Allen & Son disappeared 5 years ago. A new bar is taking over the barbecue spot.
It’s been more than five years since Allen & Son closed in Chapel Hill, ending a decades-long run for one of North Carolina’s best-loved barbecue pits.
Now we know what the next chapter brings for this Orange County spot.
Sidetrack Lounge plans to open this fall in the former Allen & Son space. The new neighborhood bar comes from owners Amy and Rod Anderson. Sidetrack takes its name from the nearby railroad lines running near Mt. Sinai Road and N.C. 86.
The bar looks to add to a growing business district, which includes New Hope Market and Victoria Park Florist.
For nearly 50 years Keith Allen ran Allen & Son Barbecue as a rural destination outside of Chapel Hill, smoking pork shoulders over wood coals cooked down from fires he lit himself in the skinny hours of the morning. Allen abruptly closed the beloved restaurant in December 2018 and retired from the barbecue business, taking one of the Triangle’s top pork temples off the map.
Open air patio and live music
Amy Anderson’s family owns The Farmhouse restaurant and the land where Allen & Son stood all these years. In Sidetrack, she and her husband are building a neighborhood bar with craft beer on tap, basic cans and bottles of beer, wine and simple cocktails.
In the sprawling outdoors the Andersons plan to have a wide open air patio and live music. In the back portion of the restaurant, where the old brick chimneys still sit with a layer of soot, the Andersons are looking to partner with a chef to run food service out of a side window.
Amy Anderson said COVID put early plans for the bar on hold, but that things are now in motion. The interior of the old Allen & Son dining room has been gutted and is now being rebuilt. The whole building now sports a creamy yellow coat of paint.
“The bones of the building are all there,” Anderson said. “We wanted to create a really good neighborhood hangout. People really need a spot here.”
‘I grew up smelling the barbecue’
The Farmhouse has been in business since the 1960s, specializing in grilled steaks and potatoes and walls covered in artifacts. Amy Anderson said there’s a strangeness to taking over the former Allen & Son space, but that it’s always been part of her life.
“It’s weird. We loved it so much, we miss it like crazy,” Anderson said. “I grew up smelling the barbecue.”
Sidetrack is still working through a rezoning permit with Orange County, but the Andersons expect to be open this year, possibly as early as Labor Day weekend.
