How Denzel Washington Inspired A Chicago South Side BBQ Joint To Reopen Its Doors 6 Years After Closing

Leon's first opened its doors in 1940 and helped define the Chicago barbecue landscape for decades. Despite its huge local influence though, the business was headed for the dustbin of history in 2017, after six years of closure — until a video of mega-famous actor Denzel Washington inspired the family behind it to open up for business once more.

Washington went viral with a clip of him meeting an elderly fan on the South Side of Chicago. Washington asked her where the nearest Leon's was, but she had to break the news to the "Gladiator" actor that Leon's had closed its doors years ago. 

Dr. Leon Finney Jr, a South Side pastor and son of Leon's founder (Leon Finney Sr.), was so moved by Washington's approval that he decided to revive the family business. A few months later, Leon's came back to Chicago, in the Woodlawn neighborhood near where Washington had searched for it.

Leon's made an impact on the Chicago food scene decades ago when it became one of the earliest local restaurants to sell rib tips. The difference between ribs and rib tips is in the name; rib tips are the fatty bits of meat and cartilage at the ends of a rack of pork ribs. Once considered a waste product from butchering, rib tips were inexpensive to source yet popular with customers. Other Chicago barbecue restaurants started doing the same.  

They became such a local institution that rib tips are also known as Chicago-style ribs. This regional delicacy along with their unique cooking method are some of the things distinguishing Chicago-style from the many regional types of barbecue. Rib tips are traditionally cooked in an aquarium smoker: a large, custom-made smoker featuring tempered glass and fueled by a wood or charcoal fire, with a large chimney jutting out through the roof.  

There is at least one other Leon's barbecue in Chicago, but only Leon's Best BBQ and Grill directly claims the Finney legacy.  And although the Woodlawn location closed some time after reopening, the other Leon's is still slow-smoking rib tips and more in Chicago's South Loop.