Raleigh mourns death of Ole Time Barbecue owner Jerry Hart

Raleigh is mourning Jerry B. Hart, the longtime owner and founder of Ole Time Barbecue on Hillsborough Street, a place that became part of west Raleigh’s daily rhythm for generations of students, families and longtime residents. The restaurant’s Facebook post said Hart had died and asked people to share memories or photos of him, a request that underscored how closely his name was tied to the business at 6309 Hillsborough St.

A death notice posted May 13 and updated the next morning said service information would be shared later. That detail only sharpened the sense that this was more than the loss of a restaurant owner. For more than 32 years, Ole Time Barbecue has stood as one of Hillsborough Street’s familiar constants, the kind of place people measure their own Raleigh memories against.

That history reaches back at least a decade and a half before the current wave of tributes. A Tar Heel Traveler segment on May 9, 2018 said Ole Time BBQ would celebrate 25 years in business on May 10, 2018, marking a milestone that already placed the restaurant in the city’s civic memory. Visit Raleigh lists the business in West Raleigh and describes it as a roadside barbecue joint with a loyal customer base.

The menu helped make that loyalty stick. The Visit Raleigh feature described Eastern North Carolina vinegar-based barbecue, whole chickens, Brunswick stew and chicken and pastry, a lineup that fit the kind of neighborhood place where regulars return for birthdays, game days and weeknight meals. In a city whose food scene has grown and changed, Ole Time Barbecue remained linked to a particular era of Raleigh, when Hillsborough Street businesses became part of the backdrop for campus life and family routines.

The reaction from the local food community showed how wide Hart’s reach was. A local food post later said, “we said goodbye to Jerry Hart, founder of Ole Time Barbecue,” and called him “one of the most giving people I’ve ever met.” That description fit the role Hart came to play far beyond the pit and the counter. For Raleigh, his death marks the passing of a man whose work helped define one of the city’s most enduring restaurant names.