Des Moines BBQ restaurant leans on family legacy despite Valley West Mall's uncertain future

"Step right up, 'The Price is Right!'"

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.

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.

Barker, 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.

Last November, the barbecue restaurant opened next to the now-shuttered sandwich stop D.R. Deli. Lines of customers gather to see Leachmon Jr. in a work uniform of boxy Carhartt T-shirts, listen to his one-liners, and order the family's smothered racks of ribs.

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.

"I've noticed since we've been here, people come in just for us, so that brings them to the mall. It gives them a reason to shop the other stores too," Trecia Leachmon, 52, said.

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.

"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. said.

'I'm going to carry on this name'

Barbecue runs deep in the Leachmon family bloodline. Frank Sr. 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. The family revived the restaurant name when they opened up in Valley West last year.

In 2004, Leachmon Jr. 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.

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“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. “That’s when I bought my first food truck. Me and my father was going to run it, but then he passed away with cancer.”

Frank Leachmon 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.

The family of three later reopened the food truck, which sat at Delaware Avenue and Easton Boulevard, while Frank Sr. became a barbecue-slinging mainstay during sporting events at Drake University in the 2010s, where he is still well-known today.

"Then, I got my son involved," Leachmon Jr. said.

Sacrifice, patience and third-generation pit mastery

During 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. The food truck sat on East University Avenue, across from the Iowa State Fairgrounds until opening at Valley West Mall in November 2022.

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.

"Sacrifice, patience, consistency and not to stress over anything," Leachmon III, 30, said. "Those are the main things I've learned besides the cooking part, which really comes easy."

"He taught me! There's some stuff I learned from him, like brisket," Leachmon Jr. said. "Me and brisket used to fight all the time, so he made me step my game up with the brisket. I'm a professional with it now."

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Barbecue runs in their bones. Leachmon Jr. uses the "ol' taste and see" method. The trio has muscle-memorized family recipes by heart, using plastic gloves to craft glazed gluttony by hand. Their fingers dance as they fling each dash of homemade seasoning onto racks of ribs.

The Leachmons have a dedicated customer base ranging from followers of the Des Moines Food Lovers' Facebook page with its 80,000 members, where the family business receives a near-weekly shoutout, to mall walkers who use the front counter as a pit stop for catfish, fruit cobbler and cornbread.

"Working with my father was really, really wonderful, so it's something I wanted to do while he was still living but he never got the chance to so. (I) just kept going at it," Leachmon Jr. said.

When will the timing be right for Frank Jr.'s sauce to appear on supermarket shelves across Iowa?

"All she needs to do is stop watching 'All My Children' and 'As the World Turns,'" he said with a smirk, then an eye roll-inducing response from Trecia.

"OK, Frank," she said followed by a smile.

Until the walls 'come on down!'

On the first Saturday in June, Leachmon Jr. stood behind the front counter with his palms pressed against its top and taught his granddaughter La Nyah "Ny Ny" Leachmon how to work the cash register.

Shortly before closing time, she pressed pennies together like cymbals as her grandfather traded his hellos with customers. A first-time Leachmon’s customer walked up and asked about the catfish.

“One piece is about $10,” Leachmon Jr. said back.

“I just wanted to try it. Heard it was good on Facebook, ya know? Thank you, thank you, alrighty — them restrooms still working back there?” he said.

“Yep, yep — there’s a restroom right there,” Leachmon Jr. replied.

“Been a long time since I’ve been in this mall,” the customer said.

After the customer's catfish was ready, Ny Ny walked to the back of the stand past the yellow tile walls and Leachmon Jr. followed behind.

"Alright, I've got to get back to work," Leachmon Jr. said back.

The king of the Valley West food court will be there unless rubble surrounds him and the mall's walls "come on down!" like Bob Barker said in "The Price is Right." Standing at the grill, throwing shade at Trecia's soap operas.

When the future is more certain, he’ll “go from there.”

Leachmon's Pit Stop BBQ

Location: Valley West Mall first floor food court; 1551 Valley West Drive, West Des Moines

Contact: 515-305-9048 or lpitstopbbq.com

Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.

Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram or reach out at jstahl@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: A Des Moines BBQ restaurant is bringing attention to Valley West Mall