Back to the grill

WAGRAM —July 5, 2020, restaurants in North Carolina were still dealing with pandemic lockdowns. Service was delivery and take out only.

In Wagram, Boneyard Bar-B-Q Grill was pressing on, providing carryout meals for their devoted regulars.

Everything changed at 3:22 a.m. that day when a FedEx truck veered off the road and smashed into the restaurant on Main Street. The restaurant was empty, so no one was hurt, but the restaurant was severely damaged.

Owners George and Joyce McMillian had no other option than to shut down.

But, the doors of the restaurant will open again on July 16 at 11 a.m. for a grand reopening celebration.

“We are very anxious and very motivated, it’s a good feeling to be able to open again after such a long time with the restaurant being closed,” said George McMillian. His wife, Joyce, echoed his sentiment.

“When something major like that happens, you never know how long it’s going to take. But, I think it was the way it was supposed to happen. We are really looking forward to (reopening), super excited,” she said.

The grand reopening celebration is just that, a celebration of the restaurant still being there and there will be free food while it lasts. By the end of the month, the McMillians will announce regular hours for the restaurant.

If you were a regular at Boneyard, one of the first things you’ll notice when you walk in is the redesigned dining area. New artwork on the walls and a rotisserie machine.

“We’re hoping to have a different atmosphere altogether,” George McMillian said. “We want this to be a place where people can come and sit down, talk about the stressors of the day or just have a good meal and cold beverages.”

George McMillian is a native of Wagram and when he and his wife opened Boneyard, neither of them were in the food industry. They’re both college professors. George McMillian is retired from the Department of Justice and Joyce McMillian is also an attorney.

“Since the restaurant opened, my wife and I have taken some aggressive steps to learn how to cook and taken some cooking classes,” he said. Joyce McMillian said though they had both cooked for their families, cooking at a restaurant was different.

But what they’ve learned has earned the restaurant a great following. The McMillians said people are constantly asking them when the place would reopen. And they’ve built loyalty in the community because some of their original employees are coming back to work for the restaurant when it reopens.

“For the last two years, it’s been when are you going to reopen, especially when it started looking finished on the outside and they said we’re tired of driving to Laurinburg,” Joyce McMillian said.

“And we’re tired of driving to Raeford,” George McMillian interjected.

“Everybody is looking forward to it,” Joyce McMillian said.

The McMillians aren’t just offering a good meal, they’re hoping to inspire others. They want younger people from the area to realize that they can make a difference in their community by becoming business owners and providing a service that they’d like to see.

The grand reopening celebration is open to the public and will last until 3 p.m. on July 16.