A family recipe for lobster fries became a dish at a CT restaurant. Customers can’t get enough of it.

A homegrown recipe for lobster fries is helping a city bar and eatery make a name for itself.

It started as an experiment at home years ago as Dominique Spence, now 36, was cooking as therapy in her recovery from a stroke.

The tasty fries quickly became a favorite food throughout the family.

Now the recipe is a fan favorite at her brother Corey T. Smith’s One Bar + Kitchen , which opened in December at 70 Union Place, behind Hartford’s Union Station. Smith owns the business with DJ/radio personality Charles Hollis. Spence is the head chef at One Bar + One Kitchen.

“We wanted to introduce it to the world and it got very popular,” Spence said. “Even on Taco Tuesday they’re asking for lobster fries.”

Social media is flooded with raves over the delectable fries that some say are “like no other” they’ve tasted. One fan said just seeing a Facebook post reminding her of the lobster fries there made her want to run out and pick an order up.

The dish includes French fries topped with lobster and a little shrimp marinated in a butter/garlic sauce and then topped with cheese sauce.

Spence developed the lobster fries while focusing on therapy geared toward putting things together.

She was making French fries and there was lobster in the refrigerator, so she decided to combine the favorite foods of hers.

“I just said let me put this three simple ingredients together,” Pence said, noting she has tweaked it through the years.

Smith, 43, said he was a French fry connoisseur who didn’t “love” seafood. But even he was floored by the sweet taste of the lobster meat in his sister’s perfectly seasoned dish.

“The lobster, the butter, the cheese sauce was perfect,” he said.

They also serve a burger topped with buttered lobster and yes, you can get a traditional lobster roll.

Spence suffered a first stroke in 2006 at age 21 and “ironically,” she said, when the stroke started she was at the same location as their restaurant at 70 Union Place, but it was then a nightclub called “Bourbon.”

She was at the club with a cousin and started to feel unwell, so the cousin drove her to the hospital. Spence had suffered a major stroke and had to learn everything over: To write, walk, and talk.

Later she would suffer another stroke in 2012 and have brain surgery in 2018. Spence has recovered from the strokes, but has some right side paralysis.

It was largely through cooking and the kitchen that she regained mobility and got her game back with the help of her grandmother, mother, brother Corey and others.

She was “nervous” at first to return to where she had the stroke, but Dominique said that disappeared when she walked through the doors feeling victorious.

“My passion for cooking is one thing, but the location for One Bar means a lot to me,” Spence said.

“To walk through those doors when they told my mom I had 24 hours to live, going there to serve customers and doing it with my brother is awesome.”

The siblings both took an early shine to cooking by watching their maternal grandmother who watched them often while their mom worked.

“When I was younger I’d always watch her cook food. She’d watch us eat, lick our fingers,” Smith  said.

One day his grandmother told him to try frying some chicken. It came out so good she said he should make plates of food and sell them. So he did — and people bought.

Now grandma is licking her fingers as they bring her food from the restaurant.

“She’s the reason we do it,” Smith said.

While Smith is also a chef, he mostly works front of house at One Bar + One Kitchen.

The two have always been close and Smith said he wanted Spence involved in the restaurant because he knew if he couldn’t be there one night she would do a great job covering everything.

They’ve been open since December and “it’s going well,” with “a lot of ups and downs,” Smith  said, but not enough people know they are there.

The friendly bar/eatery has live music Wednesdays from 7 to 10 p.m., think 80s and 90s R & B.

They also have a popular karaoke night Thursdays beginning at 7:30 p.m.

They mostly carry quick bar food — lobster fries and burgers included — but on Saturday’s when there is no special event they serve soul food. Some weekends Spence also throws in some West Indian cuisine.

On Tuesdays they hold a Taco Tuesday with interesting selections such as a new jerk chicken taco with sweet plantains, and mango salsa.

The all you can eat for two hours taco Tuesday normally runs from 6 to 8 p.m., but this week will be from 5 to 7 p.m.

Soul food Saturday includes selections of chicken, pork, shrimp, fish, all fried; mac and cheese; collard greens cooked with turkey meat, candied yams, and cornbread or biscuits.

“It’s seamless with us in the kitchen together. No hiccups,” Smith said. “She does her thing, I do my thing. We put it all together and serve it to the people.”

Spence said they want to bring something different to the community.

Smith said for him it’s about “bringing something good to the city.”

“There are a lot of culinary places open, but I don’t always feel the food is top tier,” he said.

Smith has said they are going for the vibe that makes everyone feel welcome to hang out, including families.