One of Fort Worth’s best barbecue and soul food restaurants has found a new home on the city’s east side.
The Lady and the Pit, which closed in 2019 after flourishing for three years in the Handley area, will reopen at 5301 East Lancaster Ave. Owners and business partners Natasha Smith and Kenneth Barton are hoping to open sometime this or next week.
The Fort Worth natives opened the original location of The Lady and the Pit in Port Isabel. Eventually, they moved back home, relocating the restaurant to an old Pizza Inn in the Handley area of the east side.
There, the two made names for themselves for excellent barbecue — smoked over mesquite in a custom-made smoker — and Southern and soul food classics, including fried pork chops, catfish, and chicken-fried steak, and sides such as collard greens and candied yams. Housemade desserts included pineapple cream pie and strawberry lemonade cake.
In 2017, Fort Worth Magazine named it one of the city’s best new restaurants.
Most of menu from the Handley location will make the jump, either as daily specials or permanent menu items. A handful of healthier dishes will be added, such as smoked salmon and smoked mahi mahi. “A lot of people are eating healthier these days,” Barton says. “We want to accommodate those diners, too.”
Smoked chicken salad, a popular item only available on certain days at the Handley location, will be a permanent fixture on the new menu. Smith says she’s also toying with the idea of adding stuffed turkey legs, which are becoming increasingly more popular in Fort Worth.
The barbecue menu will include chopped and sliced brisket, pulled pork, hot links, smoked chicken, bologna, and pork ribs.
Problems with the building led the two to close the Handley location in early 2019. Smith and Barton spent much of last year looking for a new spot but wanted to hold off until the pandemic began to subside.
“This one came up at just the right time, when things were beginning to open up,” Barton says of the building, originally a fast-food restaurant. “It needed a lot of work. We had to gut it and basically start from scratch. But it’s just about ready to go now.”
