Review: At Nephew's BBQ, ribs, sauce, and fried seafood, family style
Ken Houston Jr. inherited uncle Lee Smith's renowned sauce, and clientele that remembers the Fillmore original
The restaurant business has a notoriously high failure rate, but when Ken Houston Jr. opened his first place in Riverside last year, he already had a couple of things going for him most operators could only wish for.
The day Houston opened Nephew’s BBQ on Tonawanda Street across from Riverside Park, it already had a built-in audience. Houston inherited their hunger from Lee Smith, his uncle.
Lee’s Bar-b-que on Fillmore was the most prominent rib spot for decades on Buffalo’s East Side. Smith quit a truck-driving job to bet his fortune on selling spare ribs.
Through years of work and a distinctive sauce, Lee’s Bar-b-que was popular enough for Smith to open a bar, then a car wash. Houston worked in the kitchen as a high school student.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Four Bites to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.