtime downtown Durham restaurant closed its doors.
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This summer, It’s a Southern Thing announced it had closed its flagship location on Main Street in Durham. The upscale Southern restaurant took over the former fine dining space of Motto back in 2017 and found a following with creative comfort food.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the closing of our Downtown restaurant after nearly 10 unforgettable year,” owner Pete Susca wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “This restaurant has been so much more than a business—it has been a gathering place for our community. We’ve had the privilege of watching families grow, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, sharing holidays, and creating countless memories together. Every meal we’ve served has been prepared with gratitude, and every guest who walked through our doors has become part of our story.”
Susca had been the bar manager of Motto, the short-lived fine dining restaurant of Garret Flemming, who later opened the acclaimed Bombolo in Chapel Hill. When Motto closed in summer 2017, Susca quickly transformed it into an ode to Southern cuisine and reopened by September.
It’s a Southern Thing became one of Durham’s few downtown Southern restaurants, serving dishes like chicken and dumplings, smoked pork chops and shrimp and grits alongside cocktails and beers in an urban chic warehouse dining room.
In a 2018 review, former News & Observer dining critic Greg Cox awarded It’s a Southern Thing three and a half stars, praising the quirky charm he found in these Southern classics.
“In fact, you can pretty much order anything with ‘smoked’ in the description and count on a winner,” Cox wrote. “A smoked half chicken, for one, is succulent — even the white meat — beneath a translucent glaze of bourbon-bbq sauce.”
In the closing announcement, Susca cited increasing rent and air conditioning issues as playing a role.
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“This decision was not made lightly. We fought to continue serving this community, but the challenges ultimately became more than we could overcome,” Susca said. “What we’ll miss most isn’t the building itself, but the people who brought it to life every day. Your loyalty, your laughter, your conversations, and your unwavering support have meant more to us than words can express. You have made the past nearly ten years truly special, and we are forever grateful.”
Susca, a New Jersey native, said he set out to honor the Southern food culture he grew to love in North Carolina.
“I’d see grits on the menu and ask, ‘What’s that?’ And they’d just say, ‘It’s a Southern thing.’” Susca said in 2017. “What’s chicken and dumplings? ‘It’s a Southern thing.’ What’s sweet tea? We don’t have sweet tea in New Jersey.”
It’s a Southern Thing later expanded out of state, with a location in Naperville, Il., opening in 2020. That location closed two years later.
In 2023, Susca opened a second Durham location in the Ellis Crossing shopping center near RTP. That location remains open for business.
“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for nearly ten incredible years,” Susca said. “Thank you for every visit, every meal shared, every recommendation to a friend, and every memory we’ve been fortunate enough to create together.”
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