From 2017 to 2020, a trip to Houston, Texas, wasn’t complete for some visitors without a stop at Turkey Leg Hut.
The restaurant became a popular destination, drawing crowds for its oversized, stuffed turkey legs and frequently going viral on social media.
But behind the restaurant’s success, things were taking a turn in both the business and in Lyndell “Lynn” Price and Nakia Holmes‘ marriage.
It’s been two years since the popular restaurant, known for its stuffed turkey legs, closed. Price was terminated that same fall following a slew of allegations.
Holmes said she began noticing financial discrepancies as her husband allegedly started treating the restaurant’s money like his personal bank account.
During the Nov. 11 episode of “Reality With the King,” Carlos King asked Holmes when things started going wrong financially. She pointed to Price’s alleged handling of the business’s money.
“When it started to when it started to go bad was theft; it was theft. When you start to use the business as your personal piggy bank,” she said.
Holmes went on to allege that Price was taking cash from the restaurant’s register and purchasing cars through the business.
“And it became so bad, the cars, cash, and just going and just going in the register, just taking it, and I’m like, you can’t do that,” she shared.
She said the situation became so concerning that she eventually moved Turkey Leg Hut to a cashless payment system. Holmes explained that she had to limit the amount of cash available at the restaurant because Price continued despite her concerns.
When explaining the change to employees, she used a potential robbery as the reason for the new policy.
“I flipped it. I told them people think we have so much cash in here; we saw someone that was trying to rob us, you know, like they were plotting to rob us. So, OK, we’re going to go cashless, right? So, we go cashless,” she recalled.
She also described the couple’s annual festival as another breaking point. She said she launched a business ebook at the event in an effort to build an identity outside the restaurant.
Price allegedly became angry about the release, and she recalled him telling her, “B—h, you not no Price, take my name off that.”
She also described an altercation when she tried to leave the event, alleging that he pulled her from her car and threw her to the ground.
Looking back, the mother and entrepreneur said jealousy and competition had been present in their marriage for years. “Like, we’re a team. What are we competing [for]? When you win, I win. We both win,” she said.
Turkey Leg Hut eventually closed in 2024 after facing financial challenges and disputes involving its landlord.
The restaurant’s downfall marked a major shift for the Houston business that once attracted customers from across the country.
Holmes is now partnering with a Harold’s Chicken & Sport Bar, offering its signature turkey leg with its signature toppings each Sunday.
Price, 44, pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to commit arson in connection with a fire at Bar 5015.
The restaurant was less than 200 yards from the site of the now-closed Turkey Leg Hut. He was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on Oct. 30.
