Nakia Holmes — the Houston entrepreneur who helped build one of Black food culture’s most iconic brands from a parking lot hustle into a celebrity-magnet empire — let six words do the talking: “Pull up hungry. We’re serving until it’s gone.”
In a 21-second Instagram Reel posted Sunday morning, Holmes announced a one-day food popup slated for June 13 at the Quad, 4608 Almeda — just three blocks from the now-shuttered Third Ward home of the Turkey Leg Hut she co-founded with her estranged husband, Lyndell Price. A single hashtag on the post — #NothingButLegs — left little to the imagination.
Whether the event will operate officially under the Turkey Leg Hut name remains unclear, but one thing isn’t: Nakia Holmes is not done.
Holmes and Price launched Turkey Leg Hut more than a decade ago. Their original popup at the 2016 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo drew lines around the block for oversized smoked turkey legs alongside mac and cheese, wings, and pasta dripping in spicy Cajun cream sauce. As Holmes told ESSENCE earlier this year in an exclusive interview, the idea started with a dream she had — and she built it into something real while Price was incarcerated for an IRS fraud scheme, essentially running the operation solo.
The crowd followed the food — and so did the culture. Celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Megan Thee Stallion, and James Harden all made their way through the Third Ward restaurant Holmes and Price eventually opened, cementing it as a must-stop tourist destination, and a celebration of Black Houston.
Then came the unraveling.
When Price returned from prison in 2018, Holmes told ESSENCE the two clashed constantly — he micromanaged; she didn’t. A controversial dress-code policy in 2021, which Holmes said was entirely Price’s idea and which she was left to clean up publicly, sparked a national conversation about respectability politics in Black-owned spaces.
Then, more problems came: a lawsuit with a food distributor, divorce filings, bankruptcy, and even an arson case. And in September 2024, the Houston health department shut Turkey Leg Hut down entirely.
Most recently, a grand jury cleared Holmes of accusations that she helped her boyfriend evade police — the latest chapter in a story ESSENCE has covered closely. Instead of retreating, she is redirecting the narrative on her own terms.
Holmes has been building toward this moment in public, slowly and deliberately. In March, she posted a video of herself inspecting a Turkey Leg Hut-branded food truck.
In an Instagram reel, posted Sunday, filmed inside the Quad — a sports and dining venue in Houston’s Third Ward opened by former Detroit Lions defensive end and Houston native Michael Brockers, served as a reminder of who Holmes is.
“You can close a building. You can’t close a legacy.”
The popup is set for 1 p.m. on June 13. It will run until the food is gone.
