In 2011, Eli was serving hickory smoked pork sandwiches topped with homemade BBQ sauce and coleslaw on Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. After a successful summer, he and his friend Drew cashed in their life savings to open a brick-and-mortar in Cincinnati’s East End.
Recognizable only by a sign with an outline of a pig, they developed a cult following based solely on word of mouth. With multiple locations, Eli’s BBQ continues to grow today by offering a genuine authenticity hard to find in our modern American landscape.
