FITCHBURG — Years of experience in the food industry and a passion for smoking meat to perfection have led Liz Davis to open her own barbecue joint in the city, The Pig in Flames, which served its first customer just last week.
When the small shop at 96 Franklin Road opened, Davis didn’t know what to expect; but now says the response has been so overwhelming that the restaurant runs out of smoked meat before each day is done.
“It’s been so much busier than expected,” she said. “We thought we’d feed a couple of people a day for lunch and see how it goes and grow over time.”
The volume of customers coming in to the Pig in Flames has been so high that Davis expects to have to buy a second smoker to keep up with the demand.
Davis said people trying the food for the first time have told her there’s nothing like it in the city. Others have told her it reminds them of the meals they used to have down south, which was a huge compliment to her.
“It’s good to know that I’m giving a little bit of authenticity to the people who are used to food like this,” said Davis.
Davis describes her food as a mix between southern home-cooking and suya barbecue, a type of street food popular in West Africa.
The most popular dish they’ve served so far? Davis says it’s hands down the collard greens and macaroni and cheese.
Davis draws a majority of her culinary inspiration from the food she grew up with in Nigeria and Miami, Florida.
Like most folks who enjoy getting creative in the kitchen, Davis learned much of what she now knows from her Grandmother, Senave.
“It was her that really got me involved in food,” she said. “She’d always have me in the kitchen showing me how to cut vegetables, how to smoke meat, and just learning by her side.”
Davis was born in Nigeria and came to the country when she was just 6-years-old, eventually settling down with her family in Baltimore, Maryland.
It was not long before they moved to south Florida, which is where Davis says she learned the ins and outs of the food world.
“That’s where I got accustomed to barbecue and south-styled food,” said Davis. “I’ve been in the food industry since I was 15 working at a place called Miami subs.”
She came to the area after her father became a professor at Fitchburg State University, and Davis has been here since.
Davis graduated college from UMass Boston with a degree in communications but later began working in local restaurants, slowly making her way through the ranks.
After starting off as a kitchen manager, and working her way up to assistant general manager, Davis says she’s spent the last 10 years as the general manager of several restaurants.
“I felt that I had enough experience after running all these different restaurants that I can probably do it on my own,” she said.
Despite the uncertainty of the venture, Davis knows that she’s not going it alone.Her brother, Ses Nomishan, who also has been working in restaurants all his life, helps make the sauces for the start of every day. “He calls himself the Sauce Boss,” she said.
