Pinehurst Labor Day Weekend Food Events in the Village
Most Labor Day weekends in Pinehurst follow a familiar script. You walk into the Village, you eat at the places you always eat at, and the Barbecue Festival sits on top of that routine like a hat. This year the script changed underneath the hat, and if you have been out of town for the summer you will notice it the first time you try to make a Sunday reservation.
Two things happened between May and August. Wiregrass opened at the Main Clubhouse, and the Carolina Dining Room closed for a full renovation. That combination shifted where breakfast happens, where dinner happens, and where the Resort is steering both members and locals during the busiest food weekend of the fall.
The Pinehurst Barbecue Festival is no longer just a festival dropped into the Village. It now arrives inside a Resort dining floor plan that has been rearranged for the rest of the year, and the smartest way for a resident to plan the weekend is to treat the two as one puzzle.
The festival runs Friday, September 4 through Sunday, September 6, its fourth year in the Village. The 2026 Pinehurst Barbecue Festival is staged in the Village of Pinehurst over Labor Day weekend, Friday, September 4th through Sunday, September 6th, presented by US Foods, Pinehurst Resort, Visit Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, Lin Hutaff's Pinehurst Realty Group and Our State magazine. The three signature events are ticketed separately, and they move around the Village rather than clustering in one spot.
| Day | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri Sept 4 | High on the Hog Gourmet Pitmaster Dinner | Pinehurst Fair Barn | 6:00–8:30 p.m. |
| Sat Sept 5 | "Q"-School Grilling Class | Moore County Airport | 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. |
| Sat Sept 5 | Bourbon & Bites | Carolina Hall, Carolina Hotel | 5:00–7:00 p.m. |
| Sun Sept 6 | Pitmaster Invitational | Village of Pinehurst | 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. |
Friday's dinner has a named pairing worth watching. The High on the Hog Gourmet Pitmaster Dinner brings together two of North Carolina's most celebrated pitmasters in Matthew Register of Southern Smoke Barbecue and Lewis Donald of Sweet Lew's BBQ. Saturday's grilling class is taught by Pitmaster Ron Simmons at the Moore County Airport, and children 12 and under are not permitted at the "Q" School Grilling Class for safety reasons. Sunday is the anchor. Seven of the Carolinas' finest barbecue pitmasters will craft select samples, and each early-bird and general admission ticket includes one sample and Southern side from each pitmaster, along with craft and domestic beer, duty free spirit sampling, and sauce and rub vendors from across the state.
If you have been to the Invitational before, one detail matters more than it used to: the Village will feel more crowded than in past years because the Resort is now actively directing more foot traffic through the Main Clubhouse for dinner.
The Main Clubhouse used to be a lunch stop for most locals. That changed on April 29. Wiregrass opened April 29, 2026 inside the Resort's Main Clubhouse as a warm and inviting farm-to-table restaurant, and dinner runs nightly from 5 to 9:30 p.m., the bar starts pouring at 4 p.m., the menu shifts with the seasons depending on which farmers they're working with across the state, and each week one farm gets a "farm of the week" feature under Executive Chef Geoff Kenney with Sous Chef Balla Camara backing him up. Dress code is smart-casual and it is open to the public, not just members.
The reason Wiregrass matters to residents has less to do with the menu and more to do with what closed a week later. The Carolina Dining Room closed on May 6 to begin a full renovation and is expected to reopen in late December. That is the room most locals mean when they say they are going to breakfast at the Resort. For seven months, it is gone.
Here is how the Resort has spread the pieces around while the CDR is under construction:
For festival weekend, that means the two rooms most likely to feel the crush are 1895 Grille on Saturday night and Wiregrass on Friday and Sunday. If you want to bracket the Pitmaster Invitational with a proper dinner, book Wiregrass for Saturday, not Sunday. Sunday's Village crowd will still be circulating at 6 p.m.
Tom Pashley, the Resort's President, framed the reshuffle less as a fix and more as a direction. "Pinehurst has experienced a remarkable period of evolution in recent years, not only on our golf courses, but across the entire Resort," Pashley said. "The same is true in our restaurants. Wiregrass represents that next chapter for us, and the flavors and ingredients brought to your table will be a wonderful representation of Pinehurst and our neighboring communities."
Read that against the calendar. Wiregrass in April. Carolina Dining Room closed in May. Barbecue Festival in September. Carolina Dining Room back in late December. The Resort is using 2026 to reset the dining room hierarchy, and Labor Day is the first big public test of the new arrangement.
A few things Village residents tend to forget between festivals.
Drive the golf cart. Golf cart transportation is encouraged to help cut down on vehicle traffic, and on Sunday golf cart parking is located in the pine straw area near the Village Green. If you live inside the Village loop, this is faster than parking a car.
Handicapped access has a specific plan. Patrons with handicapped parking placards are encouraged to park at the Carolina Hotel and shuttle to the Holly Inn during Sunday's Pitmaster Invitational. Worth mentioning to any older family members or guests joining you.
Bring the dog to Sunday only. Pets on leash are welcome during the Pitmaster Invitational, with the expectation that owners keep them under control at all times. Friday and Saturday's ticketed events are not the place for a leash.
Do not pack a cooler. No outside food or drink is allowed at any of the events, and all items are subject to search at all entry points.
Weather is not an out. The festival is rain or shine, though Friday's High on the Hog Dinner and Saturday's Bourbon & Bites are indoor events. Sunday is the one to watch the sky for.
Buy Sunday tickets in advance. Sampling from the seven pitmasters requires a Sampling Ticket, and a la carte or individual samples will not be sold. Early Entry buys you the 11 a.m. hour before general admission at noon.
One more piece of Village context that doubles as a good pre-festival Sunday: Sandhills Motoring Club runs its monthly Cars & Coffee event in the Village of Pinehurst on the first Sunday of each month, 9 to 11 a.m. September's falls on the same Sunday as the Pitmaster Invitational. If you are the kind of resident who likes a full day out, that is a natural on-ramp to the barbecue that starts two hours later.
In a normal year, a Pinehurst resident could plan the weekend around habits. Breakfast at the Carolina Dining Room, a walk through the Invitational, dinner somewhere in the Village. This year the middle of that sentence is intact and the two ends have moved. Breakfast is at the Deuce or PL8TE or Station 21. Dinner is at Wiregrass or 1895 Grille. The Carolina Dining Room will not be part of the equation again until the week after Christmas.
That is a small change on paper and a real one in practice. It is also the reason the Barbecue Festival will feel different this year even to people who have been to all three previous ones. The food weekend is not just louder. It is landing on a Village that has been quietly rearranging its kitchens for four months.
Weekends like this are the reason people move here, and they are also the reason people who already live here stay. If you are thinking about a change inside the Village, whether that is right-sizing, adding a place near family, or finally selling the house you bought before the Resort's dining map looked like this, Bill Sahadi knows the streets, the builders, and the quiet parts of Pinehurst that do not make the festival map. Let's Connect.
Whether you’re buying your first home, selling a trust property, or navigating a probate sale, my goal is always the same: to provide honest guidance, strong advocacy, and a smooth experience from beginning to end. Real estate is about people, not just properties. I would be honored to help you take your next step.
BILL SAHADI
1140 US HWY 1 SOUTH SOUTHERN PINES, NC 28387