Piper’s a great addition to Houston’s craft-barbecue scene
There’s an old adage that the secret to a restaurant’s success is location, location, location. By that measure, Piper’s BBQ &
Beer should be one of the most popular barbecue joints in Houston.
Located on a rapidly developing and highly trafficked stretch of North Shepherd between Interstate 10 and North Loop 610, it sits across from the always busy, two-story Heights H-E-B supermarket.
In terms of visibility and curb appeal, Piper’s is well positioned. But what about the barbecue?
Fortunately, the ownership team of brothers Justin and Weston Piper brought in Richard Orozco, a relative newcomer to the city’s list of talented, homegrown pitmasters. The result is one of the best new barbecue joints Houston has seen in years.
The Piper family have a background in the construction industry and opened their first restaurant in the Heights, Preslee’s, a couple of years ago. They had their eye on the former Copper Penny burger-joint location for a while, eventually opening Piper’s BBQ & Beer in October 2020.
As part of the revamp of the building, the Pipers customdesigned and hand-built an allwood-burning, steel upright smoker.
“It was our first try and a learning experience,” says Weston Piper, alluding to the notorious intricacies of commercialstyle barbecue pits.
If anyone could master those intricacies, it was their newly installed pitmaster. Orozco is a fourth-generation resident of the Heights, attended St. Pius X High School and received an undergraduate accounting degree and Master in Finance from the University of Houston.
After graduating, Orozco worked in accounting for 11 years. Like so many other aspiring pitmasters, his passion for barbecue started in the backyard.
“I bought a used Klose pit and rebuilt it,” says Orozco, and started cooking for friends and family.
He eventually started holding pop-ups in the area under the “Heights Barbecue” moniker.
Like a lot of people, the changes to his day job brought on by COVID-19 made him re-evaluate what he wanted to do with his future. He chose barbecue.
After applying to a couple of high-profile Houston barbecue joints as an assistant pitmaster and getting turned down (“I think they thought I was overqualified,” says Orozco), he worked a brief stint at Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue before moving over to Piper’s in November 2020 and becoming a co-owner, pitmaster and managing partner.
He brought on his brother
Nick Orozco and friend Robert Quiroga to help out in Piper’s pit room.
The result is a menu of classic Central Texas-style barbecue with a consistency unusual for such a new barbecue joint. On my recent visits, the offerings have been excellent, and I can tell Orozco and team are always implementing subtle changes to improve the barbecue.
One commitment is to zerowaste when it comes to brisket trimmings. Many barbecue joints have turned those trimmings into sausage and Piper’s is no exception, with Quiroga making the excellent in-house sausage.
More recently, Orozco has turned the melted beef fat, known as tallow, into one of the most unusual dishes I’ve tasted in Houston barbecue — smoked beef tallow ice cream.
Orozco melts the fat on the pit, giving it a slightly smoky flavor, then clarifies it to remove all the impurities. He then sends it to Fat Cat Creamery just a few blocks to the south, whom Piper’s has partnered with to make the ice cream.
The tallow gives the ice cream a silky, rich texture and a subtle flavor of smoke. Orozco tops it with candied brisket — thinsliced brisket covered in brown sugar and caramelized on a flat-top griddle.
Considering the whole team seems obsessed with tinkering, testing and experimenting, I can’t wait to see what it comes up with next.