A line had already formed from the door to around the corner by 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning at the grand opening of Dukes Bar-B-Que in Aiken, with a crowd undeterred by either the hour or the low 30s temperature.
The Southern cooking buffet restaurant welcomed customers teased after a recent soft opening and ribbon-cutting Dec. 14, and more than a year of planning and rebuilding.
“The response we’ve seen… is the culmination of a dream for not just myself, but my father who had it before me,” said owner Christian Judy, whose parents Rauly and Jan Judy opened their first Dukes location in Allendale in 1992.
The couple launched the Aiken location in January of 1996, operating it until retiring in 2015, when Christian purchased the family business.
Expansion was always an overarching goal, Christian Judy says, for both the building and the brand.
“Whenever he handed the keys over to me, we immediately started figuring out ‘okay, how do we make that dream a reality,’” he said, noting that, after multiple hamstrung attempts to open a new location, the COVID pandemic “hit the week before we were going to sign the paperwork.”
A fire devastated the building in 2022, forcing Judy to regroup again. The restaurant has been public about its progress in the intervening time. The new version of Duke’s still has a hearty selection that includes classic fixings such as pulled pork, green beans, hash and rice and macaroni and cheese.
There are some changes, however. Two separate lines now serve buffet and take-out customers. The buffet now sports a salad bar and improved drink machines. The 7,800-square-foot building now has larger restrooms and dining areas that can seat just more than 225 people.
The anticipation has done the Aiken staple well, with more than 250 customers dining within the first hour of the reopening.
While they did not expect to have to rebuild the current location, Judy says that the blueprint has always been to open more locations, with a new site in North Augusta among the eatery’s next ambitions.
“We’ve always grown with the expectation that we’re not going to grow unless we know we can do it well,” Judy said, noting plans also include eventually crossing the river to Georgia. “If we think that we’re going to completely fall flat on our face… we’ll pump the brakes. Expansion to make sure that everything we’ve done up to this point is still to our standards to our quality, and that we make sure we grow well.”
Dukes Bar-B-Que is located at 4248 Whiskey Road, in Aiken. To stay up-to-date on the restaurant, visit the Dukes Bar-B-Que Aiken Facebook page.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
