Fins & FeathersFather & son outside of Fins & Feathers BBQ

In the city of Cincinnati, there is a lot of room for you to survive on your hustle.  There also exists opportunity to build legacy.  That's what I witnessed when I visited this tiny BBQ joint at 3 Garfield Place.  A friend and I were trolling the streets looking to make some photos and we saw this place on the way out.  We decided to come back and have lunch when the time was right and we were happy that we did.  The owner, Rev, is a really nice guy.  He's one of those old school cats that you might remember from your childhood who might stop and offer you unsolicited, fatherly advice that you might actually listen to.  Rev read the menu off to us from laminated printer paper on the counter and once we decided on an order, he went outside to call his son back in to help put it together.

To say that this little shop is nothing spectacular would be an understatement.  There is one table on the inside and you would be "in the way" if you sat there to eat your food.  However, the apparent joy with which the food was prepared and served was all that I needed to convince me that this place has all the hallmarks of one that might actually stick around.  I came to find out that this, the smallest BBQ joint that I had ever visited, had been in business for at least a couple of decades!  This goes to show what a little know how, a great attitude and the courage to move your feet and set up shop can do.  They cook their food out on the sidewalk on grills that you can get at Lowe's or Home Depot!  Nothing fancy, but the taste is there.  Their motto is, "Taste the Smell" and aptly so.  You can't help but salivate if you're in the vicinity when they're smoking their meats.  The taste is made better through the knowledge that a father is handing something down to a son.  Oh, and the hot sauce is hot as hell!

This photo was made on a 50's vintage Rolleiflex twin lens reflex camera.  As usual, I processed the film by hand in my basement and scanned in the 6 cm x 6 cm negatives to digitize them.  I made some adjustments in Lightroom CC to tighten up the contrast and get rid of some lint artifacts from my notoriously dusty processing environment and what you see above is the result.  You can view other photos similar to this in the Street Photography gallery.

Peace,

 -M.