This month, Speed Queen (1130 W. Walnut St.) is celebrating its 70th year in business. Founders Betty J. Gillespie and her husband Leonard Partee started serving family-recipe BBQ in a storefront on Fifth and Vliet in 1956, later moving to 12th and Vine. Since 1975, Speed Queen – the name Gillespie was given for her quick service – has owned the northeast corner of 12th and Walnut.
Now operated by second- and third-generation owners, Speed Queen is condensing its anniversary festivities into one day – July 13. This is when guests will have the opportunity to sample new menu items (the lobby is open 11 a.m.-7 p.m.), as well as reminisce. You can share your memories of both Speed Queen and co-founder Betty, and your favorite menu items, using an online form Speed Queen posted on its Facebook page.
The restaurant is known first and foremost for its ribs and sliced (not pulled) pork shoulder cooked in a massive BBQ pit, built on-site by Arthur Gillespie, who married Betty in 1970, after Partee’s death in 1968.
READ MORE ABOUT MILWAUKEE’S BBQ SCENE HERE.
Over time, the meat lineup has expanded to include things like turkey. “Everyone wants to say smoked turkey, but we have a barbecue pit, we don’t actually have a smoker,” says current owner Giovonni Gillespie, Betty and Arthur’s son. “So it comes out with that smokiness and that barbecue taste because of the pit, because it’s working with the smoke, the heat and steam – kind of all three. It’s kind of like a conventional fire convection oven in a weird way.”
The menu also features beef tips, pulled chicken, and catfish and perch dinners.
One of the advantages of having a massive BBQ pit, around which the restaurant was built, is that you can stay ahead – not run out of meat – and still, Giovonni says, be able to keep your products fresh.
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Giovonni and his late brother, Vernardo Partee, were very much reared in the restaurant. In his teens, Giovonni learned how to clean the pit and to prep and cook meat. “I’ve been doing that now for a good 40 years of my life. I would call myself a pit master, but I don’t know how you really gauge it, because I’m not a culinary school person,” he says.
Despite the matriarch’s passing in 2010, Speed Queen is still Betty’s business. “My mom was definitely a delegator and she was boss. She is the one that gave us the opportunity to be here at Speed Queen,” says her son.
Giovonni’s daughter Riley has also joined the family business. For a while, Riley thought she would do something else career-wise, but says once she “sat with it and realized, my grandmother did this at 19 years old, and she dedicated herself to this,” she realized how important being part of the business is to her. “Spending time with my grandmother, and then being able to relive it now, and building these connections with people in the community. It’s something that just feels so fulfilling.”
