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In a nine-minute video, the owner of an award-winning barbecue restaurant said he is reconsidering plans for a Durham location following controversy over past political posts on social media.
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On Saturday, Sept. 26, Dampf Good BBQ owner Nick Dampf posted a video on Instagram responding to a week of criticism surrounding his plans to open a restaurant in Durham, suggesting he may back out.
In a call Tuesday, Sept. 29, Dampf confirmed that he’s considering abandoning the Durham restaurant project.
“We’re undecided on what we’re going to end up doing moving forward,” Dampf said in an exclusive interview with The News & Observer. “We would have loved to have opened that restaurant. It would have been a cool spot. Between us and some of the other tenants going in, there would be close to 50 to 100 jobs in the immediate area. It would have been great. I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”
Dampf Good BBQ signed a lease to take over the former Pit Authentic Barbecue restaurant near Geer Street in Durham, he told The N&O last week. The Michelin-recommended barbecue truck planned to open the brick-and-mortar restaurant this winter in one of the city’s busiest nightlife districts.
“I will make sure we make the right choice for our family,” he said Tuesday, noting they’ve received threats online since the announcement of the restaurant.
The news of Dampf coming to Durham quickly sparked a backlash on social media and Reddit, as critics shared screenshots of past posts made and shared by Dampf and his family, critical of COVID-era vaccine policies, LGBTQ families, drag shows and abortion.
Hundreds of comments on Reddit and Instagram criticized Dampf’s views and suggested the restaurant would be unwelcome in the highly progressive city. On a popular Instagram video by freelance food journalist Matt Lardie, he captions the post, “Is that what Durham really needs?”
Dampf said he understood Durham’s political demographics going in and had previously lived in the city.
“There’s a lot of assumptions being made that we didn’t do any market research. We knew the crowd we were getting ourselves into,” Dampf said in the video. “And you know what, we were willing to make a seat at the table for you. We run one of the most successful food truck operations in the entire country and we make good choices. We were totally prepared to share the table with you and welcome you in.
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“But unfortunately y’all made that judgment on your own. Y’all assumed that we wouldn’t welcome you. You all assumed that we wouldn’t want to rub shoulders with you, wouldn’t want to talk to you and make friends, and I can’t tell you how wrong that is.
“The only real loser here is Durham,” Dampf said in the video. “We haven’t made a decision yet, on what we’re going to do just yet.”
The restaurant is currently halfway through a 30-day due diligence period on the space, Dampf said. A source familiar with the lease confirmed the due diligence period but declined to discuss specific terms. The clause allows for time to vet any permitting restrictions for the restaurant’s smokers, Dampf said, and back out of the lease without a financial penalty.
In response to his past posts, Dampf said most were made in the early COVID years and that he has since been more restrained in sharing views on social media.
“I guess the only thing I would say is it seemed like the world was coming to an end and everyone lost their minds a little bit,” Dampf told The N&O. “My job was at risk during COVID, everyone got hyper-political. You’re going to find posts that were made out of anger or uncertainty at the time. There’s a reason there aren’t any posts recently.”
Dampf has not disavowed the past posts and though he apologizes for political statements, he defends the views as consistent with his Christian faith.
“My viewpoints are not rooted in politics, they’re rooted in scripture,” Dampf said. “If I said anything in the last six years that was hyper-political, I’m sorry.”
In the video, Dampf prays for his critics and his business.
“Reading comments telling me I’m not a Christian because I’m not willing to celebrate sin, because I’m not willing to hate people enough to not talk about this, I’m not going to do it,” Dampf said in the video. “Because the Bible is very clear, if you call yourself a Christian, sin is the enemy. It always is.”
The controversy around Dampf is a familiar conflict on this block in Durham. Across the street, the Pioneers Church set off similar protests in 2022 over a pastor’s negative views of same-sex marriage. Pioneers Church and its affiliated market closed in 2024.
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This story was originally published September 29, 2026 at 3:03 PM.