When one thinks of classic breakfast food, they don’t usually imagine a heaping plate of ribs, brisket, corn bread, fries, coleslaw, and homemade mac n’ cheese.
Yet that hefty pairing is exactly what Boney Fingers BBQ — located in the Cleveland Arcade food court, at 401 Euclid Avenue — prides itself on.
Open from 6:30am-4 pm on weekdays, and Saturdays from 7am-2 pm, Boney Fingers’ menu is centered on two signature offerings: beef brisket and pork ribs, which are served as sandwiches, wraps, or a la carte. The food is tasty, saucy, and fresh — served in a styrofoam take-out container, it’s the perfect fare to “hit the spot” in the early morning or afternoon, before or after a hard day of work.
Boney Fingers BBQ opened in October 2016, but it’s the end result of 10 years of entrepreneurial aspirations. Boney Fingers’ owner, Erik Huff, is a graduate of culinary school who first nurtured his passion for making BBQ at family and friends’ backyards a decade. To create Boney Fingers BBQ, he recruited his family as co-owners: his brother Paul (also a graduate of culinary school) and his son Christian and Andrew, who’s currently in the Marines.
The decade of preparation allowed Erik and his family to basically perfect the art of barbecue — they smoke their meat for 16 hours, with undisclosed spices shipped in from out of state. The menu is rounded out with family recipes like their Grandma’s Mac N’ Cheese. The owners take particular pride in their brisket. “We get a lot of Texans that stay at the hotel,” Erik says with a wry, satisfied smile. “They say it might not be the exact same thing, but it’s damn close to Texan barbecue.”
The restaurant has been a success so far, particularly with morning construction workers and the suit-and-tie crowd later in the afternoon. But there are constraints to operating in the Cleveland Arcade — they can’t serve alcohol, they have to close early, they’re out of the way of drop-in traffic.
But Erik has bigger plans for Boney Fingers BBQ. He wants to open a storefront, possibly within the next year, that can become a fixture of downtown Cleveland’s nightlife and cater to the after-hours crowd. Once that’s accomplished, he wants to franchise the restaurant.
As for ownership, Erik’s dream is to keep it in the family. I want to “expand so they can each have their own place,” he says to me, making sure he’s out of reach of his sons working in the kitchen. He gestures his shoulder at them. “Andrew’s in the military right now, but it’d be something he could come home to. Something for them to have ownership and pride in.”
Cleveland, OH 44114