Pig Beach BBQ brings dining option back to Waterfront Park building that sat vacant for 7 years

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Logs are loaded into the smoker at Pig Beach BBQ, the New York-based barbecue restaurant opening Thursday in a long-vacant building in Louisville's Waterfront Park.

The building — formerly home to Tumbleweed TexMex Grill and Doc’s Cantina — hasn't had a tenant in seven years. Starting Thursday, people in Louisville will again have a dining option here at the park.

"It has been a long process to get it going, but with the struggles of everything post-COVID, that is expected nowadays," said Matty Bourdreau, executive chef at Pig Beach BBQ. "We're just really excited to be at the starting gate, if you will."

Pig Beach BBQ opened in Brooklyn, New York in 2015 and has earned critical acclaim from the New York Times and the Food Network. It also made Southern Living's "Great American Barbecue Bucket List." The restaurant has two locations in New York City and another in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Partners Matt Abdoo, Shane McBride and Rob Shawger are award-winning pitmasters who have won dozens of championships.

This new Louisville location seats more than 500 people and has a grab-and-go area for those along the waterfront.

"A good friend of ours introduced us to this space and showed us that it was available," Abdoo said. "We walked the entire ground of the park and just saw everything and immediately just fell in love with it."

In addition to Pig Beach BBQ, Waterfront Park ark is working on its first of several expansions. Brough Brothers bourbon will turn another building along River Road into a distillery, nearby pickleball courts were added and possible a new apartment complex is in the future. But the landscape is tricky, because the park is on a floodplain unlike Jeffersonville or Clarksville across the Ohio River in Indiana.

Deborah Bilitski, executive director of Waterfront Park, said while the old Tumbleweed site was a "constant source of questions" from the community, the 85-acre park is always looking to improve and expand. She said safety around the park will always be a top priority with the help of Louisville Metro Police following shootings over the years at the Big Four Bridge and outside the nearby Louisville skate park.

"They are ensuring that we have a lot police presence, a positive police presence, here in the park," Bilitski said Wednesday. "We also have our own park security that we contract to be in the park after hours."

Pig Beach BBQ is subletting the building from a private leaser, but the property is owned by Waterfront Park. Its owners hope the new addition will be one the city embraces.

"We just want to have great hospitality," Bourdreau said. "We just want to treat people well and show them our version of great barbecue."

Pig Beach BBQ will have its grand opening Thursday morning and will be open seven days a week.

Pig Beach BBQ brings dining option back to Waterfront Park building that sat vacant for 7 years