Eli's Barbecue, the smoked-meats restaurant that attracts crowds to its scrappy Riverside Drive location, has been expanding in small ways over the past few years. There's a second location in Findlay Market, and owners Elias Leisring and Drew Simmons have been involved in related restaurants like Fireside Pizza and Saundra's Kitchen.

The multiplication of the original concept is continuing with a new location in the Newport Kroger. It will be an option in the hot-foods area, where people can buy prepared foods to go or sit down and eat during a shopping trip.

It will open on Monday and be open daily.

The partnership with Kroger kicked off in Louisville about a year ago, where Eli's has operated a location in the Holiday Manor Kroger. It worked well enough to try it in the much larger Newport store.

There will be an emphasis on family packs, meals to go, bulk meats and barbecue sauce in the cooler. But the menu of sandwiches and sides will also be served.

Leisring said their smoker will be in the space, so they can smoke on-site.

"We'll be self-sufficient within the space," he said. "It's still all our stuff, we hire the staff. The biggest thing we're excited about is giving customers who can't get to Riverside or Findlay Market access to our good barbecue. They can get our product and we can maintain its integrity."

He's also happy to be able to give his employees a chance to grow and move up within the company.

"We want to reward and keep good people," he said.

Leisring said his first job as a teenager was in a Kroger store. "We like working with a locally-based hometown company."

This might be the beginning of more growth for Eli's. But Leisring said, "Right now, we're taking it one thing at a time."