PRIME SMOKEHOUSE

Ed Wiley III and Yalem Kiros stand outside the entrance to The Prime Smokehouse: Barbecue & Beyond at the Rocky Mount Mills.

The Prime Smokehouse: Barbecue & Beyond recently relocated to a much larger space at the Rocky Mount Mills after having been downtown along East Thomas Street since 2013.

The Prime Smokehouse is on the bottom floor of the main brick building of the Rocky Mount Mills, adjacent to the building’s lobby, on the south side of the Tar River.

Ed Wiley III, 61, and his wife, Yalem Kiros, 58, own the restaurant.

Wiley said that the location downtown was closed roughly a month before the new location began serving customers.

“I did a sneaky opening,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t want to be overwhelmed. And I knew we would be overwhelmed.

“I didn’t put it out to the universe. I didn’t even do a Facebook post. We’re not on the radio with it,” he said.

Wiley made clear the thinking was, “We’re just going to open it and let word of mouth sort of just create a trickle that would allow me to be able to take and train staff, to hire staff on a steady basis and to be able to get the rhythm of the restaurant.”

“You always need to establish the rhythm of a new place because if you open it when you’re trying to figure out all these moving pieces, then it will crash and burn,” he said.

Wiley said that rhythm is getting better.

As for how business has been so far, Wiley said, “It has been incredible. And I’m glad it hasn’t been any more incredible than it has been right now because there were a lot of pieces to this puzzle.”

Wiley said one piece of the puzzle that was filled is offering complimentary valet parking.

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The service is in place to reduce the distance of a customer’s walk to the restaurant due to there being a limited number of parking spaces immediately close to the main building of the Rocky Mount Mills.

As for the restaurant’s appearance, he said the feedback has been amazing.

“I mean, people didn’t really expect this when they walked in,” he said.

He said customers who have dined at The Prime Smokehouse in the past have known the establishment is going to be clean and serve good food.

Wiley said customers upon entering the new location are commenting along the lines of, “Oh my God, that’s in Rocky Mount.”

He credited his wife for the design of the interior of the relocated restaurant, including choosing the art to be placed on display and having every chair custom made.

“I mean, she has an amazing eye, amazing taste,” he said.

Kiros is originally from Ethiopia in eastern Africa. She grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, also in eastern Africa, and has lived in different parts of the world.

Kiros said some of her upbringing in Africa affected how the interior of the relocated restaurant looks.

“That is a beautiful sunset color in Africa, on the African savanna,” she said in reference to that continent’s tropical grassland with year-round warm temperatures.

In further commenting about her feelings about how the inside of the relocated restaurant looks, Kiros said, “It’s the image that expresses my, I suppose my inner self, which, I think, is like a beautiful sunset or sunrise.”

The interior of the relocated restaurant

Kim and Larry Drexler dine at The Prime Smokehouse: Barbecue & Beyond at the Rocky Mount Mills.

Co-owner Yalem Kiros shows a mural that in part pays tribute to her husband and restaurant co-owner Ed Wiley III’s late father and jazz musician Ed Wiley Jr., left, and Ed Wiley’s 87-year-old mother, Maye Wiley, at The Prime Smokehouse: Barbecue & Beyond.

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Patricia Caceres holds a plate of seafood gumbo ready to be served at The Prime Smokehouse: Barbecue & Beyond at the Rocky Mount Mills. Beverly Ringler prepares margarita flights at The Prime Smokehouse: Barbecue & Beyond at the Rocky Mount Mills.

also is decorated with art Kiros had at home after collecting the pieces over time.

“When I see an art piece that speaks to my heart, I insist that we should get it,” she said.

Additionally, the appearance of the interior of the relocated restaurant is a tribute to the father of Kiros’ husband and restaurant coowner Ed Wiley III. That is because a likeness of Wiley’s father, the late jazz musician Ed Wiley Jr., is shown on a mural.

The mural also includes the likeness of Ed Wiley III’s mother, Maye Wiley, who is 87.

Ed Wiley Jr., who was from Houston, participated in the Chitlin Circuit network of venues frequented by Black musicians when racial segregation codes were in place in the Deep South.

Ed Wiley Jr. during the days prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not believe he could trust eating anywhere where he had to go via the back door to receive service. As a result, Ed Wiley Jr. became a cook for his bandmates while on the road and Ed Wiley III learned from his father how to cook.

The mural also includes the likenesses of the late jazz musician Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, whom the international airport in New Orleans is named for, and the late jazz musician Thelonious Monk, who was born in Rocky Mount.

Wiley said that presently, The Prime Smokehouse has 25 employees, but he needs about 20 more employees.

Wiley emphasized his belief that this is a great place to work and that he is putting out the word he is seeking servers and kitchen staffers.

“I think that people will really love working in this environment,” Wiley said, noting the restaurant has a large smoker and a spacious kitchen. “I mean, they could hold a dance in my walk-in refrigerator.”

Customer Rita Wade said she loves the restaurant’s new location.

“I’m so proud of Yalem,” Wade said. “She has worked so hard and she’s part of our women’s networking group — and so we know her very well.”

More specifically about the relocated restaurant, Wade said, “I just think that it has the right vibe. It is fun and not what you would expect in Rocky Mount. Ultimately, I believe that these sorts of great spaces bring people together. So, it’s just a wonderful place.”

Another recent patron, Kay Courtney said, “I think it’s beautiful. I think it’s very good for the city, I really do.”

“I just think we need it,” Courtney said. “There’s really nowhere, really, that compares with this in Rocky Mount at all.”

John Lane and his wife, Christine, recently dined at the restaurant for the first time at the new location.

John Lane said the food and service were always good at the previous location.

“But everything is better,” John Lane said. “The location is better. The food is better. Everything is better. A-plus.”

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant also can be reached by phone at 252-972-7770.

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