The east-west divide in Houston barbecue
The geography of Houston barbecue is something I find endlessly fascinating. By my count, there are more than 100 barbecue joints inside the Beltway, evenly spread out among dozens of neighborhoods within that boundary. Most of these are workaday barbecue joints that do a good job serving acceptable smoked meats to local denizens. Things get interesting when you start looking at the signature barbecue joints of specific neighborhoods. By “signature” I mean the restaurants and pitmasters who ascribe to the “craft barbecue” movement that focuses on highquality techniques and ingredients of traditional Texas barbecue.
Not surprisingly, Houston’s barbecue renaissance began inside Loop 610, specifically the Heights area when Gatlin’s BBQ opened on 19th Street in 2010. It would eventually be joined by inner-Loop craft barbecue purveyors such as Pinkerton’s Barbecue, The Pit Room and, more recently, Willow’s Texas BBQ.
From there, the renaiscue expanded on a north-south axis. Due north, CorkScrew BBQ opened in Spring in 2011, along with BBQ Godfather and Southern Q not long after. To the northwest, Brooks’ Place BBQ is still making some of that area’s best smoked meats from an Ace Hardware parking lot in the Barker Cypress area.
Indeed, northwest Houston has a legitimate claim to being the most active neighborhood for barbecue, with Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue expanding in Tomball, Pappa Charlies BBQ moving to Cypress, and more recently, Reveille Barbecue Co. opening in Magnolia.
Northeast Houston is also getting busier. Tin Roof BBQ in Atascocita has anchored the Lake Houston area for decades, and now more barbecue joints are popping up there, including the Rusty Buckle BBQ Company in New Caney.
In the southern reaches of Houston, Killen’s Barbecue opened in 2013. It’s the undisputed king of smoked meats in Pearland and surrounding areas. In the southern part of the inner Loop, Ray’s BBQ Shack opened in 2011 and recently moved to a bigger space on Old Spanish Trail.
This north-central-south access of Houston craft barbecue has persisted until only very recently. Aficionados have long lamented the lack of highprofile joints in the fastgrowing western suburbs, specifically Katy. West Houston became known as a barbecue desert for its lack of signature barbecue, though time-tested smoked meat purveyors there, including Midway Barbeque and The Swing- ing Door, might disagree.
Then, all of a sudden, Katy’s barbecue scene heated up. Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, a legendary Central Texasstyle joint from Llano, announced it was opening a franchise just off Interstate 10 near Katy Mills Mall. Daddy Duncan’s BBQ has become the go-to barbecue trailer of the area, popping up in multiple locations. Randy and Sylvia Duncan recently announced they would open a brick-and-mortar location.
The recent openings of Brett’s Barbecue Shop and Harlem Road Texas BBQ have solidified the Katy area as the current hot spot on the Greater Houston barbecue map. Barbecue desert no more.
But there is not yet an east-west barbecue axis in Houston. Though west Houston has broken out of the doldrums, east Houston is lagging behind. There’s certainly an argument that it’s now the city’s most notable barbesance desert, still without a signature craft-style barbecue purveyor.
This is ironic, because east Houston has historically been one of the city’s largest markets for barbecue. The concentration of refineries in the Baytown area and the proximity to the Ship Channel means there’s a built-in audience of hungry workers. Lenox Bar-B-Q, one of Houston’s oldest barbecue joints, still sends van-loads of barbecue to the refineries, catering jobs for hundreds of workers. And The Brisket House opened a location in Deer Park several years ago to cater to this huge market.
Still, a signature, craftstyle barbecue joint has eluded the geographic area that stretches from Houston’s East End to Baytown and points east.
It wasn’t long ago that Katy-area residents feared they would never get their own signature barbecue joint. Now they have several. Undoubtedly, the Houston barbecue renaissance will find its way east, too. As we’ve seen in all other areas of Houston, it’s only a matter of time before that east-west barbecue axis is created.