Watts Grocery has been on Chapel Hill’s side of the Research Triangle long enough that most Raleigh residents treat it as someone else’s find. That’s a mistake. The drive down Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard takes about twenty-five minutes from downtown Raleigh, and the restaurant, which opened in 2007 inside a 1940s-era grocery building on West Club Boulevard in Durham, rewards the trip in ways that are hard to explain without sounding like you’re overselling it. So here are the plain facts.
The menu is Southern, but not performatively so. Chef Amy Tornquist has never chased trends. On a rainy Tuesday in March, the dining room runs at maybe half capacity — a few couples, a table of academics from Duke, a man eating alone at the bar with a book. The light is low and warm. The floors are old wood. There are no televisions. The whole room has the feeling of somewhere people go when they actually want to talk.
What you should order depends on the season. In late winter, the pimento cheese appetizer arrives thick and cold with crackers and a small side of something pickled — last visit it was bread-and-butter jalapeños. The shrimp and grits are a permanent fixture and worth their reputation: stone-ground grits, Anson Mills if memory serves, with andouille and a broth that sits just underneath the savory line without tipping into salt. If the pork shoulder is on as an entree, get it. If the catfish is on, also get it. The vegetable sides rotate with the market and are genuinely good — not afterthoughts.
Dessert is a serious consideration here. The chess pie is straightforward and correct. The banana pudding, when it appears, is the real thing: vanilla wafers that have gone soft in the custard overnight, not a foam or a reconstruction of one.
Dinner runs around $40 to $60 per person with a couple of drinks, which is not cheap but is fair for the quality and portion size. Lunch is lighter and easier on the wallet. The wine list is short and chosen with care; the cocktail program is small but competent. This is not a cocktail-bar restaurant. It’s a food restaurant.
Reservations are worth making on weekends, though a Tuesday or Wednesday evening you can usually walk in without trouble. The staff is attentive without hovering. Nobody refills your water glass every four minutes. The pacing feels like it was thought through.
The reason Watts Grocery holds up after nearly two decades is that it doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is: a neighborhood restaurant with a serious kitchen and a room that feels good to sit in. It’s not loud. It doesn’t have a curated playlist you’d recognize. The food is the point, and the food is very good.
If you’re coming from Raleigh, go on a weeknight when traffic on I-40 is manageable. Park on Club Boulevard — usually free and easy. Walk in without fanfare and order what sounds right to you. That’s all there is to it.
