At the end of last year, Hop and Sting Brewing, in Grapevine, lost its longtime barbecue partner. Trey Sanchez moved his mobile Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q operation into a new physical location, in Allen, but he had a suggestion for his replacement. The duo of Christian Martinez and Paul Pizana had grown Pasión BBQ from pop-up to food truck in two short years and needed a new spot. “They were happy to have us here, and we were blessed to be here,” Martinez says.Martinez and Pizana were childhood friends growing up in Arlington, and they bonded as adults over barbecue. Together in their backyards, they smoked ribs and briskets for their friends and family members before moving on to beef tongue and cheeks. “We would try…

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It was the hottest day of the summer thus far in Houston, and Chicano BBQ‘s pop-up tent offered little shade from the late-afternoon sun. Serafin Ramirez stood sweating in the parking lot of Tikila’s bar, surrounded by a portable flattop with sizzling burgers, a roiling deep fryer on wheels, and a hot box filled with barbecue. I yelled my order over the roar of a crawfish vendor’s propane burner next to where Ramirez has been setting up five days a week for the last two months. It was a scene that folks who are considering becoming pitmasters should witness before they take the plunge.But Ramirez doesn’t seem fazed. The 24-year-old Houston native has been making money from barbecue since high school. He used to take…

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Fernando “Fred” Mendoza needed a smoker, and he had some Longhorn cattle to trade. Mendoza owns M3 Longhorn Ranch, near Valley View, less than twenty miles from Oklahoma. Nolan Belcher owns B4 Barbeque, in Mabank, with his wife, Emily, and they had a five-hundred-gallon smoker for sale. “He wanted some Texas Longhorns, and I wanted a barbecue pit,” Mendoza told me. Belcher ended up with seven head of livestock in the deal, and he moved them to join the rest of the small herd on his land in Mabank, about 120 miles southeast of Valley View.Mendoza has grown his herd of Longhorns for years, using a breeding program to produce cows with exceptionally long horns. Whereas other breeds are prized for milk production or marbling,…

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There are plenty of wife-and-husband teams who run barbecue joints, but at El Tejas Twist, in Forney, a town about 25 miles east of Dallas, the whole family is involved. Customers order from Esmeralda Alaniz, who patiently explains the vast menu. Her husband, Fernando Serrato, prepares the orders. Fernando’s sister Carolina Benavides makes the sides, while her husband, Victor Benavides, mans the smokers outside. Carlos Serrato, Fernando’s brother, is the utility man who helps in all roles. Together, they produce a unique variety of barbecue and Tex-Mex dishes at a joint that remains inexplicably under the radar after three years of being open.“People love the menu because they can mix it up,” Fernando explained. Barbecue platters, stuffed baked potatoes, and Texas Twinkies are just the…

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