Texas 202 Barbeque in Fulshear descends from barbecue legend
Though born and raised in Houston, Rev Ward visited Huntsville many times as a child to go hunting in the Piney Woods with his dad. The Ward family had deep connections in the area. Rev’s aunt and uncle — Annie Mae and Douglas Collins “D.C.” Ward — lived there and were active members of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Rev would eventually become an ordained Baptist minister, thus the name “Rev,” short for Reverend.
Annie Mae was known for her cooking, and especially barbecue, that she prepared for family and parishioners at the church. Rev remembers her cooking barbecue on a 55-gallon metal drum that was cut in half, topped with wire mesh and filled with coals. Annie Mae’s barbecue became so famous that by the mid-1970s she and D.C. started selling barbecue to support the church.
In time, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church BBQ — known as “Church BBQ” — became one of the most legendary barbecue joints in Texas.
Rev continued to visit while in high school, helping out on weekends and learning recipes from his aunt. She ran the restaurant until she retired in 2003, after which new church members took over.
After high school, Rev joined the Army, serving in the 1st Infantry Division from 1980 to 1984. He specialized in food service, managing commissaries and officers clubs in West Germany.
In 1985, he returned to Texas and became a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Corrections, based in Beeville. As part of his job, he made frequent trips to Huntsville and continued to visit Church BBQ and learn recipes and techniques from his aunt and uncle.
In 1992, his fellow corrections officers lamented the lack of good barbecue in Beeville. Rev decided to open his own place in a small building off Texas 202 with his wife, Felicia. They called it Texas 202 Barbeque and ran it until 2005.
That year, Rev decided he wanted to go back to school for his master’s degree in human resource management. He and Felicia moved so he could attend the University of Maryland, where many ex-military members attend college. After graduating, he continued to work in the food-service department at the university.
By 2016, Ward got the barbecue itch again. He and Felicia opened a new Texas 202 Barbeque in Brandywine, Md. The restaurant was well received — Washington Post food writer
Tim Carman named it one of the top barbecue joints in the Washington, D.C., area in 2017 and 2018.
In 2019, Rev and Felicia sold the restaurant and moved back to Houston to be near his elderly mother. They started looking for a place to open a new barbecue joint. They found a small space that had previously been a barbecue joint in an H-E-B-anchored shopping center in Fulshear. Fortunately, most of the equipment was still in the space, so Rev and Felicia needed to do only some basic maintenance and upgrades to get the restaurant ready. They opened their latest edition of Texas 202 Barbeque
on Sept. 8.
The Wards have hit the ground running with a full menu that combines both contemporary Central Texas-style barbecue with influences from the
East Texas-style his aunt and uncle were known for.
There’s the classic Texas trinity of brisket, ribs and sausage. They embellish that with a classic East Texas menu of fried shrimp, catfish and gumbo. There is a full menu of chicken wings and associated sauces.
Though they have been open only a couple of weeks — the sign is not even up above the door — the quality of the food is excellent. The Wards continue to honor the memory of their groundbreaking relatives Annie Mae and D.C. Ward of Church BBQ in Huntsville.