Founders Of Ri Ra Opening A New BBQ Restaurant In Portland

The founders of the popular Portland Irish bar Ri Ra have announced that they have leased the empty spot at 480 Congress Street and plan to open a new BBQ restaurant.

According to an article in the Press Herald, the new restaurant called Whole Hog will specialize in "authentic East North Carolina style” barbecue.

Ri Ra's co-founder Ciarán Sheehan, lives in Raleigh, North Carolina and Spencer Brantley, the company’s managing partner in Portland and the person who will run the new BBQ restaurant, was born and raised in North Carolina and lived there before moving to Portland.

A letter sent to the city council from the owners says in part that the menu of the new restaurant will be based around "barbecue traditions handed down through five generations of Eastern North Carolina pig cooking dating back hundreds of years." (My mouth is watering already.)

They hope to have the Whole Hog up and running by mid November.