Food History of Durham

Key eras

1870-1960: Tobacco wealth and the segregated table

Durham grew from a tobacco trading post into one of the wealthiest cities in the South on the back of the Bull Durham and American Tobacco Company empires. That wealth built two parallel food cultures: the white-owned hotel dining rooms and supper clubs of Downtown Durham, and the Black-owned restaurants, fish camps and grocery culture of the Hayti district on Fayetteville Street. Hayti was the economic engine of Black Durham from Reconstruction through the civil rights era and produced a food culture (whole-hog BBQ, fresh catfish from Eno River tributaries, collard greens and cornbread as everyday staples) that outlasted the district itself. Urban renewal in the 1960s demolished much of Hayti; the food traditions it carried persisted through family kitchens, church suppers and a handful of institutions like Chicken Hut (1957) and Bullock's Bar-B-Cue (1952).

2000-2010: From factory floor to food district

The closing of the American Tobacco Company's Durham facility in the 1980s left a 17-acre campus of 19th and early 20th century brick buildings vacant for over a decade. A major redevelopment completed in the early 2000s converted the campus into a mixed-use district anchored by the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, restaurants and office space. The ATC transformation was the catalyst for the modern Durham food scene: it created a concentration of foot traffic in a walkable district surrounded by historic buildings, attracting chefs and restaurateurs priced out of larger cities. Nana Steak, Mateo, Tyler's Restaurant and a dozen other significant openings clustered around or near the ATC in the 2000s.

2010-present: The James Beard decade

Durham's food community has received more James Beard Award recognition per capita than any similarly-sized US city over the past decade. Ricky Moore (Saltbox Seafood Joint) won Best Chef Southeast in 2022. Matt Kelly (Mateo) has been a recurring semifinalist. Ashley Christensen, whose empire operates primarily from Raleigh, is the 2019 Outstanding Chef and is a product of the Triangle food culture. Chef Preeti Waas of Cheeni became a 2024 JBA Best Chef semifinalist. Bull City Food & Beer Experience, World Beer Festival, and multiple bar nominees have extended JBA recognition beyond restaurants. The concentration of recognition reflects genuine craft density rather than marketing sophistication.

Immigrant influences

• West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal): West African stews, jollof rice, suya and peanut-based soups entered Durham's food culture through its HBCUs: NCCU, which has been a predominantly Black institution since 1910, drew students and faculty from across the African diaspora. The groundnut soup and pepper soup traditions of West African immigrant households form a direct culinary line to the broader African-inflected cooking seen in the current Durham scene.
• Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Guatemala: A significant wave of Central American and Mexican immigration to the Triangle in the 1990s and early 2000s, driven by construction and agricultural work, created an enduring taqueria and Latin food culture that now runs from hole-in-the-wall taquerias (Taqueria La Vaquita, Fonda Lupita) to upscale Mexican-inspired kitchens (Mateo). Puerto Rican cooking entered the food hall economy via Boricua Soul at the American Tobacco Campus. The Latin food corridor on S Roxboro Street and Chapel Hill Road is one of the most concentrated and authentic in the Triangle.
• India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh: The Research Triangle Park development from the 1960s onward brought significant South Asian academic and technical immigration to the area, seeding a permanent community that sustained Indian grocery stores and family restaurants. The current high-end expression is Cheeni, where chef Preeti Waas translates Indian regional cooking into a James Beard-nominated restaurant format.

Signature innovations

• Eastern North Carolina whole-hog BBQ tradition: Durham sits at the eastern edge of true Eastern NC BBQ territory: the whole-hog pit-smoked tradition using only wood (no gas) and vinegar-pepper sauce (no tomato). Bullock's Bar-B-Cue, open since 1952, is the Durham institution that preserves the technique. The tradition is distinct from Piedmont-style (shoulders only, red sauce) and both are distinct from the Texas/Kansas City wood-and-sweet-sauce traditions.
• Hush-Honeys (honey-glazed hushpuppies): Chef Ricky Moore developed the Hush-Honey at Saltbox: a hushpuppy dipped in wildflower honey, served warm alongside the fried fish plate. The combination became the most-written-about food item in Durham and the most emulated Southern snack concept in NC in the 2010s. Moore has protected the specific formula; the Hush-Honey is considered original enough that food writers routinely credit Durham as the origin point.