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The only Michelin-recommended food truck in the American South guide will open its first brick and mortar restaurant in one of Durham’s best-known barbecue spaces.
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The Texas-style Dampf Good BBQ will take over The Pit space in Durham’s Geer Street district, reviving the highly prominent smokehouse with one of North Carolina’s most acclaimed new barbecue menus.
“We’ve always loved the city of Durham and watching the food scene there grow and flourish over the past five or six years has been really cool,” Nick Dampf told The News & Observer in a phone interview.
Brothers Nick and Bryce Dampf opened their Dampf Good BBQ in 2022 as a kind of smokehouse residency at Cary’s Phillips Farms. Since then, it’s grown into one of North Carolina’s most acclaimed new barbecue joints, collecting Michelin Recommended honors and a spotlight from Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn. Those two highlights mean the most to Nick Dampf, he said, of Dampf Good’s food truck years, but he’s looking forward to what comes next.
“It’s pretty surreal, we’ve been working on it for a long time,” Nick Dampf said. “This has always been the goal, to have a home to welcome people into. It’s just exciting to finally see it happen.”
Next month marks four years for Dampf at Phillips Farm, going from just a few hours of service a week, to lunch and dinner four days a week. Last year’s Michelin recognition gave Dampf the confidence that the barbecue trailer could hang with some of the state’s best barbecue spots.
“Michelin definitely had the biggest impact on the business for sure,” Nick Dampf said. “It pushed us into a spotlight we’d been having a hard time getting into. We had a little imposter sydrome sometimes, and it let us know we’re doing some stuff right.”
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The Pit is perhaps the biggest barbecue name in the Triangle, with the Raleigh location helping establish restaurant-level expectations for North Carolina’s favorite culinary tradition. In Durham, The Pit was part of the city’s bustling Geer Street district, but closed for good during the pandemic.
Dampf signed a lease on the building this summer and is currently working with an architect to renovate the space. The aim is to open this winter, in late December or early January, Nick Dampf said.
The new restaurant moves the Dampf experience indoors, trading the gravel lot and picnic tables of Phillips Farm for air conditioning and a dining room.
The new Dampf will have a market-style cutting line, mirroring many Texas barbecue restaurants, where diners order their smoked meats by the pound and see brisket and ribs sliced in front of them.
“We’re going to be able to do the real traditional meat market service,” Nick Dampf said. “When you go to Texas, you’re standing in line and you get the chance to talk to the cutter and watch the meat sliced in front of you. It offers a connection with the food you’re ordering.”
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