![]() Their fingers dance as they fling each dash of homemade seasoning onto racks of ribs. The trio has muscle-memorized family recipes by heart, using plastic gloves to craft glazed gluttony by hand. cities to eat smoked meatsīarbecue runs in their bones. More: Want great barbecue? A new survey ranks Des Moines in the top 20 U.S. "Me and brisket used to fight all the time, so he made me step my game up with the brisket. ![]() "He taught me! There's some stuff I learned from him, like brisket," Leachmon Jr. ![]() "Those are the main things I've learned besides the cooking part, which really comes easy." "Sacrifice, patience, consistency and not to stress over anything," Leachmon III, 30, said. Now, in the mall food court, Franky can be found behind the grill and in front of customers as the barbecue baton is passed onto him in the coming years so he can carry on the family legacy. The food truck sat on East University Avenue, across from the Iowa State Fairgrounds until opening at Valley West Mall in November 2022. Sacrifice, patience and third-generation pit masteryĭuring his freshman year at Roosevelt High School, Franky's dad taught him how to run track - and chase a dream of upholding a family legacy. "Then, I got my son involved," Leachmon Jr. became a barbecue-slinging mainstay during sporting events at Drake University in the 2010s, where he is still well-known today. The family of three later reopened the food truck, which sat at Delaware Avenue and Easton Boulevard, while Frank Sr. died of prostate cancer in 2005. By 2008, the couple opened a restaurant on Second Avenue and York Street near North High School. The spot shuttered in 2008 after the Des Moines River breached its levy and flooded the Birdland Park neighborhood north of downtown. Me and my father was going to run it, but then he passed away with cancer.”įrank Leachmon Sr. “That’s when I bought my first food truck. “So, how I got back into it is one day I woke up and said, ‘I’m going to carry on this name,'” Leachmon Jr., 54, said. More: Former 'American Idol' contestant opens Liberian and barbecue restaurant near Drake traded in his motorcycle for cash and used the funds to open his first food truck, self-built with metal, on Kingman Boulevard near Roosevelt High School. The family revived the restaurant name when they opened up in Valley West last year. opened a Des Moines spot called Pit Stop BBQ back in the early 1970s, where he taught his son how to grill, season and tend to customers like family. 'I'm going to carry on this name'īarbecue runs deep in the Leachmon family bloodline. "I told my customers, I said, 'I'll be here until they tear the mall down around me,' then we'll go from there," Leachmon Jr. In life and with barbecue, timing means everything to the patriarch, whether it is how to slow smoke, season and smother ribs - or when to leave the West Des Moines shopping center, whose future is uncertain. It gives them a reason to shop the other stores too," Trecia Leachmon, 52, said. "I've noticed since we've been here, people come in just for us, so that brings them to the mall. He is joined weekly by the family's pitmaster-in-waiting, Frank "Franky" Leachmon III, and Franky's mother, Trecia, who keeps the books and crafts signature sides while balancing her nonprofit organization Battle for Breast after beating cancer herself five years back. ![]() in a work uniform of boxy Carhartt T-shirts, listen to his one-liners, and order the family's smothered racks of ribs. Lines of customers gather to see Leachmon Jr. Last November, the barbecue restaurant opened next to the now-shuttered sandwich stop D.R. Pauses were followed by pure silence from the pair of Gen-Zers, with no understanding of the reference, who had hopes of snagging homestyle barbecue in the shopping center's first-floor food court.īarker, the longest-running host of the longest-running game show in American history, "The Price is Right," retired in 2007, during the West Des Moines mall's heyday, before the big box stores bid farewell and the shopping center's foreclosure last October. Frank Leachmon Jr.'s baritone voice broke into an impression of the legendary TV game show host Bob Barker as a college-aged couple strolled up slowly to the rounded counter of Leachmon's Pit Stop BBQ, a Valley West Mall food stand.
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