LC's Bar-B-Q
LC Richardson picked cotton in Mississippi as a boy and retired from Farmland Industries before he opened a barbecue counter beside a liquor store on Blue Parkway at 52.1
Why go
The pit is the argument. Richardson started in 1986 cooking off an outside smoker so small it fit in a barrel,
and around 1990 he took over the liquor store next door and put in a brick-lined pit big enough to leave room for only a handful of tables.1 His granddaughter Tausha Hammett rang up orders here from the age of 12 and studied business at Tennessee State so she would be ready to run it.1 Richardson died in February 2021 at 86, and within months she had the pit stripped down and rebuilt after she found grease coming out of crevices it had no business coming out of.1 She kept his rolling office chair turned sideways so nobody else sits in it.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the homemade pork sausage. Ryan Bernsten rates it the best in the city and says you can see the ground meat in the casing.2
- Order: burnt ends and ribs on the same Styrofoam plate, then take the squeeze bottle and mop the sauce with Wonder Bread.2
- Avoid: planning a long lunch. The pit takes the floor and the tables are few.1
What locals & experts say
- Ryan Bernsten, The Infatuation (18 September 2025), ranking it second of fourteen:
Their homemade pork sausage couldn't be more different from some of the processed franks elsewhere. These are hands-down the best sausages in town, and you can really taste the smoke and spices and see the finely ground chunks of meat in the casing.
2 - Tausha Hammett on the pit, to Gina Kaufmann, KCUR (2021):
Every time I walk in and somebody has taken pictures of that thing, talking about, 'Oh, I love the smell, I just want to sit here so I can leave and be able to smell the smoke later' - it is the moneymaker. If I could put two in there, I would.
1 - Anthony Bourdain, filming No Reservations here, as reported by KCUR:
This is more my style.
1
Good to know
- Where it sits: off Blue Parkway, on the way to the stadiums, which is how it became the game-day stop.1
- One room: a single location, and one smoker stacked three high carrying the whole load.1
Verdict
must-visit — LC Richardson opened this at 52 after a working life that started in a Mississippi cotton field, and the brick pit he put in around 1990 takes so much of the floor that only a handful of tables fit. Tausha Hammett grew up behind that counter, studied business so she could take it over properly, and stripped the pit down herself after he died in 2021. Ryan Bernsten ranked it second of fourteen last September and singles out the homemade pork sausage as the best in the city. Bourdain filmed here and said it was more his style, which is him naming a preference on camera, and the rung stands on Bernsten and on the pit.