More than a year since fire destroyed the Pik N Pig, the restaurant built on a Carthage airstrip is planning its reunion tour of barbecue, banana pudding and hushpuppies that have been known to stop air traffic.
Restaurant owner Ashley Sheppard and building owner Roland Gilliam showed off the new Pik N Pig during a recent thank-you lunch for fans and supporters. Firefighters who responded to the May 30, 2021 fire were first in line.
“I’m excited,” Ashley says. “It’s starting to come together. It’s starting to feel like home — it’s a much bigger house, but it feels like home.”
The kitchen, three times bigger than the previous iteration, is open to the dining room with a pass-through window over a bar. The walls are lined with decor donated by customers, some new and some salvaged from the ashes. The historic post office near the front door was soda-blasted and stained. And, yes, the delightfully weird pig ride on the plane-watching patio was also rescued.
“It’s good to see life back in his building — to see people, to see smiling faces, to smell the barbecue,” said Ashley’s wife Tiffani at Friday’s lunch. “It’s refreshing. This building, the shell of it, has been up for almost a year, and it’s taken us this long to get here. To see it this full is awesome.”
Pik N Pig hopes to reopen the weekend of Feb. 16. Watch Facebook for updates.
