LAURINBURG — After pushing through a series of setbacks on top of a pandemic over the past three years, the Railroad Bar and Grill is ready to open.
The new restaurant at 102 S. Main St. in downtown Laurinburg will open at 4 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, allowing the community to look at the numerous renovations done to the 100-year-old building.
The building is one of two in downtown Laurinburg owned by the Economic Development Corporation — the other being the Treasure City Pawn building. The two were purchased in 2019 as the EDC felt no one else would buy or repair the buildings. The EDC planned to eventually lease-to-own the buildings to prospective businesses.
The restaurant is the creation of Boyd McLaurin and Todd Stubbs, with McLaurin saying it was by chance that it all came about.
“Mark Ward approached me at the Optimist Fish Fry in 2019 when we were working together and said, ‘I’d love to have a restaurant downtown if you know anyone who might be interested,’” said McLaurin. “I told him it was funny because I’d always wanted to be in the restaurant business. But I had no background in the restaurant business, I’m in the timber business.”
McLaurin reached out to Stubbs, who was just in the restaurant business himself, and despite Stubbs saying no at first, after seeing the building he agreed to partner on the project.
“There wasn’t a lot here, but I just visualized this, what you see now,” McLaurin said. “I really did see this and I could see the need for downtown to have a restaurant. My goal was to put something downtown to give back to the city and the county for the community to come in, sit and eat.”
The inside of the building features the old brick wall and original rafters in the ceiling. All the artwork done inside was also done by locals. ShirtTales designed the logo and Stuart Carmichael did all the painting and murals.
“We have had continuous setbacks through this entire project,” McLaurin said. “We paused for about six months, though looking back the EDC and myself agree we shouldn’t have done that. We didn’t know how the restaurant business was going to go with COVID and the unknowns. We started moving forward again and brought it almost to completion in July or August of 2020 thinking we’d be ready to go in 2021, then it spilled into ‘22.”
McLaurin said there were issues with inspections because of how old the building was but despite everything they continued the course.
“In roughly September we met Ross Webb, who currently owns two restaurants in Charleston,” McLaurin said. “We reached an agreement with him to come up, open us, and get it started … he created the menu, which is a Charleston-style menu.
Webb will be bringing staff up from his kitchens, including his sous-chef Titus Hodges, and wants to make sure everything is run correctly.
“I was born and raised in the restaurant industry since my parents had a little sandwich shop,” Webb said. “I’ve had the restaurants in Charleston for 10 years, next month … we want to make this right and we want to train people right. We want to make this right. They’ve worked so hard on this building I want to do the same in the kitchen.”
McLaurin hopes people will come to know the restaurant as a family-friendly place where they can come for fellowship with their neighbors.
“I’m so excited to get some smiling faces in seats and hopefully we’ll see those faces return,” McLaurin said.
For the time being, McLaurin said the restaurant will be open for dinner, except for Sunday brunch. Though lunch hours will be added in the future.
He added he’s extremely thankful to have great people who will be working the restaurant with Webb including Lisa Price, Jennifer Mitchell and Sandy Jacobs.
“I just want Mark Ward and the EDC Board to know how much Todd and I appreciate this opportunity to open this restaurant to give back to the city and county,” McLaurin said. “And I also want to add in there a special thank you to my wife Sharlene and Todd’s wife Tracie.”
For information and updates on the Railroad Bar and Grill check out its Facebook or website at railroadbarandgrill.com.
Katelin Gandee can be reached at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.