Ray’s BBQ Shack continues Third Ward traditions
Driving southwest along Scott in Third Ward is like taking a trip in a Houston barbecue time machine. Starting in the 1940s and lasting until the 1970s, this predominately African-American neighborhood south of downtown became the foundation for Houston’s contemporary barbecue scene.
Today, though, an intrepid barbecue explorer will need a map and a vivid imagination to visualize these earlier days of the Bayou City’s barbecue heyday. Like other historical wards in the orbit of Houston’s downtown, redevelopment and gentrification are having a significant impact on the built environment.
Scott is now partially occupied by a branch of Metro’s light rail system, and the University of Houston continues what seems like a never-ending building campaign along its western boundary. Many of the old barbecue-joint locations are now vacant lots, waiting to be redeveloped into townhomes.
But some sleuthing among old maps and city directories yields the ghosts of Houston barbecue past.
Starting at the northernmost boundary, the intersection at Leeland featured a barbecue, beer and pool hall called Cue in the 1970s.
As you cross under Interstate 45, just to the northwest, is the intersection of Gray and Emancipation, formerly Dowling, which housed the original location of Drexler’s Bar-B-Que. Before James Drexler — brother of basketball star Clyde Drexler
— took it over, it was run by a pitmaster from Beaumont named Harry Green, who would later open Green’s Barbecue on Almeda on the westernmost border of Third Ward.
On the 2700 block of Emancipation, Avalon BBQ was one of the most prominent barbecue joints in Houston in the 1940s and ’50s, owned by three legendary African-American pitmasters: Joe Burney, Oscar “Unkie” Lott, and Bill Williams. Burney would go on to open Burney’s BBQ, and Lott would open Lott’s Barbecue, both on nearby Holman.
The corner of Alabama and Scott — now a vacant lot with a sign that advertises a future location of Frenchy’s fried chicken — was a longtime barbecue joint location occupied by Bobby Q’s Rib Shack and most recently Brooks Family BBQ, the same family who started the Harlon’s Bar-B-Que chain prominent throughout Texas in the 1970s and ’80s.
One of the few extant buildings housing Third Ward barbecue history is at Southmore and Scott, where a mansard-roofed, dark-red-painted structure housed Murphy’s Golden Rib and later one of the most famous of all Houston barbecue joints: Thelma’s Bar-B-Que. Helmed by Louisiana-born pitmaster Thelma Williams, this location was open from 1999 to 2013. A later business (now closed) at this location, Abdel’s
BBQ, specialized in Beaumont-style beef links.
The next street, MacGregor Way, bordering Brays Bayou, was long considered the southernmost border of Third Ward. But with development continuing south, Old Spanish Trail is now often considered the boundary.
On a recent drive down Scott, my destination was Ray’s BBQ Shack, one of a handful of barbecue joints left in Third Ward that continues the neighborhood’s oldest traditions of Southeast Texas-style smoked meats and Creole-influenced dishes such as boudin and fried catfish. Coowner and pitmaster Ray Busch was born and raised in Third
Ward and still lives here. Indeed, Cue, the previously mentioned barbecue joint and pool hall at the northernmost boundary of the neighborhood, was owned by his father.
Currently, Ray’s BBQ Shack is offering only takeout service — the dining room is still closed because of the coronavirus concerns. So I placed an order for a fried catfish family pack — 10 golden-brown filets! — and dug in with a group of friends, eating in the parking lot on the tailgate of a pickup.
Ray came over and joined us. I asked him about all the old barbecue-joint locations I had just passed to get there. He told stories of his many visits to neighborhood places including Green’s, Lott’s, Drexler’s and Thelma’s. Beyond the usual maps and imagination, these stories brought to life the long history of barbecue that took root here many years ago.