The brothers behind Dampf Good BBQ are trading their gravel lot in Cary for one of Durham’s most storied restaurant addresses. Nick and Bryce Dampf have signed a lease on the former Pit building at 321 W. Geer St., where they plan to open their first brick-and-mortar restaurant with a market-style cutting line that sells smoked meats by the pound.
The move was first reported by the News & Observer, which noted that Dampf Good BBQ is the only Michelin-recommended food truck in the inaugural American South guide. Nick Dampf told the paper that having a permanent home for the barbecue business had always been the goal, and that the new restaurant will offer traditional meat market service, letting diners watch brisket and ribs get sliced in front of them before they’re weighed and boxed.
The building itself has quite a résumé. It opened on June 1, 1939, as a Royal Crown Cola and Seven-Up Bottling Plant designed in the Moderne architectural style, and it remains the largest contributing structure in Durham’s Foster and West Geer Streets National Register Historic District, according to Open Durham. The Pit opened there in late 2013, per Discover Durham. The Pit’s Durham location closed during the pandemic, the News & Observer’s reporting notes, and Empire Eats later converted the space in May 2022 into an event venue with 8,558 square feet of total meeting area and a 560-guest capacity.
From a Cary Gravel Lot to a 16,000-Square-Foot Building
Before it became an event space, the building spent years as one of the Geer Street district’s most recognizable barbecue destinations. The property was later listed for lease in March 2025 as a 16,091-square-foot second-generation restaurant space complete with an upstairs bar, a rooftop patio, employee parking, and rear loading dock access, according to a listing on LoopNet. That is a dramatic upgrade from where Dampf Good BBQ has spent the last several years: a smokehouse residency at Phillips Farms of Cary, which the brothers began in 2022 after Nick and Bryce Dampf opened Dampf Good BBQ there. The business has operated at Phillips Farm for nearly four years, expanding from a few hours of service weekly to lunch and dinner four days a week…