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Monk: Pitmaster Ed Mitchell is in a curious spot these days. His name is in many ways synonymous with eastern North Carolina whole hog barbecue and his reach in the barbecue world is unmatched by few, but he hasn’t operated a barbecue restaurant in almost 10 years.

In this episode of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy podcast, North Carolina native Wilson Sayre recaps Mitchell’s story from starting to cook pigs at his parent’s grocery store in Wilson, NC in the wake of his father’s passing to that restaurant getting shut down for failing to pay taxes tax (with Mitchell spending time in jail) to partnering in opening The Pit in Raleigh and eventually the opening and closing of his short-lived Durham restaurant Ed Mitchell’s ‘Cue. Along the way, Ed brought on his son Ryan as a business partner to help him with his business decision making.

The Mitchell’s latest venture with restaurateur Lou Moshakos is called The Preserve and was set to open in 2020 (which was to be Raleigh’s “Year of Barbecue”) before getting sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, this episode is light on solid details for that restaurant, only saying that it is set to open “this spring” (though the episode was released May 22). But of course we’re starting to get into the summer months with little in the way of updates and The Preserve website doesn’t have much more information, only stating that “2023 is our year.”

Unfortunately, it seems as if Ed Mitchell is once again going to have to do it the hard way. All of us North Carolinians will be rooting hard for him.

Description: Ed Mitchell’s name has come to be synonymous with Eastern North Carolina wood-smoked whole-hog barbecue. From Wilson, North Carolina, he grew up smoking hogs and has tried to continue that tradition, using old techniques and traditionally farm-raised pigs.

But almost since the start, Ed Mitchell’s barbeque journey has not been a straight line—business relationships, racism, and smoke have all shaped his rollercoaster ride.