Porter’s Real Barbecue is leaving the Richland Parkway. They’re opening something bigger

Porter’s Real Barbecue will be leaving behind its first restaurant without wheels, but fans of its slow-cooked barbecue will not have to go far to get a plate.

Brothers Porter and Reed Kinney plan to leave the restaurant space at 705 The Parkway in Richland by the end of May to reopen the restaurant at 1080 George Washington Way.

The new restaurant will be larger, with plenty of parking, a reservable event room, a patio and a dedicated catering center, they announced on Facebook over the weekend.

It will be in a newly-built strip mall, across from Arby’s and next to the Hilton Homewood Suites along the Columbia River at the north end of Howard Amon Park.

Porter’s Real Barbecue has leased space at the The Parkway since 2015, when its owners graduated from a food truck parked at John Dam Plaza.

“We’ve been trying to come to an agreement for quite some time to stay, but to our disappointment that didn’t happen,” the restaurant posted on Facebook. “We’re moving forward in a way that we feel will be best for our family, employees and customers.”

Porter’s Real Barbecue restaurants also opened near the Kennewick Target store at 1022 N. Columbia Center Blvd. in early 2018 and at 7425 Sandifur Parkway in Pasco in November 2019.

It operates a commercial kitchen for its three restaurants on Terminal Drive in Richland.

The restaurant’s tender, smoky meat — it’s cooked over indirect heat up to 14 hours — and hearty sides have the stamp of approval of celebrity chef Guy Fieri.

He visited in December 2018 to feature Porter’s Real Barbecue on The Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”

This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 9:54 AM.