I noticed a pink hand-written sign that read: “Smoked turkey legs & Bar-B-Q chicken” when I stopped by Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q recently to buy some banana pudding.
A grilled barbecued chicken option is exciting news to me. I love pork, but I love other options, too. So, I returned and ordered a barbecued chicken sandwich and a smoked turkey leg. When I finished, I felt like I do after I eat Thanksgiving dinner. Very full and very happy.
I called NaMario Yancey, who, along with his brother, Napoleon Yancey III, own Three Little Pigs, to ask about the new items. That’s when he told me they also added macaroni and cheese to the menu. As far as he knows, this is the first time Three Little Pigs has sold barbecued chicken, smoked turkey legs, and macaroni and cheese.
NaMario had the idea to sell barbecued chicken when he bought the iconic restaurant at 5145 Quince Road in Quince Station Shopping Center in October, 2022.
His dad, Napoleon Yancey Jr., came up with the marinated chicken recipe a while back for the family concession business, Yancey’s Smoking Good Food.
The chicken is slow smoked, he says. You can order it chopped or pulled. The sandwich is topped with slaw and your choice (I chose both) of Three Little Pigs original barbecue sauce or “Memphis Mild.”
“Memphis Mild is the combination of the tomato-based sauce and the vinegar sauce,” NaMario says. “Plus, it has the sweet and the heat. It has some of everything in it. Memphis Mild pairs better with the chicken.”
I’m not sure I knew this, but, NaMario tells me, “The original sauce is Loeb’s barbecue sauce. This used to be a Loeb’s Bar-B-Q.”
I ordered the pulled chicken sandwich with both sauces on the side. I dipped parts of the sandwich in the two sauces — like I dip sushi in hot oil, eel sauce, and spicy mayo at Sakura Japanese Restaurant.
You can order the sandwich, the barbecued chicken plate with two sides, and the barbecued chicken nachos. “Everything you can get with pork you can get with chicken,” NaMario says.
As for the turkey leg, NaMario says, “They just come as is. Or you can make it a plate and add two sides.”
The turkey legs are slow smoked and come with either or both barbecue sauces. The leg I had actually tasted like turkey, which doesn’t always happen with turkey legs. And these are big legs.
I tried the macaroni and cheese on a later visit. I loved it. “I make it personally myself,” NaMario says. “I’m the only one who makes it.”
He makes it from “an old family recipe. From my great aunt, Aunt Lou. It’s really hard to describe. Once you taste it, any other one won’t compare. And I’m not saying that to brag or anything.”
NaMario used to call his aunt, “Momma Lou,” and request her macaroni and cheese instead of a cake on his birthday. “If I could pick, it was macaroni and cheese.” But his aunt also made him a cake. A yellow cake with chocolate frosting, to be exact.
Customers also can order “mac and cheese bowls” with pork or chicken and the sauces.
NaMario says he has gotten “great reviews” from customers, including those living in the neighborhood, about his macaroni and cheese.
Since he came aboard Three Little Pigs, NaMario has added desserts, which include cakes and, occasionally, cinnamon rolls. In a couple of weeks, he’s going to add sweet potato pie, pound cake, and butter cookies. And, of course, they still sell their home-made banana pudding, which is made the way it’s been made way before NaMario became an owner.
If the interior at Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q looks different, that’s because NaMario gave the restaurant a new look. He repainted the restaurant walls, which used to be peach pink. Now, NaMario says, the color scheme is “Tiger blue and gray.”