Go HERE to read the story from business reporter David Bracken about the Empire Eats owner's latest projects.

Empire Eats owns The Raleigh Times, Sitti, Gravy and The Pit in downtown Raleigh.

The Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market opens its season next Wednesday (April 25) with a pig pickin', live music and children's activities.

The market operates in City Plaza on Fayetteville Street from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays until the end of October. Next Wednesday's festivities include $5 barbecue sandwiches from The Pit restaurant with Southern food expert Bob Garner on hand to talk to customers; a performance by Big Head Dog band, whose members include local organic farmer Fred Miller of Hilltop Farms; and face painting and gardening activities for children.

Customers can visit the market's Facebook page to enter to win a $50 gift certificate to the Pit restaurant for themselves and a $50 gift certificate to Sitti restaurant for a friend. Or customers can enter to win gift certificates at the market's information booth on opening day.

For more information about the market, go to www.RaleighEatLocal.com.

Photo by Staff photographer Corey Lowenstein

Bob Garner, (pictured above) the North Carolina barbecue expert, is now working for Empire Eats, a local restaurant chain that owns The Pit, a popular barbecue restaurant in downtown Raleigh.

Garner, 64, is the author of two North Carolina barbecue books: "North Carolina Barbecue: Flavored by Time" and "Bob Garner's Guide to North Carolina Barbeque." A longtime fan of the state's barbecue traditions, Garner became known for his 'cue know-how based on his work on UNC-TV's North Carolina Weekend show. Garner would travel the state, filming segments about restaurants and eventually produced an hour-long show about the state's favorite food tradition.

"He is kind of the spokesperson of North Carolina barbecue," says Greg Hatem, a downtown developer and owner of the Empire Eats restaurant group. "..That's such an important mission of what The Pit is supposed to be."

Hatem opened The Pit five years ago with famous eastern North Carolina pitmaster Ed Mitchell. But Hatem and Mitchell parted ways earlier this year. (To see my earlier blog post about Ed Mitchell leaving The Pit, go HERE. No word yet on Mitchell's new venture.)

Hatem plans to open a second location of The Pit in Durham although the exact location is unknown at the moment. He denied reports that the restaurant will be located at 309 E. Chapel Hill St. Hatem owns that building and placed a sign teasing the Pit coming to Durham but says that's not the restaurant's future location.

Garner's job for Empire Eats will be broad. Garner says he and Hatem have joked about what his title should be: "barbecue-ologist" or "curator of the traditional food committment." Both say Garner will consult on the menu, help source food, help train the staff, write cookbooks and continue to lead a series of barbecue heritage dinners at The Pit. Plus, Garner will produce a series of videos about the heritage dinners and the group's restaurants. (To see one of Garner's videos of a recent heritage dinner, go HERE.)

Garner says he will continue to work parttime for UNC-TV, producing food and restaurant segments for North Carolina Weekend. Plus, he says, he is writing a new book that combines and updates the material in her previous two books. It will be called "Bob Garner's Book of Barbecue" and will be published this spring, Garner says.

(Note: I had a story last year about Garner having gastric-bypass surgery and continuing his life as a food expert and eater. Go HERE to read the story.)

Chef Ludo Lefebvre brought his pop-up restaurant to Raleigh in March to make his own version of North Carolina barbecue, a la The Pit, and staged his event at The Pit's sister restaurant Gravy (Andrea Weigl explains more about what a "pop-up" restaurant is).

Everything was captured for Chef Ludo's Sundance television show, "Ludo Bites America," in which he travels the country with his business partner and wife (Krissy, riding the hog at left) creating a new one-night-only restauarant and menu for each episode. The Sundance website describes the Raleigh episode as "a BBQ pig out with a French twist" (short video promo).

Go HERE to read the story and see the photo gallery of Mitchell. The story is just a little more polished.

Famous eastern North Carolina barbecue pitmaster Ed Mitchell is leaving The Pit in downtown Raleigh and plans to open another restaurant in the Triangle, according to a press release that went out today.

Meanwhile, Mitchell's former business partner, Greg Hatem, announced that he would be opening a second location of The Pit in downtown Durham later this year or early next year.

Mitchell is a well-regarded barbecue pitmaster who originally transformed his family's Wilson grocery store in 1990 into a barbecue destination. As Mitchell's profile started to rise, he stumbled as a businessman. He ended up in a squabble with the bank that resulted in litigation and that restaurant was closed in 2004. A year later, he was convicted of failure to pay state sales taxes related to the business and served 30 days in jail. 

But in 2007, Mitchell's resurrection on the barbecue scene seemed assured. He partnered with downtown Raleigh developer Greg Hatem to open The Pit. Hatem operates Empire Eats and has stakes in several downtown Raleigh restaurants, including  The Raleigh Times, The Morning Times, Sitti, Gravy and Fai Thai. It seemed at the time like a good pairing: Mitchell with the barbecue expertise and being a known barbecue personality and Hatem with the business sense and an existing centralized system for running the restaurant's payroll, ordering and logistics.

