Beloved rotisserie chicken brand takes over iconic Raleigh restaurant building

One of the Triangle’s most popular restaurants just opened a new location near downtown Raleigh.

The Peruvian chicken brand Alpaca unveiled its latest Raleigh restaurant last month, opening on Hillsborough Street near the NC State campus. This is Alpaca’s 16th location with more on the way.

Beloved for its smoky, charcoal-roasted rotisserie chicken, Alpaca has exploded in the last few years from a handful of locations in Durham and Raleigh to a statewide favorite, expanding to Sanford and Fayetteville and Wilmington.

With the new Raleigh location, Alpaca opens its closest restaurant yet to downtown Raleigh, setting up at the corner of Hillsborough Street and Park Avenue. This is the first Alpaca location inside the Raleigh Beltline.

The location is best known as the former Raleigh IHOP, a distinctive and iconic A-frame building that’s been vacant since 2016, when the famous breakfast spot closed.

Thankfully the bones of the restaurant have been preserved, with the new Alpaca making use of the high, vaulted ceilings to display images of Peru and a historic black and white photo of the former International House of Pancakes.

The chicken sandwich brand born in the Triangle has closed two of its three locations