Catch the Smoke: Lawrence Barbecue Comes to Cary
The Bungalow Burger includes government cheese, bungalow sauce, and onion on a tallow-toasted bun.
The Bungalow Burger includes government cheese, bungalow sauce, and onion on a tallow-toasted bun.
The Crispy Chicken Sandos come with creamy slaw, bread and butter pickles, or pickled jalapeno, along with house bleu cheese or ranch dressing.
The Crispy Chicken Sandos come with creamy slaw, bread and butter pickles, or pickled jalapeno, along with house bleu cheese or ranch dressing.
Friends of Lawrence Barbecue Trophy Brewing Co. created a beachy beer called Leisure Land Lager that complements Lawrence’s surf and turf offerings.
Friends of Lawrence Barbecue Trophy Brewing Co. created a beachy beer called Leisure Land Lager that complements Lawrence’s surf and turf offerings.
Woody’s Old Fashioned can be upgraded with a “thicc sticky rib” add-on.
Woody’s Old Fashioned can be upgraded with a “thicc sticky rib” add-on.
The Spirit of Leisure is alive and well in downtown Cary.
The Spirit of Leisure is alive and well in downtown Cary.

MAGGY AWARD WINNER: Best New Restaurant

If you’ve never ordered raw oysters with your fresh sliced brisket, you’ve never eaten at Lawrence Barbecue. Of course, these aren’t just any oysters. Chef/owner Jake Wood, who admittedly would choose oysters as the one thing he would eat for the rest of his life, says these are “literally the best oysters I’ve ever had anywhere.”

The fact that they come from N. SEA Oyster Co., the sole oyster farm Lawrence Barbecue supports, bolsters Jake’s hope that the restaurant “gets to the point we’re selling 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 oysters a week.” For a chef who “broke down fish all day long” at The Cowfish and the now-defunct 18 Seaboard, this is a fitting goal.

But then the wind changes direction and you get a scent of oak and hickory coming from the smokehouse on the side of the East Cedar Street building. There, 30 briskets are basking in the heat of the “game changer” large-scale woodfire rotisserie smoker Jake describes as “filled with fire.”

The Lawrence Barbecue smokehouse runs 12 to 15 hours a day.

Back when Lawrence Barbecue was still “slinging food” out of Boxyard RTP, their three smaller Lang reverse-flow smokers were at the mercy of the elements. “And we had to endure it,” Jake says. But over four years, they learned how to work with fluctuations in the weather (and the subsequent change in demand), especially when it came to the top-selling brisket. “We knew what the winter was going to do. We knew what rainy days were going to do. We knew what hot days were going to do.”

But with consistency at Boxyard came a ceiling, partly due to a menu that featured barbecue staples and some curated sides. Jake says the popularity of one in particular — the Three Cheese Mac, which sold 400,000-plus servings — afforded him the opportunity to reopen the eatery as the new kid in downtown Cary’s restaurant scene. “We’ve never been able to host folks in our own space,” he says. “So that is a lot of experience and something that we have a lot of space to grow within.”

The handheld Smoked Brisket Quesabirria features smoked adobo brisket, Oaxaca cheese, cilantro, onion, citrus, and plenty of consommé for dipping.

Since opening the Cary outpost in mid-September of 2025, Jake shares that they haven’t sold out of brisket — which is by design. Whereas at Boxyard they would “sell out and close up shop and go home,” being the only barbecue restaurant in downtown Cary meant that Jake “didn’t feel good about a concept that sold out.” He wanted diners to be able to get fresh sliced brisket (and pulled pork, sliced turkey, sticky ribs, carnitas-style pulled pork, and more) whenever they wanted it.

This concept, though, Jake says, “takes a lot of work.” He and his wife and co-owner Brandi Wood weren’t actively looking to open a restaurant until a friend recommended the space. The couple found the building’s landlords “unbelievable to work with,” and Jake says they opened the new Lawrence Barbecue “by the skin of our teeth with every penny we got … with every piece of equipment that we had.”