Mitchell's return to the restaurant scene was covered extensively in the national food magazines. Then a 2009 appearance on "Throwdown! with Bobby Flay," the Food Network star, made the Raleigh restaurant even more popular than it already was. The restaurant even began selling its own brand of barbecue sauces at Williams-Sonoma stores.

But now that partnership has come to an end. In a phone interview, Mitchell said: "I thought it was time to move on. There were some other things I wanted to do to take my vision to the next level. I'm very happy that Greg and I did something great. The opportunity was very appreciated."

Mitchell didn't want to discuss his next restaurant project but hopes to within a month's time. The press release directs the public to this website for updates: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pitmaster-ED-Mitchell/104706286282872

Mitchell did reveal that he plans to partner with Butterball, which is headquartered in Garner, to make turkey barbecue. He will be showing off that dish at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party next month in New York City. (Mitchell is a founding pitmaster at the block party and this is his ninth year to cook for the event.)

Reached on the phone, Hatem said, "We enjoyed our relationship with Ed Mitchell. Ed wants to pursue the Ed Mitchell brand. We want to continue pursuing great North Carolina whole hog barbecue."

Hatem added that nothing will change at the Pit restaurant. The recipes, sauces and dishes will not be altered due to Mitchell's departure.

Hatem added that they plan to open a catering kitchen to help the restaurant keep up with demand and be able to offering catering services.

The Pit restaurant in Raleigh will be hosting a series of heritage barbecue dinners starting in July. The idea is to have guest barbecue pit masters come to the Pit for a special dinner.

The first one will feature barbecue historian Bob Garner and the Pit's chef, Darrell Brown, on July 12.

The next two dinners will be the second Tuesdays in July and August. They will feature Wayne Monk of Lexington Barbecue and Bum Dennis of Bum's Restaurant in Ayden, N.C.

The cost has yet to be determined. Reservations will be available starting June 1. Call 890-4500.

Los Angeles chef Ludo Lefebvre (pictured left, photo by Nate Hoffman) is bringing his "pop-up" restaurant to Raleigh for one-night only. Lefebvre, a former Top Chef Masters contestant originally from France, will transform Gravy into LudoBites Thursday, March 24.

To get a reservation, call 896-8513 starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 23. Only about 90 reservations are available. Dinner starts at 6 p.m.

Look for my story in tomorrow's News & Observer about Lefebvre. (HERE it is.)

Information will be posted later tonight at www.facebook.com/LudoBites or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gravy-Raleigh/224196616994

Here is the menu:

• Fried pig ear with chili and lime mayonnaise.
• "Head and cheese" (Pig head rillettes, cheddar cheese custard with barbecue jelly and a slice of country bread and pickled baby rainbow carrots)
•  Blood pig terrine served with blackberry salad and purple potato chips.
• Crispy pork belly, mustard ice cream and a coleslaw made with savoy cabbage, potatoes, chive and smoked eel.
• A 63-degree poached egg with potato mousseline and chopped barbecue from the Pit seasoned with chorizo oil and cumin.
• Slices of salt-encrusted pork shoulder topped with a pork skin crumble and served with a Big Boss Bad Penny beer, five different cauliflower and pineapple.

And for dessert, two choices:

• Smoked vanilla bean bacon creme brulee
• A French-version of banana pudding with caramelized bananas and coconut macaroons and a secret ingredient.

Sharp-eyed viewers may have spotted Raleigh restaurant The Pit last night on The Food Network.

The barbecue hot spot was named among the top 10 restaurants nationwide for regional classics. The show was part of a series that the Food Network is running this week naming the best of the best in different categories. Celebrity chef Alton Brown visits each restaurant and hands out shiny silver plates engraved with the Food Network logo and the restaurant's award.

Viewers may have also spotted local businessman Greg Hatem, who was interviewed along with pit master Ed Mitchell during the piece about The Pit and its 'cue.

Hatem and his Empire Eats corporation own The Pit and several other downtown Raleigh restaurants.

Does Ed Mitchell ever get tired of being on television? We sure hope not, because The Pit will be on Food Network again next week.

Starting Monday night, Food Network is airing a 3-part series showcasing the best in American cuisine. The Pit's barbecue is nominated in the Top Ten Regional Classics category for "Best North Carolina-style Pig." And yes, we realize there isn't just one style of North Carolina barbecue.

The "America's Best" series is hosted by Alton Brown and runs Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights next week at 9pm on Food Network. We're not sure which night "The Pit" might be featured, but the best guess is Wednesday night, since the show description indicates some other regional foods such as Philly cheesesteaks and New England Clam Chowder are to be sampled.

UPDATE: The segment featuring The Pit will indeed air Wednesday night at 9pm.