Building the perfect barbecue joint: décor
Editor’s note: This is the ninth article in a series in which J.C. Reid provides advice to aspiring entrepreneurs on how to build the perfect barbecue joint. Previous articles addressed service style, smokers, brisket, sausage, pork ribs, physical structure, wood and location; today’s focus is design and décor.
If you’ve ever traveled the back roads of Texas to visit historical barbecue joints, you quickly discovered that barbecue is more than just the taste of smoked meats. It’s an all-consuming, multisensory experience that includes the pervasive fragrance of burning wood, the rough texture of a well-worn picnic table, the shouts of the countermen calling out the orders to meat carvers and the visual experience of faded and curled photographs tacked to the walls.
Older barbecue joints have a leg up when it comes to décor, of course. There’s no way to duplicate the patina of smoke and layers of old business cards that have built up over the past 70 years on the walls of Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor. And the walls at Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue in Houston are covered in one-ofa-kind family pictures of the founding Davis family going back 50 years.
For the aspiring pitmaster hoping to open a barbecue joint, planning the look and feel of the restaurant is both fraught with pitfalls and full of opportunity. If he or she tries to duplicate the feel of a historical joint, the result can be cliché and pastiche. If the restaurant is over-designed, it can feel pretentious and showy. In my travels to the far corners of the Lone Star State, the most memorable spots have décor that reflects the owner’s personality or the location’s unique qualities.
At Chuck’s BBQ & Burgers in Evadale, the walls are covered in the owner’s favorite music albums — Hank Williams Jr. and George Jones. At Eagle BBQ in Dilley, in the middle of the Eagle Ford Shale oil formation, décor includes oilfield tools and roughneck hard hats. At Wright’s Bar-B-Q in Vidor, the dining room has a lighted display case of the owner’s model-car collection.
In terms of style, most new barbecue joints feature one of two basic designs: contemporary or rustic. Gatlin’s BBQ, Feges BBQ and The Pit Room are examples of newer Houston-area joints with clean, sleek design that’s both sophisticated and welcoming.
On the rustic side, Tejas Chocolate + BBQ, Harlem Road Texas BBQ and Pinkerton’s Barbecue strike the right balance of more traditional design that isn’t cliché.
Pinkerton’s Barbecue is notable for its rustic look combined with décor that tells the story of owner Grant Pinkerton’s family. The dining room has modern, all-wood, familystyle picnic tables that undoubtedly encourage conversation among guests.
The bar is a massive slab of polished live oak with a backdrop of mounted fish and fowl reflective of Pinkerton’s passion for hunting. Another wall contains pictures of Pinkerton’s family going back decades and in many contexts — cattle ranches, oil fields and hunting camps included.
Pinkerton’s is a fine example of how a new barbecue restaurant’s design and décor is best realized as a balance of clean, restrained design (either contemporary or rustic) with personal touches.
Though it’s impossible to faithfully duplicate the visual essence of a decades-old barbecue joint, the aspiring pitmaster can lay the groundwork with initial design choices. Eventually those pristine white walls will be layered with a patina of smoke and age.