photograph by michael donahue
Co-owner NaMario Yancey
While pigging out, count the pig figurines at Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q. I tallied about 40 on three shelves along the walls at the restaurant. More porkers are depicted in paintings and stuffed animals. I asked NaMario Yancey, who owns the restaurant with his brother, Napoleon, about the porcine statues. He says there used to be more, but customers, employees, and the former owner wanted some. “There were boxes of them,” he says.
He hasn’t added any pig statues, but “customers have brought some in. Like the pig above the orange juice. That’s a recent pig.”
People might bring in pigs, but more people take them out — in the form of pork sandwiches, the restaurant’s signature menu item.
photograph by demario yancey
Mr. D. finishes his plate.
NaMario and Napoleon are recent owners, having purchased Three Little Pigs on October 7, 2022. Napoleon thought the place had the best breakfast, burgers, and barbecue, and the duo saw business potential. The extensive menu above the counter, lined with regular and decaf coffee pots, creamers, barbecue sauces, and lemon juice, includes more items than just pig.
In addition to the classic pork shoulder, customers can enjoy sandwiches made with bacon, sausage, city ham, egg, or bacon, lettuce, and tomato — a BLT. Burgers, hot dogs, chicken plates, chicken nachos, and catfish also are available.
As for biscuits, you can order them with gravy; with bacon, sausage, or country ham; with country ham with or without egg; with city ham with or without egg; or just with an egg.
If you’re hungrier, opt for one of the big breakfasts, including one called just that — the “Big Breakfast,” with three eggs, bacon or sausage, biscuits or toast, grits, and gravy.
photograph by michael donahue
Pig figurines are everywhere.
Former owner Charlie Robertson says Three Little Pigs originally was a Loeb’s barbecue restaurant when it opened in 1968. Jack Whitaker, who owned the nearby Yorkshire Launderette, bought it around 1982 and named it Three Little Pigs, Robertson says. Whitaker sold it to Robertson in 1989.
The Yanceys have been in the food business for more than two decades. They work along with family members at their dad’s concession business, Yancey’s Smoking Good Food, where they sell funnel cakes, corn dogs, barbecue nachos, turkey legs, chicken on a stick, and Polish sausage.
NaMario says he’d only eaten at Three Little Pigs twice before buying the business. He ordered a cheeseburger when he was taking a University of Memphis elective bowling class at Billy Hardwick’s All-Star Lanes, in the same shopping center at Quince and White Station.
The second time was when he and Napoleon visited the restaurant while considering purchasing the business. They were impressed by the employees, who remembered customers by name and knew what they were going to order as soon as they arrived.
And they loved the barbecue, which they both had for the first time that day. “It’s a high-quality, delicious sandwich,” NaMario says.
They keep the fat on the pork while it’s cooking. “That keeps it juicy and tender.” And, he says, “Some places give you a lot of fat on a sandwich. We keep it on, but take it off after cooking.”
NaMario was also taken by the breakfasts and the crowds enjoying them. “It was a great experience,” he says. “The police officers were coming in and the firefighters, and the early-morning line workers were in there. I took over the griddle from watching Mr. Charlie my first day.”
photograph by michael donahue
The banana pudding includes slices of bananas.
To date, NaMario hasn’t removed a single menu item, but he has added macaroni and cheese, barbecued chicken, barbecued chicken nachos, and smoked turkey legs. He believes it had been a long time since new items were added to the menu because the previous owner wanted to “keep it simple.”
The chicken is slow-smoked, NaMario says. “You can order it chopped or pulled. The sandwich is topped with slaw and your choice of Three Little Pigs original barbecue sauce or “Memphis Mild.”
They added cakes and pies to the dessert menu; the restaurant already offered banana pudding. The delicious concoction includes generous slices of banana, so it’s not just pudding. And it’s crammed into the container. No skimping here.
That famous trailer with the painting of the three little pigs in front of the restaurant houses their catering equipment. NaMario says their catering “went down during Covid. We are trying to push catering more, for corporate events, weddings, banquets, and all that.”
Three Little Pigs Bar-B-Q is at 5145 Quince Road.
