Developers of Mission BBQ restaurant on South College Road near the University of North Carolina Wilmington plan a spring opening, “hopefully in April,” Mission BBQ co-owner Steve Newton said.
 
The 100-seat, 3,500-square-foot store, at 351 S. College Road in University Commons Shopping Center, is devoted to American heroes.
 
“We stop and salute the flag and sing the national anthem every day at noon to remind ourselves of the freedoms that we have in this country,” Newton said of the five-store, eastern U.S. restaurant chain scheduled to launch a total of 40 units by 2016’s end.
 
The message is served with “real Southern barbecue,” Newton said. “Everything is low and slow, homemade and hand-crafted. We don’t have a microwave or a freezer.”
 
Mission BBQ salutes veterans, active-duty troops, police, fire fighters and first-responders. In the days before opening to the public in Wilmington, the company will stage charity nights to introduce its brand and make donations, Newton said.
 
All proceeds from one invitation-only night will benefit a local firefighter charity, he said. The next invitation-only night will aid police. Those will be followed by an open-to-the-public night, with profits going to the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps injured military members, Newton said. The restaurant will close for two days after and then officially open at noon with a live version of the national anthem sung by a uniformed officer, he said.
 
“Our mission is to serve honor and support uniformed American heroes,” Newton said.
 
Mission BBQ’s director of operations for North Carolina is John Turner, who Newton said he met while he and Turner worked for Outback Steakhouse. Turner, an Ayden, N.C., native, had been working for Outback Steakhouse in Virginia before coming to Wilmington.
 
Newton has North Carolina ties, too, part of why he and his Mission BBQ business partner Bill Kraus chose Wilmington. While living in Fayetteville years ago, Newton traveled to Wilmington for business. He and his family have also vacationed at Wrightsville Beach. His pleasant memories about the area and its close proximity to military bases in Jacksonville and Fayetteville made Wilmington “a common sense choice” for the Mission BBQ brand, Newton said.