Celebrating 25 years of flavor and community: The Barbecue Pit stands the test of time on Mosholu Avenue

Along Mosholu Avenue, sits a long line of restaurants, some new, some old, but among the lineup, is the oldest business on the block, The Barbecue Pit.  

Last month, owner, Rani Vaswani, celebrated 25 years at 5788 Mosholu Ave. Operating with only three people – herself, her cook, David and a delivery man – Vaswani is more than just a restaurant owner, she’s a familiar face to longtime customers. 

She jokes that people sometimes won’t come into the restaurant to order if they pass by and don’t see her through the window. She firmly believes her job is much more than running the restaurant, she makes it her duty to learn names and faces and chat with her patrons, “I know my customers. They know I know them. They’ll call and say, ‘You know what my husband likes’ or ‘Remember what my son can’t have’,” Vaswani said. “I take care of them because that’s my job. I don’t think of it as work.”

Vaswani was raised in Riverdale, attending public school and then running down to her parent’s restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where she and her three younger siblings worked seven days a week. 

She earned her master's degree in counseling psychology at Columbia University, but never worked in her field of study. The restaurant business called to Vaswani, beckoning her back into the fold she grew up in, prompting her to open The Barbecue Pit on Oct. 26, 1999. 

The first matter of business, building a barbecue pit. Vaswani said that immediately after choosing her location on Mosholu Avenue, they dug a pit into the floor of the kitchen. Having spent most of her life in her parent’s Indian restaurants, Vaswani chose to go “mainstream” with her cuisine. She thought barbecue restaurant would be a good fit for Riverdale, with family-style seating, paper tablecloths and crayons for children to draw on the tables, although she admits the adults liked playing with the crayons more than the kids.

Vaswani joked that she’s late every day for the restaurant’s 1 p.m. opening because she’s busy shopping. Everything is made from scratch, including the food they serve to the children attending a daycare in Briarcliff Manor. 

The restaurant’s partnership with the daycare came about after Vaswani’s sister, who worked at the daycare, made the connection, and Vaswani readily agreed to begin feeding the children. 

The daycare receives a menu of turkey chili, macaroni and cheese, turkey meatloaf, sweet potatoes and brown rice. 

Vaswani said, over the years, and especially through the COVID-19 pandemic, she believes the business survived via word of mouth. 

COVID caused the restaurant to shift to online ordering, which Vaswani had never experienced before. 

“To do this kind of work you have to be a little crazy and you have to have a tremendous passion for what you do. If you don’t love what you do, don’t do it,” Vaswani said. 

However, the “craziness” has never stopped her from chatting with customers. Vaswani said that during the pandemic when phone calls were high volume, she would linger on the phone to chat, recognizing that the time of quarantine isolated many and if she could be the one person they spoke to, she was happy to do it. 

For her, she feels accomplished when her customers are happy enough to return. 

One customer, Nick, entered the storefront to order his usual fried catfish and told The Press that he has been coming to The Pit since it opened. 

The food on the menu is more than just the barbecue the business is named for, Vaswani added touches of Middle Eastern and Indian influence. The Mediterranean salmon, one of her favorites on the menu, features a Greek salad over naan – a flatbread found commonly in Southeast Asian cuisines. Throughout the rest of the menu, samosas are listed alongside rib tips and tandoori chicken sits next to barbecue chicken. 

Vaswani said it was important to create an inclusive menu, including gluten-free and vegetarian options, like the menu’s veggie burger, a creation of her mother’s, made from spinach, lentil and rice. 

With the holidays approaching, business picks up and they begin taking orders for Vaswani’s homemade pies. 

“Our busiest time is Thanksgiving,” she said. 

The store offers a variety of pies year-round, including apple, pecan, key lime, blueberry, cranberry, pumpkin and sweet potato. 

As for the next 25, Vaswani hopes to retire but has no plans to do so soon. 

“I’m very grateful to the community. We feel the love,” Vaswani said, “Every morning I get out of bed like a bat out of hell and do it again.”