CAMBRIDGE — Although Lil’ Bitta Bull BBQ owners Jeannie and Henry VanDyke are interested in selling their barbecue joint and the building it’s located in, they aren’t necessarily going anywhere anytime soon.
The VanDykes listed their property at 520 Race St. for sale about a month ago. But the business owners and married couple are in no rush to sell it or the restaurant itself.
“We love it, and we love what we’ve built,” Jeannie VanDyke said about the restaurant, later adding, “We just wanted to let people know that it’s something we would be interested in if there’s someone out there that would love it as much as we do.”
Lil’ Bitta Bull started as a food truck in 2017. The restaurant has operated out of its current location on Race Street since 2021.
VanDyke said she has loved their journey with Lil’ Bitta Bull. With the food truck, they helped create legislation to allow food trucks in Cambridge, she said. On Glasgow Street — where the restaurant was located before the Race Street location opened — VanDyke said they created a restaurant environment where Carol’s Kitchen currently is.
“So it’s like we’re helping not just Lil’ Bitta Bull, but also the people who come (after) us to have it a little bit easier.”
VanDyke said since putting the restaurant on the market, they have talked with “a couple” people who are interested. She said she didn’t know their level of interest, however.
VanDyke said she and her husband are more focused on running the business, letting the realtor handle the sale side of things. According to the Powell Realtors’ website, the property is listed for $850,000.
If the couple does end up selling Lil’ Bitta Bull, it doesn’t mean they’re quitting the restaurant game.
VanDyke said they own a building in Hurlock that they hope to turn into a gastropub.
“Somewhere in North Dorchester that you could get a high-end burger,” she said. “We love mom-and-pop (shops), but there’s not anything in Hurlock other than mom-and-pops, which is more of your home-cooked food.”
VanDyke said the gastropub would be a place where people could get something a little higher-end, and it wouldn’t step on the toes of the mom-and-pop restaurants already in business in Hurlock.
For those that know the VanDykes, it doesn’t come as a surprise that they’re making plans for another food business. VanDyke said she and her husband’s first date nights were “sitting around, planning the food truck.”
“You know that saying, ‘If you want to impress me with you’re vehicle, it better be a food truck?’,” she said. “That kind of is our relationship.”
Between the two of them, the couple has six children, but none together.
“Lil’ Bitta Bull is kind of our baby,” VanDyke said. “So it’s not like we want to get rid of it or anything like that. We just want to let people to know that if there’s somebody out there that would love it as much as we do and would like that opportunity, we are open to it.”
This isn’t something they haven’t done before. In December 2022, the couple leased the space for and sold DoCo Axe Co. — an axe throwing, escape room and virtual reality game business in Cambridge — to new owners.
“We love that we were able to build something that somebody else was able to come in, take over and continue the dream of owning a business and operating a business,” VanDyke said. “So that’s kind of what has inspired us to offer (Lil’ Bitta Bull) for sale.”
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