Sam Jones BBQ is bringing its whole-hog barbecue to a second Raleigh address, with plans to open a stall inside Morgan Street Food Hall by the end of 2026. The move puts a Michelin-recognized pitmaster's cooking less than a mile from his original West Lenoir Street restaurant, right in the heart of downtown's Warehouse District.
The expansion traces back to a personal connection: Morgan Street Food Hall entrepreneur Niall Hanley approached Sam Jones about opening a spot in the hall, according to WRAL. The two have known each other for years, and Hanley — who also leads Hibernian Hospitality Group, the company behind Raleigh Beer Garden, Watts & Ward and Hibernian Pubs — designed his food hall as a launching pad for established restaurateurs and small concepts alike.
The new stall will sit roughly 0.6 miles from Sam Jones BBQ's original Raleigh restaurant, per WRAL's reporting, which places the two addresses just a short walk apart in a city known for treating barbecue as neighborhood infrastructure. Because true wood-fired whole-hog smoking demands the kind of brick pit setup that can't simply be dropped into a food hall stall, the Morgan Street location will run with a more limited food and drink menu, drawing from the main smokehouse operation nearby.
A Family Name Built Over Four Generations
Sam Jones, who is from Ayden, N.C., is a third-generation pitmaster whose grandfather, Pete Jones, opened the family's flagship Skylight Inn in Ayden in July 1947 when he was just 17 years old, according to Skylight Inn BBQ. That restaurant went on to earn a James Beard Foundation America's Classics Award in 2003, making it the first North Carolina barbecue joint recognized by the organization, as the Southern Smoke Foundation notes.
Sam Jones eventually built his own standalone brand alongside longtime friend Michael Letchworth, opening the first Sam Jones BBQ location in Greenville in 2015. The original Raleigh location followed in 2021, landing inside a renovated former mechanic shop at 502 West Lenoir Street complete with an on-site pithouse for overnight charcoal smoking, seating for up to 140 guests, a full bar and private event space, according to details compiled by Visit Raleigh.
A Michelin Nod Raises the Stakes
The Morgan Street expansion comes less than a year after Sam Jones BBQ landed a Bib Gourmand designation in the inaugural Michelin Guide American South in November 2025, an honor recognizing high-quality whole-hog barbecue at a fair price. Michelin selected only seven North Carolina establishments for that distinction, giving the Sam Jones name a fresh layer of national prestige just as it eyes local growth.
That style of cooking is not incidental to the brand's identity. Traditional Eastern North Carolina barbecue calls for cooking whole pigs low and slow over hardwood charcoal for up to 16 hours, then chopping the meat with crispy pork skin and dressing it in a red-pepper vinegar sauce rather than anything sweet or tomato-based, per Cape Fear Living.
Joining an Established Food Hall Scene
Morgan Street Food Hall itself opened on August 20, 2018, converting a 22,000-square-foot former postal depot in the Warehouse District into Raleigh's first food hall, debuting with nearly 20 food and retail tenants, according to reporting from Technician. Morgan Street Food Hall is described as a walkable destination in downtown Raleigh, and its 2018 debut, followed by Transfer Co. Food Hall in 2019, helped launch a broader wave of food hall incubators across the city's core.
Those halls have given established restaurateurs and startups alike a way to open satellite locations with lower overhead and shared infrastructure, a model that fits neatly with what Sam Jones BBQ is attempting less than a mile from its flagship pit. WRAL reports the second Raleigh location is expected to open by the end of 2026, giving downtown diners a faster, more casual way to get a taste of the Bib Gourmand pitmaster's whole-hog tradition.
