A new generation takes over the pits at Pizzitola’s
The media characterizes millennials in many ways, from detached loafers freeloading off their parents to socially conscious citizens demanding better economic opportunities and a reasonable worklife balance.
My own experience skews toward the latter. Children of friends, as well as my own nieces and nephews, are some of the hardest working people I know, even if they are somewhat skeptical about the future.
In many ways, the millennial generation I’ve observed is good news for the future of barbecue. Barbecue joint owners are invariably hardworking and independent, with a creative streak that manifests in their chosen profession.
Slowly, we are seeing millennials make their mark in barbecue: Laura Loomis at Two Bros. BBQ Market in San Antonio, Leonard Botello at Brenham’s Truth BBQ, and Grant Pinkerton at Pinkerton’s Barbecue and Quy Hoang of Blood Bros. BBQ in Houston, to name a few.
And Josh Scott, 31, recently took over head pitmaster duties at one of Houston’s oldest barbecue joints, Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue, which originally opened as Shepherd Drive Bar-B-Q in 1935.
His path, from growing up in Katy to manning the rare and finicky brick barbecue pits at Pizzitola’s, has been circuitous.
Scott graduated from Mayde Creek High School in 2005. During his high school years, in between playing football and other sports, he worked part-time jobs, most notably as a waiter at the local Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. Scott also became a fan of The Food Network around that time.
“This was back when (The Food Network) actually showed cooking shows,” said Scott, referring to the more recent Guy Fieri-ization of the channel featuring over-blown cooking competitions and food adventure shows. After high school, Scott spent a semester in the culinary arts program at Houston Community College but decided that wasn’t for him.
He’d kept in touch with an old friend from his Pappadeaux days, Scott Sulma, who was then working at Tony’s (and is now a managing partner with the Vallone restaurant group). He joined Sulma and worked at Tony’s in various positions from 2005 to 2008, acquiring a Level 1 Sommelier accreditation with the Court of Master Sommeliers as part of his experience there.
In early 2008, Scott decided to shift careers and become a stockbroker, acquiring his Series 7 broker-dealer license. The timing was less than fortuitous — the financial and real-estate market crashed later that year.
“That was a rather short-lived career,” he deadpanned.
Scott went back to the restaurant business, working as an assistant to chef Olivier Ciesielski and, later, in managerial positions at Hotel Lancaster and the now-defunct Hudson Lounge.
A few years ago, he was lounging by the pool at his girlfriend’s apartment complex when he met Jerry Pizzitola Jr., son of Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue owner Jerry Pizzitola. Pizzitola invited Scott to pick up a few shifts at his family’s barbecue joint to see if he liked it.
Scott agreed, though he wasn’t a barbecue fan. Katy has always been something of a barbecue desert in the Houston area, so Scott never really grew up eating barbecue.
Scott ended up taking more shifts at Pizzitola’s, gravitating to the back of the restaurant where Pizzitola’s original pitmasters, Carlton Gould and Davy Reynosa, cooked on the hard-to-manage brick barbecue pits. He gives full credit to Gould and Reynosa for teaching him the ins and outs of the pits.
After Gould died in 2016, Scott took on the job of head pitmaster, working alongside Reynosa. He’s begun to implement his own ideas to continue improving the barbecue at Pizzitola’s, introducing a higher quality Duroc brand pork rib, as well as a new pulled-pork dish.
The irony of a millennial taking over the pits at one of Houston’s oldest barbecue joints is not lost on Scott. He often visits with the Davis family, the original owners of the restaurant when it was known as Shepherd Drive Bar-B-Q, who still come in to eat.
“Respect for the past is important,” said Scott, voicing a belief that, at least according to some, many of his fellow millennials have yet to learn.