Melanie Finkel, Executive Chef, Raleigh
Billy Carter, Executive Chef, Durham
Linwan Euwell, Chef and Pitmaster
Andrew Bruce, Chef and Pitmaster
Greg Hatem, Owner
Greg Hatem grew up cooking pigs each Fall in Halifax County, so it was no surprise he later opened The Pit in Raleigh, honoring the state’s best known and much cherished culinary tradition. With his love and passion for barbecue and North Carolina, Greg paid painstaking attention to every detail in the creation of The Pit in both Raleigh and Durham, including sourcing hogs from local farmers and producers.
The founder of Empire Eats, a sister business to Empire Properties real estate development, Greg has been credited as a primary initiator and ongoing contributor to the revitalization of downtown Raleigh. Empire Eats’ other restaurants that also are part of the evolution of Raleigh into a thriving culinary center include The Raleigh Times Bar, The Morning Times Coffee Shop & Gallery, Sitti (honoring Greg’s Lebanese heritage), and Gravy (Italian) restaurants.
Greg has been a passionate, creative force behind each concept, for which he also is involved in the recruitment of chefs, financing, design and décor, and non-traditional marketing, for which Empire Eats restaurants have come to be known.
Doug Stevens, General Manager, Raleigh
Andy Topoly, General Manager, Durham
Bob Garner, Chief Barbecue Heritage Officer
Bob Garner shares our passion for historic and cultural preservation, including nurturing our state’s historic foodways…and most especially our rich barbecue legacy. At the restaurants, on the web, at special events, and through the printed word, he joins us as enthusiastic caretakers of this colorful segment of our popular culture.
Farmers
Happy, Healthy, AWA Pigs
Each of our farmers is regularly audited to ensure they meet Animal Welfare Approved standards. The basic premise of all the AWA certification is that animals must be able to behave naturally and be in a state of physical and psychological well-being. Employing the most rigorous standards for farm animal welfare currently in use by any United States organization, AWA ensures pigs are raised outdoors, and without the use of antibiotics, growth promotants, or animal byproducts.
Given only to family farms, the AWA approved label verifies participating farms are putting each individual animal’s comfort and well-being first. AWA is the only free, third-party animal welfare certification program, and it offers both technical advice and marketing support, and works to revitalize a culture of independent family farms, on which a humane ethic can be passed on to future generations. An annual audit by the AWA covers everything from birth of piglets to the processing of the animals for consumption.
Meet Farmer Caleb Johnson
Caleb Johnson is a graduate of North Carolina State University with a degree in Agricultural Business Management. Upon graduation, Caleb joined his father Anthony Johnson — who has nearly two decades of experience raising pasture-raised pork — in tending some 50 sows on their farm near Garland, N.C., in Sampson County.
Caleb grew up on the 600-acre farm, where in addition to raising the sows, he, his father, and his mother Marry Anne oversee the raising of corn, soybeans, wheat, some beef cattle, and 65 acres of blueberries. The Johnson’s raise their pigs keeping Animal Welfare Approved standards, and the family likes having a stamp of approval from an organization not directly associated with the farm.
“We get the benefit of having a third party verify our practices, which are designed for the overall welfare of the pigs,” Caleb explains, “and The Pit’s patrons get the advantage of knowing the AWA label means very specific standards have been met.”
Meet Farmer Jack Ward
Jack Ward has a deep background in the practice of pasture-raised pork.
“I was raised up tending to pigs on the ground,” he declares. “My late father Jimmy raised pigs that way back when most everybody was doing it, and I know he would be tickled that we’re back to doing it that way on this farm, and especially that we’re following the AWA standards.”
Jack’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all farmed the family land near Seven Springs in Wayne County, and Ward’s son Daniel now represents the fifth generation on the farm. The operation, which encompasses approximately 400 acres, is devoted to raising corn, wheat, soybeans, tobacco and beef cattle, in addition to the care of around 25 sows and their litters.
”What we’re doing is really satisfying on a lot of levels,” reflects Ward. “It addresses the welfare of the pigs, it’s healthier for them, and it has to be healthier for the consumer, as well.”
