The interior of The Improper Pig’s new Fort Mill location. Photo courtesy.

The Improper Pig, a restaurant by the owners of Pizza Peel that fuses Asian cuisine and barbecue, will open a new location in Fort Mill. According to co-owner Will Bigham, the restaurant will soon get its certificate of occupancy and finish staff training. If all progresses on schedule, the restaurant should be open in early December.

The restaurant is in the same building as Amor Artis Brewing, which opened in September on Fort Mill’s Main Street. Improper Pig will seat just under 100 diners, and will also deliver food to guests at the brewery.

The front dining room of the new Improper Pig in Fort Mill. Photo courtesy.

This is the first expansion for Improper Pig, which opened in late 2014 in Cotswold. A high school friend of Bigham’s represents property in Fort Mill, and suggested the downtown area as a growing economy ripe for retail. With three locations of Pizza Peel already open, Bigham decided to try growing The Improper Pig there.

“We wanted to do another Pig and we wanted to switch it up a little bit,” Bigham says. They’ve added a wood-fired grill at this location, which will mean an expanded menu that includes steaks in addition to the restaurant’s playful fusion of Asian flavors and Southern barbecue.

The building housing both the restaurant and brewery was built around 1905, and as they took down the drywall during renovations, crews uncovered a Pepsi ad from the early 1900s painted on the brick wall underneath it. The ad, which appears in photographs of the town, will be a focal point of the restaurant’s decor.

The new Pig will also host brunch, and once everything is running smoothly, brunch and new menu items will be adapted to the original location in Cotswold Village. The menus for each location will continue to be overseen by Bigham and Darius Amidi, with Michael Raimondo managing the kitchen in Fort Mill.

Another location of The Improper Pig will open in the Rea Farms development, where 485 meets Providence Road, in the early part of next year. —Kristen Wile