EAST TROY — Leon Davis' namesake restaurant LD's BBQ has become a destination restaurant in Walworth County. He's coming to terms with his mortality but assured customers the meat he made famous will live on.
Davis still visits his East Troy restaurant but walks with a cane and can no longer cook brisket and ribs how he used to. He was diagnosed with renal cancer and said he may not have much longer to live.
"It's spread into my bones," Davis said. "From my knees to my neck, it's pretty rotten. I don't know how to say to my customers I'm going to miss them."
Davis posted to social media from the LD's BBQ page this week to clear up rumors that the restaurant would close after he passes away. Davis said there is another chef in the kitchen he trusts with his smoker recipes and that "LD's is going nowhere."
"I'll haunt my employees if they're not doing what they need to do," Davis joked.
Davis opened the brick-and-mortar LD's BBQ in 2013 after building his reputation and recipes with a food truck. That's when loyal customer David Miller first discovered the barbeque.
"We drove by when he was smoking meat in the gas station parking lot and we smelled it," said Miller, who often drives 45 minutes from Pleasant Prairie to load up on LD's. "Ever since then, it's been love at first sight."
Davis said the word has spread far beyond Walworth County and Wisconsin.
"A group once flew in from Washington, DC," Davis recalled. "They were told if they were flying across country with their private plane, they needed to refuel in East Troy and have LD's."
Davis still tries to stop by to greet customers even after his cancer has spread. He said they are the reason he hopes LD's thrives long after he is gone.
"This is what I was truly meant to do with my life," Davis said.
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