What does the future hold for chain barbecue restaurants?
A recent story on a businessnews website reported an interesting trend in how the restaurant industry is recovering from the pandemic.
According to credit- and debitcard data compiled by Bank of America, bigchain restaurant sales are down 4 percent from a year ago, whereas sales at independent restaurants are down 25 percent.
How does this translate to the barbecue business, particularly in Houston? Though I don’t have access to hard data, I can offer some insight to the current market situation based on interviews with pitmasters as well as anecdotal observations of restaurants around town.
In general, barbecue chains in Houston appear to be quite busy. Both the Pappas Bar-B-Q and Rudy’s Texas Bar-B-Q in my neck of the woods — U.S. 290 inside the Beltway — always have busy parking lots, and the Pappas locations benefit further from drive-thru windows.
Although I suspect sales are down more than 4 percent at chain barbecue restaurants, they seem to be holding their own.
Among independent barbecue joints, the sales figures vary widely. Based on my conversations with local pitmasters, sales are down 30 percent on average. That said, there are some Houston barbecue joints that have seen no drop in business and others that have seen as much as a 70 percent drop.
This begs the question: Will the pandemic result in chain restaurants taking a larger portion of the barbecue market going forward?
At this point, I suspect not. As opposed to some cuisines, barbecue is well suited to the new procedures required to survive in a time of pandemic, such as curbside service and restricted dine-in capacities.
The potential domination of chain barbecue was an issue even before the pandemic. In an article titled “Mass Barbecue is the Invasive Species of our Culinary Times,” writer John Shelton Reed concludes that “mass” barbecue is threatening the unique qualities of regional styles and techniques.
According to Reed, barbecuejoint types can be divided into three segments: mass, haute and folk. These parallel three identical categories I refer to in my own writings: chain, craft and oldschool.
Mass/chain barbecue of course refers to large-scale, multiunit businesses such as Rudy’s and Pappas.
Haute/craft barbecue refers to the more recent trend of artisanal and chef-driven restaurants, including Killen’s Barbecue and Pinkerton’s Barbecue.
Folk/old-school refers to those restaurants that hew to older techniques and styles that some may find out-of-date but still serve a large audience of barbecue fans. Thomas Bar-B-Q in Houston is an example.
Reed is correct to note that this taxonomy of barbecue is not dependent on quality. There are some chains that make great barbecue, and some restaurants aspiring to a craft level that make horrible barbecue.
Ultimately, though, the future of each segment is tied to market forces, especially in Houston. Mass/chain barbecue has benefited from having greater financial resources as well as the ubiquity of many locations along Houston’s highways, not to mention the highly useful drive-thru window.
Haute/craft barbecue garners most of the media coverage, driving traffic into the restaurants, and continues to draw crowds despite price increases.
Folk/old-school barbecue joints continue to depend on an entrenched and highly loyal client base to keep customers coming through the doors.
Even before the pandemic, chain barbecue restaurants were in expansion mode with H-E-B’s True Texas BBQ and Spring Creek Barbeque recently opening new locations.
But that expansion has been more than matched by craft openings, including 2 Guys 1 Pit BBQ and Bexar Barbecue, both in Tomball. Pop-up and mobilebased barbecue joints such as Daddy Duncan’s BBQ and Eddie O’s Texas BBQ have also both been thriving.
Though some economic indicators suggest chain restaurants may have a leg up in weathering the pandemic, Houston barbecue is diversified enough so that all sizes of business can survive and eventually thrive.