Shigs In Pit BBQ

The ribs are the reason to make the drive. Shigs In Pit didn't back into barbecue as a business idea; it started in 2005 as a competition team chasing trophies on the Kansas City Barbecue Society circuit, then turned that into a pair of Fort Wayne restaurants. When a kitchen spends years being judged rib by rib against other pitmasters before it ever sells a plate to the public, you taste the difference.

Today you'll find them at two Allen County addresses: 8506 Illinois Road on the southwest side and 6250 Maplecrest Road on the northeast. One of the two has a draw the other doesn't, and it comes down to what's on tap.

From the Contest Circuit to a Storefront

Shigs In Pit began as a competition barbecue team cooking KCBS-sanctioned events. The company says the team won multiple KCBS Grand Championships before opening its first brick-and-mortar location in downtown Fort Wayne in 2012. That order of operations matters. This is a restaurant built by people who learned to smoke meat under a scorecard, not one that added a smoker to a menu as an afterthought.

The original flagship on Fairfield Avenue, which also ran the company's catering, closed in January 2025; local news coverage attributed the closure to an expired lease and rising rent. The business kept going at Illinois Road and Maplecrest Road, so if you remember the Fairfield location, those two are where the smoke lives now.

What to Order

The menu centers on smoked meats: ribs, pulled pork, and smoked turkey breast among them. The turkey breast is worth a mention because it's the one a lot of barbecue places botch or skip entirely, and a smokehouse that takes it seriously is telling you something about the pit.

For a sleeper pick, the menu lists a smoked bologna sandwich with pimento cheese. Bologna gets time in the smoke and comes out a different animal than the pink stuff from your school lunch, and the pimento cheese is the kind of Southern move that signals the kitchen isn't just going through the motions.

If you're ordering for the table, reviewers commonly single out the ribs and the baked beans as the standouts, and that lines up with the team's competition roots. Get a rack, get the beans, and split the rest.

Beer, and Where It Fits In

Shigs In Pit is a sister company to Mad Anthony Brewing Company, and the Illinois Road location serves Mad Anthony beer on tap. That's the deciding factor between the two spots if you want a pint with your ribs: point the car toward Illinois Road. It's a genuine local pairing, house-connected beer next to house smoke, not a generic macro tap list.

Who It's For

This is barbecue for people who care about the meat first and the frills not at all. Bring a family, bring a friend who thinks they've had good ribs, or grab a bologna sandwich for a solo lunch that will ruin gas-station lunches for you. If you're mapping out the local smoke scene, it's worth comparing against Two Sixty BBQ and the Neighborhood Smokehouse, but Shigs In Pit earned its spot on the list the hard way, one contest at a time.

For more on where to eat around town, start with the full Eat Fort Wayne directory.