Coming up in Chicago’s culinary scene, chef Dominique Leach rarely saw people who looked like her in the fine dining kitchens she trained and worked in.
Leach, a Black queer woman, learned French cooking technique and specialized in Italian fare working in fine-dining institutions like Spiaggia, the Four Seasons Hotel and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Leach found some of her greatest supporters as a chef and entrepreneur in these spaces, but she was often the only Black lesbian in them, she told Windy City Times. That lack of representation inspired Leach to open her own restaurant, Lexington Betty Smokehouse, located at 756 E. 111th St. in the Pullman neighborhood.
“There was a shadow, where my culture and community [were], that was just not getting the appropriate attention and representation,” Leach said. “So I decided to take a step to the side and do something new that spoke to my culture and represented who I am a little more—and that was barbecue.”
Leach saved her money to buy a food truck in 2017. But that was the start of her journey as an entrepreneur.
She named the business Lexington Betty Smokehouse after her grandmother, Betty King, who’s from Lexington, Mississippi and turns 89 years old this May.
Leach revisited recipes from her family gatherings, which featured barbecue and soulful side dishes. She perfected her mastery of the dishes for her new business, and her familial ties continue to inspire her as a business woman.
“The concept is all about family culture and celebration,” Leach said. “And putting my grandma’s name on it means so much emotionally for me that it drives my passion to make this work and be successful.”
Several years later, Lexington Betty Smokehouse is thriving in a 2,600-square-foot brick-and-mortar food hall, and Leach is a nationally recognized pit master who has appeared regularly on the Food Network.
Leach is also among nearly a dozen Black-owned business owners featured in the Illinois Office of Tourism’s Black History Month webpage as part of its Illinois Made Program, which launched in 2016 as an initiative encouraging travelers to support local businesses while exploring the state.
“I would encourage other Black women entrepreneurs to take advantage of this program, because we’re in no position to turn down any marketing,” Leach said. “Since I joined, opportunities to have my business introduced to new people have followed, and things like this can be available for other entrepreneurs, too.”
But getting to this point as an entrepreneur wasn’t always easy.
Not long after starting the business as a food truck operation in 2017, the food truck was set on fire in front of Leach’s home, she said. Days later, her car was broken into.
“It was clear to me that someone was personally interested in us,” said Leach, who co-owns Lexington Betty Smokehouse with her wife, Tanisha Griffin. “This upended our sense of security at home, so we spent the next eight months couch-surfing because we were so frightened to live in our house.”
To recoup some of the financial loss caused by the fire, Leach returned to her job at the Four Seasons Hotel, where she found comfort and support among her coworkers, she said.
On Leach’s first day back, she walked into the kitchen and was greeted by dozens of her coworkers, each with an envelope of money in hand to support her and help get Lexington Betty Smokehouse back on its feet, she said.
“These are people that respected me and watched me build the company, and I knew right at that moment I couldn’t continue to work there,” Leach said. “That moment told me that I inspired my coworkers by building this thing, and they wanted to see me build it again.”
Another hurdle came in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, shutting down restaurants and preventing other non-essential businesses from operating in person. By then, Leach had expanded her business into three brick-and-mortar restaurants: one in Galewood, another in the Medical District and a third at the current food hall in Pullman. Leach decided to close her Galewood and Medical District locations to focus solely on the one in Pullman, which shared the food hall with two other restaurants, she said.
She watched as the other restaurants in the food hall closed, and ultimately had the opportunity to take over the entire food hall with her restaurant.
“It was such a challenging time,” Leach said. “We didn’t know if the food hall was going to close or what would happen. But when we got the opportunity to expand in it, we took over the space.”
Now, Lexington Betty Smokehouse is a staple in Pullman, and people travel from across the country to try Leach’s Chicago-style barbecue, she said.
Leach is also hoping to take her story and share it in a memoir that follows her journey from a kid growing up in Humboldt Park to a nationally recognized pitmaster in a male-dominated industry, she said.
“I can’t read the book proposal without crying,” Leach said. “It’s really beautiful. It’s Humboldt Park, it’s Chicago, it’s our culinary culture here—and it’s the trenches that I went through to become the person I am today.”
Leach said she hopes by sharing her story, she can inspire other Black queer women to follow their dreams, even if they don’t see themselves represented yet.
“I’ve worked a lot of hours toward becoming the person that I needed to look up to in this industry,” Leach said. “And I’m really happy that I now get to be an example for someone else.”