Well, wrapping up tonight, another one of our region's iconic restaurants has closed its doors for the final time.

The Bar-B-Q King had been a landmark since 1959, but closed its doors permanently on November 1st.

"Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis joins us with the details and a look back at what made the Bar-B-Q King so unique.

- Well, it's never enjoyable to see one of the local iconic and nostalgic restaurants close up its kitchen.

And over the last few years here, we've seen plenty of it, Price's Chicken Coop, Green's Lunch, the Village Tavern, Oakhurst Grill, Zach's Hamburgers, that list unfortunately goes on, but this one hits particularly hard, especially for old school Charlotteans.

The Bar-B-Q King on Wilkinson Boulevard, famous for its drive up service, the car hops, barbecue fried chicken, onion rings, po boys and platters, it's been a staple on the west side for 66 years.

Wildly popular back in the '60s and the '70s with high schoolers, especially after Friday night football games, but despite its popularity, the land on which the business sits has been sold, which means the land will ultimately be redeveloped.

- The reaction of the customers has been tremendous.

We have seen faces that we haven't seen in last 10 years.

You know, might have moved away, they wanted to come for the very last time, and it's been a very emotional period for everybody, not just us that work here for so many years, but for the customers also that grew up here.

You know, there are second, third generation families that have come here.

- The city is growing.

You hate to lose these places.

We try to hang onto 'em as much as we can, and visit them, and support our local businesses in that regard, but you know, the clock is ticking.

- Now several years ago we featured Bar-B-Q King as part of our Carolina Cook documentary series.

Here's a look back at what made the Bar-B-Q King so unique.

(classical music) It opened nearly 60 years ago.

- It was just a gathering place.

- [Jason] Regulars have been coming in for years, decades, in fact.

- I've been coming to Bar-B-Q King 30 plus years.

- [Jason] They come for the food.

- The best barbecue in Charlotte.

- [Jason] The friendly service.

- Service has always been great - [Jason] And that feeling of yester-year.

- We drive over an hour to get here.

- It's just a nostalgic drive-in, that you don't see a lot of that around here anymore either.

- [Jason] No wonder this place has stood the test of time.

The Bar-B-Q King on Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte opened in 1959.

Here they've been dishing up everything from pulled pork to barbecue fried chicken, to homemade onion rings and hush puppies, and it's all brought to your car, old school drive-in style.

- You just don't see those types of things anymore.

- [Jason] Back in the '50s and '60s, it's how a lot of places operated.

- We had Westover Drive-in, we had town and country drive-in down here, and we just cut, you just cruising, cruising on Friday and Saturday night.

- [Jason] While others have closed up over the years, the Bar-B-Q King has survived, thanks to a few main reasons.

First and foremost, the food.

- I think that's one of the key ingredients to running a business for such a long time, is to have consistency of the food and the service.

- [Jason] Whether you came to the Bar-B-Q King back in the day or today, you'll notice that not much has changed, from the look of it outside to the call boxes where customers place orders, to the way the food is prepared.

- Whether it's a slaw, or the onion rings, or the totter sauce, or the homemade chili, it's the same recipes that have been here for many, many years from from really day one.

- [Jason] Everything here is made in-house with the exception of the French fries.

Today's menu looks almost identical to the one first used in 1959.

The barbecue plate, which sold back then for a dollar, is now 7.95.

And the barbecue chicken, which used to be just 80 cents, is now 6.95.

But what the Bar-B-Q King might be best known for, actually isn't their barbecue, it's their barbecue fried chicken.

- We take fried chicken, Southern fried chicken, and we dip it into our original barbecue sauce that we've been making since 1959.

- [Jason] The item was so unique and so popular that Guy Fieri featured it on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."

- People once they saw the show, people came from everywhere.

California, Alaska, they came from Las Vegas, everywhere to try the barbecue fried chicken.

- [Jason] While out-of-towners are certainly welcome, it's the regulars who keep this place going.

- I usually always get the mint barbecue sandwich with onion rings and a sundrop and a hot dog every single time.

- Well, the po boys and the barbecue plates is my favorites.

- They laugh at me here 'cause I only order two things, I either order the quarter fried chicken, white meat, and onion rings, or I order a sliced barbecue sandwich and onion rings.

Onion rings is a must and the Cherry lemon Sundrop, must have.

- Brothers George and Gus Karapanos, and their Uncle Steve own, manage and cook at the Bar-B-Q King along with help from Steve's wife, Maria and George's daughter, Amanda.

But they might not be the most popular people here.

- How y'all doing today?

- [Jason] That honor goes to the Bar-B-Q King's red-jacket wearing car hops.

Thomas Cureton has been serving customers curbside for 40 years, David Anthony, 35 years, that's a combined three quarters of a century.

These guys are just as consistent as the food itself.

- The car hops always, they're always good, they're glad to oblige you anything you need.

- You get paid every day, you're a curb guy.

You get to meet people, the pay is good, the people is good.

It is an addiction.

You just like adrenaline that you deal with on a daily basis.

- Because I like the job, I love the job.

Customers, I love them to death, they love me too.

- Thomas has been working here 35, 40 years.

He'll come up the car, brings me my extra ketchup that I need.

He knows what I like, and don't have to ask and just automatically get the service you want.

- People come out here, I'll walk out the door, serving somebody else and I ain't even seen them pull up yet, and they hollering my name and stuff, you know.

"We waiting on you, we waiting on you."

- [Jason] Some of the regulars here have been coming in for decades, many since childhood.

- That's what I grew up in.

You know, what I grew up coming to and it's just, every time I come back here it's like going back to my childhood, you know, it's kinda like, brings back memories.

My dad used to send me here every Friday night, pick up a to-go order for the family.

- [Jason] What's amazing about the Bar-B-Q King is it's achieved all its success with little to no advertising.

It's all been word of mouth, and apparently a lot of people have been doing a lot of talking over the years.

For "Caroline Impact," I'm Jason Terzis reporting.

- I just love a good walk down memory lane, but it's sad to see it close.

Driven by there a million times.

- Yeah, I would too, especially if I had a little extra time going to pick someone up at the airport, like, Hey, let's make a quick stop, pick up some onion rings or that sort of thing.

Yeah, that story that you just watched originally aired in the spring of 2017, crazy to think it's been eight years ago since we did that.

Now it's just the era that we're living in.

With the city and the surrounding area continuing to grow, land getting more and more valuable, being scooped up by developers, but the memories, the nostalgia, all that will endure for generations.