That meant they needed to be fastidious about minimizing waste, creating a “center-of-the-plate product that people want” from what would otherwise be discarded — in this case, sandos and burgers.

Jake shares that a brisket originally weighing 12 pounds is trimmed to 8, which then comes out of the smoker at 6 pounds With the cost of meat at an all-time high, and brisket being a mostly nonprofitable product for restaurants, leftover smoked brisket is ground into burgers, and trimmings are rendered into tallow that’s used to toast the buns they’re served on.

The goal in expanding the menu wasn’t purely to limit waste. Although the tacos and brisket always sell, Jake doesn’t want to alienate someone who doesn’t eat meat or who might not want the heaviness of barbecue. Variety comes in the form of fresh ceviche in the spring and summer or chimichurri orzo, a bright and fresh chilled pasta salad that Jake says “cuts through the fatty mouthfeel of barbecue.”

“Potato salad, coleslaw, all those things — that’s your typical barbecue restaurant,” Jake explains. “And we’d like to think that our (sides) are a little bit more unique than your typical. They’re a little more flavorful. We put a little more fun into it,” he says. “However, we can do a lot more.”

The chilled Cinnamon Apple Cider Margarita on the bar’s winter menu boasts tequila, apple cider, triple sec, and cinnamon simple syrup — and can be made smoky.

This is where Jake’s fine-dining background comes into play: intentionally pushing limits on tradition while continuing to honor the heritage and culture of NC barbecue. Although the menu will remain “smoke and fire driven,” a spring refresh will call on partners at the coast to feature local fish. Lawrence’s might be smoked. It might be fried. But it will continue to share space with the signature smoked meats born out of Boxyard.

“Growing up in North Carolina,” Jake says, “it was always fried shrimp, barbecue, hush puppies. So we’re not that far off. We’re just doing it with a little bit more attention.” Sides will be getting more seasonal, and Jake will lean into the sourcing and relationships the restaurant cultivates with farmers all over the state. The same is true for the bar menu. Drinks like the beachy Painkiller and Woody’s Old Fashioned (an homage to Jake’s dad) will remain, but, as bar manager Corey Jordan explains: “We’re going to start focusing on pairing a lot more with our food.”

Leisure Beverages — boozy, fruity, easy-to-drink cocktails introduced at Boxyard — will remain and ensure that the “Spirit of Leisure” is alive and well. This unpretentiousness is signature Lawrence Barbecue. As Jake says: “We’re not looking to go out and do anything crazy. … We hope that you can come here and feel comfortable enough to just chill out and feel good. Let us take the wheel.”

Even on busier days at Boxyard, with people quickly swinging by to pick up their food, establishing a signature atmosphere just wasn’t possible. Now, Jake relishes “just feeling the energy and the vibe” of Cary, including the experience of being involved in the town’s Christmas Parade as well as daily interactions with people walking their dogs, exercising, or going to work.

At Lawrence Barbecue, chef/owner Jake Wood’s fine-dining background meets his mission to honor the craft.

While Jake wants the Spirit of Leisure to be “whatever you need it to be” — from family-friendly to full bar, catering that can now run simultaneous to regular service, and delectable desserts literally out of grandma’s kitchen — he has “a group of people in here who are super stoked to make this a perfect experience for you.”

With a patio being completed this spring, plus plans for takeout order service and interior inclusions of a hot case and dessert station, Jake wants his Cary neighbors to know that Lawrence Barbecue intends to “grow up here. … This is our home now. And we want to share what we do and what makes us excited with the community.”

Since the Boxyard days, however, one thing hasn’t changed. When Cary Magazine visited in 2021, Jake said: “We’re trying to stick to our version of authentic barbecue, whether it’s from North Carolina or Texas or another region.”

In January of 2025, the beginning of the restaurant’s first full year in Cary, he similarly shared: “We’re not Texas barbecue. We’re not North Carolina barbecue. We’re just Lawrence Barbecue. And I’ve said that before. And I really mean that.”

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