Pig-N-Chik BBQ Opens on Briarcliff

For 27 years, the lone shack that occupies the corner of Clifton and Briarcliff Roads was home to Dusty’s Barbecue. Area residents sought refuge from the intersection’s infamous traffic jams at the neighborhood barbecue joint before it closed its doors in 2009. 

Now, Jim Graddy and Bill Marrack aim to bring barbecue back to the Clifton Corridor. 

The duo opened Pig-N-Chik Barbecue in Dusty’s old haunts last week.  Graddy and Marrack already own two Pig-N-Chik locations, one on Roswell Road and another on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. 

Graddy said they hope to pick up where Dusty’s left off with the latest expansion of their barbecue empire. 

“It looks like a barbecue restaurant.  It should be a barbecue restaurant,” he said of the new location.  “We’re going to take barbecue to the next level here.”  

The restaurant’s general manager, Rick Cooper agreed. 

“This place was made for barbecue,” he said.  “We just want to revive the ghost of Dusty and carry on the great barbecue tradition.” 

If it sounds like the folks at Pig-N-Chik take their barbecue seriously, it’s because they do.

The restaurant’s meats are slow cooked overnight for a minimum of thirteen hours to provide for optimal tenderness. Every table is neatly lined with the eatery’s specialty hot Carolina, vinegar mustard, and sweet barbecue sauces.  And of course, the requisite ice cold beer is served up to wash down any number of finger-licking barbecue classics. 

Pig-N-Chik’s management team hopes that its proximity to traffic and Emory University will help attract business. 

“It’s a great location,” Graddy said.  “We’ve been looking in this area for some time.”

Graddy added that he and Marrack plan to appeal to Emory students by pressing the flesh and reaching out to them on a one-on-one basis. 

“We do a lot of grassroots stuff,” he said. “We like to get out and meet people.” 

An enormous sign next to the restaurant is evidence of the team’s early efforts to appeal to the rush hour masses.  It stands several stories high and reads, “Finally We Are Open” in bold black print.  

So, the next time you are convinced that traffic will render you endlessly stuck at the juncture of Briarcliff and Clifton Roads, remember that you are no longer entirely helpless.  Barbecue has returned to this notorious intersection.