Changing tastes often why a barbecue joint closes
Texas barbecue is experiencing an unprecedented expansion in popularity as well as in actual restaurant openings across the U.S. and around the world.
In just the past few years, legitimate Texas barbecue joints have opened in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Paris and London, among other cities. In Texas and especially Houston, barbecue joints, trucks, trailers and pop-ups are opening at a rapid rate to quench a seemingly never-ending demand by the dining public for quality smoked meats.
Which makes it even more surprising when a celebrated or historical barbecue joint closes. In the past month, two high-profile barbecue joints have suddenly shuttered — New Zion Missionary Baptist Church’s Barbeque in Huntsville and The Granary in San Antonio.
In both cases, the official reasons for closing were business related. New Zion closed because of competition from nearby restaurants and an outof-the-way location. The Granary closed because of an unsustainable debt load taken on by the owner.
But like everything in Texas barbecue, there are often deeper and more nuanced explanations.
The demise of these two restaurants may also have to do with changing tastes.
New Zion was a pillar of East Texas-style barbecue that incorporated culinary traditions of the Southern U.S., emphasizing pork dishes and a sweet tomato sauce with the beef-centric traditions of Central Texas-style barbecue.
However, with the rise of the craft-barbecue movement, Central Texas-style barbecue became the winner-take-all of the Texas barbecue sweepstakes.
For small, rural barbecue joints to survive, they must become destinations, i.e., places where barbecue fans are willing to drive for up to several hours to sample the offerings.
Most destination-worthy, rural joints such as Snow’s BBQ in Lexington and Brett’s Backyard Bar-B-Que in Rockdale are Central Texas-style. The shift to this style of barbecue means less focus on and demand for East Texas-style.
Undoubtedly, this style is still flourishing in larger metro areas ,including Houston (Ray’s BBQ Shack, Burns Original BBQ) and the Beaumont-Port ArthurOrange area (Patillo’s, Gerard’s). But there is arguably not enough demand for a rural, East Texasstyle joint to become a destination. Indeed, New Zion may have been the last of this genre.
The closing of The Granary is equally surprising, but again it can be attributed to changing tastes and how they are covered by the media.
When it opened, The Granary was heralded as “the future of barbecue.” Indeed, it incorporated what seemed like an unbeatable combination of success factors: a Central Texas style of barbecue “elevated” with chefdriven techniques, in a popular commercial district of a major metro area, with a microbrewery thrown in for good measure.
Alas, The Granary may have been a victim of its own success. It was a true trailblazer in the elevated barbecue niche that pairs traditional smoked meats with high-end ingredients and menu items. However, like in other industries, being “too early to market” can open a business to competition from later, more focused and refined rivals.
In recent years, elevated barbecue outlets such as LeRoy & Lewis in Austin and Killen’s STQ in Houston garnered an entirely new level of media attention as more diners clamored for upscale barbecue. The Granary often became lost in the constant churn of barbecue media coverage.
Which isn’t to say any of this is surprising. The restaurant business is tough and the barbecue business even tougher. The constant pressure to innovate and change in what may be the most traditional of Texas cuisines is a tall order for most pitmasters who just want to push out the best smoked meat they can.
“Adapt or die” is the new rallying cry of Texas barbecue.