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

A whole rack of Nephew’s BBQ spare ribs, hot.

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.