King’s BBQ and Burgers is aiming to open its first expansion at 238 W. Front St. in Burlington in mid-November, moving into a building that formerly housed a sandwich shop. The new location follows the success of owner Ben King’s original restaurant in Archdale, which opened in June 2025 and has become the launching pad for his push into Alamance County.
King decided on Burlington for his first expansion after hearing from people who said he could succeed there, according to thetimesnews.com. Before trading his career for a smoker, King spent 15 years working in the corporate field, the outlet reports. The leap from office life to barbecue pits marks a significant pivot, but it’s one he’s backing up with family help as he builds out the new site.
To make the expansion possible, King reached out to his father, Terry, asking him to come out of retirement and run the Archdale restaurant while Ben establishes the Burlington location. Terry has been training with his son for the past couple of months to prepare for the handoff, per the same account. King’s currently employs 15 full- and part-time workers in Archdale and expects to staff the Burlington restaurant with an equivalent number once it opens.
A Family Recipe Rooted in Thomasville
King’s connection to barbecue traces back to his childhood trips to Thomasville, where he says he found the standard he still measures against today. “I still think the best barbecue here was Tommy’s barbecue in Thomasville. I used to go there with my grandfather,” King said, according to thetimesnews.com. He has described being part of that barbecue legacy as nostalgic, the outlet notes, a sentiment that appears to be shaping how he approaches the Burlington expansion.
That sense of continuity extends to how King talks about customer relationships. He said he wants the Burlington location to build the same kind of connection with customers in Alamance County that the Archdale restaurant has cultivated since opening. Community goodwill has already become part of King’s business identity in Archdale, where the restaurant’s charitable giving has drawn attention — though the exact figures are disputed. According to High Point Enterprise, King’s generated about $10,000 in charitable contributions in the Archdale area through free meals and other donations, while the Times-News account puts that figure closer to $20,000.
Scaling Up Without Losing the Local Feel
With Terry now steering day-to-day operations in Archdale, Ben King is free to focus on getting the Front Street building ready for its mid-November target. The space’s prior life as a sandwich shop gives King’s BBQ and Burgers an established storefront to work with rather than a ground-up build, which could help keep the timeline on track. Whether that target holds will depend on the usual mix of permitting, staffing, and buildout details that haven’t been detailed publicly.
For now, the expansion represents a bet that the formula King built in Archdale — family involvement, community giving, and a menu rooted in his own barbecue upbringing — can translate to a new county. If it works, Burlington diners may soon be able to judge for themselves whether King’s lives up to the bar he says his grandfather set at Tommy’s all those years ago in Thomasville.
