The
best of
d u r ha m
How do
you
'cue? Meat (OK, OK … ‘meet’) the man behind this Boxyard fan favorite
seems to have found a winning recipe – take one part deep reverence for barbecue tradition, add one part fine dining training, and season with a whole lot of rock star attitude and fun. The end result gets you one of this year’s Best of Durham barbecue awards, a fitting trophy for chef Jake Wood and his crew. The key to Jake’s success is focusing on a few things and really knocking them out of the ballpark (or in Lawrence Barbecue’s case, the shipping container park aka Boxyard RTP). “We’re doing very simple things,” he says. “We’re not trying to awrence Barbecue
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ABOVE A Texas-style brisket sandwich on a tallow-toasted brioche bun. RIGHT Jake Wood credits his grandfather with instilling in him a profound love for food. BELOW A half-rack of ribs.
reinvent the wheel. We’re just trying to put our twists on modern classics.” Those twists include a crumble of Zapp’s Voodoo Potato Chips atop the uber-popular mac and cheese ( Jake estimates that they’ve sold close to 20,000 orders of the side since they opened in June 2021). There was also the beloved, and now sadly gone, smoked brisket birria tacos. (On the birria side of things, Jake notes that the demand got so high that his team couldn’t keep up given the small space of their kitchen, but that brisket birria will make a future appearance as its own stand-alone concept.)
Totally
me o s e w a