Pop-ups bring Texas barbecue to new, more diverse audiences
Arriving at the appointed location for the Willow’s Texas BBQ pop-up event, I took my place in the growing line of barbecue acolytes paying homage to the exceptional smoked meats of pitmaster Willow Villarreal and the excellent side dishes made by his partner, Jasmine Barela.
The location was Two Headed Dog, a dive bar specializing in craft cocktails that is nestled in an alleyway on a rough-andtumble stretch of Elgin near Main. We watched as a bar employee nailed spikes to the top of the fence in front of the bar’s patio. Among those of us in line, conversation pingponged between who makes the best brisket in Texas to why in the heck was that guy putting spikes on a fence?
To keep birds away? No, it turns out they’d been burglarized, and this was a defensive tactic to prevent future bad actors from climbing over the top.
At the appointed time we filed into the patio/alleyway with a line totaling about 30 people. Members of various groups peeled off and headed to the bar, bringing back beers and cocktails for their compatriots holding a place in line.
It was a very Houston crowd: a student from the nearby community college chatting with a welder from Pasadena and a downtown financier about their favorite barbecue joints around the state. Barbecue brings people together.
An eclectic, gritty bar in Midtown may seem like an unusual place to find classic Central Texas-style barbecue, but Villarreal and Barela have spent years doing pop-ups in locations like this. Mainly because it’s where they hang out when not making barbecue.
“We’ve been in the music and bar scene here for a while, and these are the places we’re familiar with,” says Villarreal.
Many in the crowd were fans of Willow and Jasmine, following them around to their (roughly) once-a-month popups, similar to how the fans of a band might traipse around the country to each of their concerts.
Pop-ups — temporary, oneday food events hosted by upand-coming chefs and pitmasters — are a win-win-win for all those involved.
The venue is introduced to a new group of potential customers. Though I consider myself a connoisseur of dive bars, Two Headed Dog was not on my radar before this pop-up. Now it’s an option for drinks before dinner at Brennan’s or a show at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston.
For aspiring pitmasters, pop-ups offer a low barrier to entry, allowing them to get their barbecue in front of real customers and receive immediate feedback on their future potential. Some of Houston’s best brick-and-mortar barbecue joints started out as pop-ups, including Blood Bros. BBQ, Pinkerton’s Barbecue and Feges BBQ.
Perhaps the most important benefit of pop-ups is that they introduce contemporary craftstyle barbecue to new audiences. The blessing and curse of Texas barbecue is that it’s often tradition-bound. Many barbecue fans are creatures of habit and go to their neighborhood barbecue joint exclusively. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But like any industry that aspires to stay relevant, casting a wide net is crucial to engaging new — and especially younger — audiences.
Whether at a dive bar in Midtown, a coffee shop in the Heights, or a brewery in the East End, new fans are created when pop-ups bring barbecue to the people.