LAKE PLACID — Two local chefs want to bring their Southern roots to Lake Placid with a new barbecue restaurant at the corner of Whiteface Inn Lane and Saranac Avenue.

Jonathan and Meghan Gravatt appeared before the Lake Placid-North Elba Review Board last week to begin the review process for West Shore BBQ, a grab-and-go barbecue joint that would operate seasonally and for major events, like the 2023 Winter World University Games. The Gravatts have already leased the former Speedy Spa building for the restaurant. The review board will hold a public hearing for West Shore at its regularly scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. on March 2.

The Gravatts work as private chefs during the winter and run their catering company, Solitude Catering, the rest of the year. Jonathan and Meghan grew up in Florida, but they didn’t meet until after they moved to Lake Placid. Meghan moved to the area with her family when she was a teenager, and Jonathan said he became a Lake Placidian when he traveled here on a road trip and never went home. Now, they want to bring a piece of the South to the North Country.

“There’s always been this desire, we both grew up with barbecue,” Jonathan said. “It’s in our blood, it’s what we do — every family function, every Sunday after church, was always barbecue.”

The Gravatts have been dreaming up West Shore for years. Jonathan said they found two Texas smokers for the restaurant years ago, and it took three years for the company to make them due to pandemic-related supply shortages. The Gravatts also started buying wood for the smokers three years ago, and they’ve upped their hardwood inventory with each passing year. Jonathan said their food would be barbecued with wood, and that their two smokers are “beautiful pieces of art.”

West Shore’s menu would be “Whole Foods meets barbecue,” Jonathan said, combining a Memphis-Texas-Florida style of barbecue with fresh foods. The meat and sides menu options would feature local vegetables in West Shore’s cole slaw, smoked cauliflower and potatoes alongside barbecue staples like brisket and ribs. Jonathan said the menu would have a “huge” vegetarian component, and one of the smokers will never touch pork. The Gravatts want to serve an assortment of people with different dietary restrictions.

“There will be something for everybody,” he said.

If the review board approves West Shore, Jonathan said they expect to be up and running by this summer.