SMITHFIELD – Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q flagship restaurant will be moving to a new location. The eatery will move from their current site at 924 N. Brightleaf Boulevard to 1260 N. Brightleaf Boulevard, the former Applebee’s location. The former Applebee’s building was razed last week.
The new location of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q at 1260 N. Brightleaf Boulevard will look like this store. (Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q Photo) 
The new location of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q at 1260 N. Brightleaf Boulevard will look like this store. (Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q Photo) 
The new location of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q at 1260 N. Brightleaf Boulevard will look like this store. (Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q Photo) 
The new location of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q at 1260 N. Brightleaf Boulevard will look like this store. (Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q Photo) 
Demolition workers razed the former Applebee’s building last week. (Johnston County Report Photo) 
Demolition workers razed the former Applebee’s building last week. (Johnston County Report Photo)
“It will be a new state of the art store, similar to the one in Dunn and Zebulon,” said Lew Starling, President of Mid-Atlantic Restaurant Corporation, the owner of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q. “It will be a great asset to the city and county. We will be there for years and years to serve the public.”
The new family restaurant will include additional seating and parking capacity.
“Smithfield has been very good to us. We consider it our flagship store,” said Robert Conrad, Direct of Quality Assurance. “It will feature better access, a better traffic pattern, and it will be bigger. It will represent our brand very well.”
Mr. Starling said the new restaurant will be open in February 2022. Plans are for the old location to close one day and the new location to open the very next day.
Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q has over 40 locations including Clayton, Fuquay Varina, Cleveland (40/42), Garner, Wilson, Knightdale and Goldsboro.
I really miss that Applebee’s. Where else could you go, sit a long time and wait for substandard food while in the atmosphere of a ballpark toilet?
Best comment I have ever read on the JoCo Report! The slow service was like that from the very beginning, too!
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I’m surprised another gas station isn’t going in that location.
GOLDSBORO’s Applebee’s is the best place, really the only place, for great baked FRENCH ONION SOUP! We like our Applebee’s!
Why this Smithfield Bbq And Chicken looks nothing like the one in Sanford NC