2020 was not an easy year for a lot of local businesses, especially restaurants that depend on having customers within their walls.
Though this can be partially mitigated by using a well-run carryout business, a restaurant offering dine-in service was hobbled by social-distancing requirements requiring it to operate at reduced capacity, and therefore reduced profits.
However, there are restaurants that have survived these âInteresting Times,â and continue to thrive in spite of them. One such is north Johnson Cityâs Red Pig Bar-B-Q.
First glance
Currently fronting north Johnson Cityâs Ferguson Road, the Red Pig Bar-B-Q is a 50-plus yearsâ veteran in the restaurant business. In the â70s, I myself worked at the Red Pigâs old West Walnut Street location under founder and owner Tom Carr, first as a dishwasher, then as a line cook preparing the side orders for Red Pigâs barbecue-hungry customers. From memory, I can still make Red Pigâs signa
The Retiree called my dining partner up and invited us both to supper at one of Johnson Cityâs best restaurants: Ms. Soukchinda Bouribounâs Zaap Lai Thai and Lao Cuisine on North Roan Street.
Over the past two years, Zaap Lai has been gathering a discerning clientele devoted to the unique textures and flavors found in the Southeast Asian cuisines of Thailand and Laos. What Bouribounâs menu lacks in the number of offerings it more than makes up for in the quality and uniqueness of each dish, prepared with Bouribounâs own take on each regional delicacy.
The result for her customers is a meal that transports them from the mundane to the extraordinary, as my two dine-around bunch members and I found out.
It is good to see a locally owned restaurant become a success, despite outside interference from the âInteresting Timesâ we are all experiencing. It is even better to find that the success requires a move to larger quarters. Such is the tale of Primoâs Italian Restaurant in Elizabethton. Owners Mo Farrouki and Kinsey Holliday have not only moved Primoâs; they changed its name to The Black Olive.
The Black Olive is the new tenant of Elizabethtonâs West Towne Square shopping center in the property formerly occupied by Beef OâBradyâs. The restaurant opened the third week of January, and is still âironing out the wrinklesâ â the usual issues of new location, new look and new service. Changing the name to that of the well-known Black Olive in Jonesborough has given Farrouki and Holliday a newly minted restaurant chain.
As we, like latter-day groundhogs, awaken from our socially distanced hibernation of âInteresting Times,â our thoughts turn from enduring enforced bouts of cabin fever and vaccines injected via square needles to the promise of spring-like weather and celebrating holidays once more.
My dining partner has always regarded Valentineâs Day as her getting paroled from the winter doldrums. Since the holiday falls on a Sunday this year, we celebrated it a little differently, with her joining me on a visit to Southern Craft BBQ and their Sunday Brunch.
Southern Craft BBQ is located on the southern fringe of Johnson Cityâs rejuvenated downtown. The creation of Stir Fry Groupâs Rafael Zabala, Southern Craft is definitely a cut above most folksâ idea of a barbecue joint. For a start, the interior is âre-purposed industrialâ combined with with warm, golden brown wood overtones and accents. The dining area has seating for about 100 or so hungry patrons at
I must admit that I am impressed with the tenacity exhibited by business owners who, no matter how interesting our âInteresting Timesâ get, will be there to serve the public by being âin business.â
An example of this is the opening of Kickback Jackâs restaurant in Johnson Cityâs Med-Tech Corridor.
This newest member of the Kickback Jackâs chain was a new-build from the ground up, begun in late-2019 and put on hold by the pandemicâs onset. There followed delays in construction, causing the restaurant to postpone its opening until this past autumn. Despite having to cope with pandemic-caused social distancing guidelines, the management and staff of Kickback Jackâs are determined to serve those of us hungry diners who are tightening our belts, jacking up our courage and bravely venturing forth into the new world of 2021.