NC: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Restaurant Now Open at RDU

March 25–MORRISVILLE — Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Whisky River restaurant has opened in Terminal 2 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, bringing with it a permanent live music stage.

The restaurant’s menu mirrors the ones at Whisky River in Uptown Charlotte and at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, including BBQ brisket, a burger topped with roasted pork and “dirty” tots made with pulled pork, chipotle queso, green onion and Earnhardt’s own BBQ sauce.

And as at Charlotte’s airport, the Whisky River at RDU has a small stage for what the restaurant says will be regular performances.

The original Whisky River at the EpiCentre in downtown Charlotte opened in 2008, followed by the airport location in 2015. Earnhardt’s partner in both airport restaurants is HMSHost, which already operates most of the eateries in both terminals at RDU.

Earnhardt, 43, retired from NASCAR racing last fall, ending a career that began when he was 17 and earned him NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award 15 years in a row.

Whisky River opened Saturday near Gate D14 at the south end of Terminal 2, a part of the airport that has grown busier as airlines have expanded at RDU. It’s near a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and the airport’s fifth Starbucks, which became the first retail to open at the end of Concourse D last fall.

The restaurant is part of an overhaul of retail at RDU that includes 15 new shops opening this year, including a Vineyard Vines, a TripAdvisor travel store and a duty free shop. A new shop called Root and Branch, which will sell North Carolina products, is a joint venture between a Las Vegas-based retailer and two local ones: Deco Raleigh and Wilmington’s Edge of Urge.

Some of the new shops and restaurants are replacing old ones, but others are moving in to new spaces that have been hidden behind blank walls at the airport until now.

Richard Stradling: 919-829-4739, @RStradling

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