From Amazon truck driver to restaurateur: a Fort Worth home cooking favorite returns
Rarely does a restaurant move and get better.
But that might be the case with Lady & the Pit.
One of Texas’ rare woman-owned barbecue restaurants — but known more for vegetables, home cooking and desserts — Lady & the Pit has returned after a two-year absence, reopening in a converted fast-food stand at 5301 E. Lancaster Ave.
This makes co-owner Natasha Smith’s third location since Lady & the Pit opened nine years ago near South Padre Island and then moved to Fort Worth, originally into the Handley neighborhood.
Since that location closed two years ago, Smith has been driving an Amazon truck and hoping to reopen.
“I’m too old for that!” she said.
“This is my passion. This is what I love.”
This time, her restaurant with pitmaster Kenneth Barton (“I’m the Lady, and he’s the Pit”) is simpler.
There’s only seating for 24 people, and all the lunches and dinners come packed to go.
But word has gotten around east Fort Worth and west Arlington about this little stand where you can not only order brisket or smothered pork chops, but also choose from about 12 fresh vegetables and sides
Lots of places serve pulled pork or ribs with beans or potato salad.
But not everywhere has barbecue or smoked chicken with squash casserole, collards and pineapple cream pie.
Lady & the Pit is a hybrid barbecue-home cooking restaurant. There’s a full barbecue menu. But there’s also a daily writeboard list of platters called the “Lady Special.”
On a typical recent day, the specials were fried or smothered pork chops, meat loaf, spaghetti or hamburger steaks, plus a la carte items such as gumbo or smoked-chicken salad. (Chicken-fried steak is a special Wednesdays, fried catfish Fridays.)
The list of vegetables takes up five lines on the writeboard: broccoli-rice casserole, cucumber salad, cabbage, yams, baked beans and a half-dozen more.
On a recent day, young families sat sharing barbecue platters alongside single diners pecking delicately at a vegetable plate.
Lady & the Pit is known for three consistent winners:
▪ The collard greens are balanced and have snap. They’re not overly sweet, smoky or salty.
“Ask anyone about my collard greens,” Smith said.
▪ The squash casserole is classic, with lots of squash and without the sugary flavor found at other restaurants.
▪ Smith’s peach cobbler with a crumble crust is reminiscent of some of the best east Fort Worth restaurants from days gone by.
(But the pineapple cream pie has its own devoted following.)
Snith and Barton chose a new location on hallowed ground for east Fort Worth restaurants — near the former locations of both much-missed John Carter’s Place and recently closed Smokey’s Ribs, offering a few items similar to both.
The building went up 50 years ago as one of the city’s first Taco Bells on a corner that was earlier known for a drive-in.
Lady & the Pit is open for lunch and dinner Wednesdays through Sundays; 682-301-1421, facebook.com/LadyAndThePit.
This story was originally published July 26, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
