This makes me sad as I have used City Market as the standard since I went there about 20 years ago. Granted, there are a TON of joints I've yet to visit, but that visit to City Market was exquisite. Everything was perfect...meats, sides, atmosphere. It was everything eating BBQ should be. it was the single best bite of smoked brisket I'd ever had before or since. Loved that place.
Maybe it was a bad day and maybe we needed to specify what cut we wanted from the brisket. I know it has a good reputation so I'm willing to give it another shot next time I'm in the area.
This Houston-area barbecue restaurant serves one of our favorite new desserts J.C. Reid The mural on the side of the new Space Craft BBQ trailer in Clear Lake features an astronaut floating in space. Appropriate, considering the trailer’s location across from Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base and its proximity to the nearby Johnson Space Center. Closer inspection of the mural reveals that the astronaut is tethered to an offset barrel smoker. It’s the perfect representation of this venture by friends Ben Muths and Aaron Timmons, who have created a barbecue business inspired by the space industry of Clear Lake and the craft traditions of contemporary Texas barbecue. Muths was born and raised in the Clear Lake area; Timmons grew up around Austin. After moving to Clear Lake to be near family and friends in 2021, Timmons approached Muths about opening a barbecue venture with a brewery component. They were inspired by the wildly popular Meanwhile Brewing Co. in Austin that includes a family-friendly, community-oriented venue and the highly rated Distant Relatives barbecue trailer. “There are not a lot of cool places to go (in Clear Lake) as a young adult with a family,” says Muths, who along with Timmons each have two young children. The partners made the leap with Muths handling the business side and Timmons cooking and developing a menu. The top two priorities: finding a trailer and a location to set up shop. This is where Muth’s deep local connections paid off. Muth’s family is close to Paulie Gaido, an owner of Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant in Galveston. Gaido had a 25-foot food trailer he wasn’t using and donated it to Muth and Timmons to use with the caveat that in the case of a local emergency or natural disaster, they would use it to serve the community. The partners jumped at the chance. Trailer secured. As for a location, Muths had become acquainted with Atul Jain, whose family owns the Motu Stop chain of gas stations in the Galveston and Clear Lake areas. The idea of these stores is to incorporate local flavor and art into each location. Space Craft BBQ was a natural fit for a new location across from Ellington Field. Each Motu location features local art, including murals by Galveston-born artist Gabriel Prusmack. Muths and Timmons hired him to paint their trailer, and he came up with the floating astronaut/pitmaster idea along with the tagline “Lost in the craft.” This refers to the partner’s commitment to the highest quality of contemporary Texas barbecue inspired by Austin pitmasters like Tom Micklethwait of Micklethwait Craft Meats and John Bates of Interstellar BBQ. Using a unique 750-gallon offset barrel smoker (they’re usually 500 or 1,000 gallon), Timmons and Muth cook a great Texas trinity of brisket, pork ribs and sausage. Like their Austin peers, they also get creative when it comes to sides, desserts and sandwiches. Continuing the space theme, there’s a Thai Fighter Potato Salad that uses a red curry base and a house-made Dark Side of the Moon Pie, which is my new favorite dessert at a Houston barbecue joint. Sandwiches (usually featured on Sundays) include a classic chopped brisket version as well as a banh mi and sausage wrap. Though the name on the side of the trailer is Space Craft BBQ & Taps, the “taps” or brewery component is still in the works. But if the beer is as good as the barbecue, Clear Lake will gain a great community gathering spot for barbecue fans and families alike.
I finally made the trip to Snow's BBQ in Lexington. It was great, the brisket is debatable as top 3 for sure.
The Sunday-only pork shank sounds awesome: https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/harlem-road-texas-bbq-richmond-ara-malekian/
looks fabulous. ingredients: Malekian feels the same about the wood he uses. He burns only staves from red-wine barrels trucked in from Napa Valley, in California. “It’s a cleaner, gentler smoke,” Malekian explains. His pork shanks spend seven hours cooking, the first three gathering smoke and the next four tenderizing in a foil-covered pan. The pork drippings are collected and used as a base for the curry sauce he serves alongside the shank. Malekian combines fenugreek, turmeric, paprika, star anise, dried ginger, garlic powder, and cayenne and blooms the spices in hot butter. Then he adds the mixture to the drippings and thickens the resulting sauce with potato starch. The pork easily falls away from the bone, making it great for dipping into the thin but flavorful sauce.
had to look up where Kenefick is. Weaver’s BBQ is a hidden gem in deep Southeast Texas J.C. Reid If you spent any time on the West Coast in the early 2010s, you may have crossed paths with Jesse Weaver. He may have been the guy on the street corner in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco busking (singing) for a donation, or hanging out with a troop of aspiring comedians selling jokes to passersby for a quarter (they were called the “Quarter Joke Crew” if that rings a bell). This is the story of how a Spring native went from traveling around the West Coast to making some of the best barbecue in Southeast Texas from a trailer in the parking lot of a gas station in the small town of Kenefick. It started at The Gap store in The Galleria in 2012. As a novice plumber, Weaver forgot to re-attach a condensation line in the ceiling above the store, with predictable results. “The ceiling collapsed and ruined a whole bunch of clothes,” says Weaver, resulting in a short-lived career as a plumber. “So, after that is when I hit the road.” He joined the ranks of America’s travelers – a loosely knit, transient subculture of modern-day nomads who crisscross the country living simply, earning money through odd jobs, busking, and street performance. The lifestyle, which gained broader attention through the Oscar-winning film Nomadland, became Weaver’s reality for nearly a decade. By 2021, weary from the road and yearning for roots, Weaver, 35, returned to Texas, landing in Conroe to stay with family. But reintegrating wasn’t easy. Eight years on the road doesn’t exactly fill out a conventional résumé. Like many aspiring pitmasters who get into the barbecue business, Weaver began watching online videos from established joints like Franklin Barbecue, LeRoy & Lewis, and Goldee’s Barbecue. He started doing pop-ups in Conroe and eventually bought a trailer with assistance from his older brother. His family owns property in Kenefick, near Dayton, and decided this small town would be a good place to park the trailer and set up shop. He contacted two friends from his traveling days, Chad Stein and Tyler Bugh, to join him in the endeavor. They opened in 2022 and after some stops-and-starts have hit their stride making some of the best and most creative barbecue in Southeast Texas. The three partners moved to Kenefick and focus all their energies on the barbecue operation. They brought on additional staff including Jesse’s brother Bobby and friends Greg Baughman, Cory Seik, and Kelly Brewer. ”We all live together and so after work, we're sitting on the back porch, drinking a couple of beers and just talking,” says Weaver. “And it's like a light bulb that doesn't turn off. We start random-firing ideas and just building off of it, and then sometimes it hits and sometimes it doesn't.” Fortunately, everything that makes it on the menu are hits. They make a classic craft barbecue brisket from prime-grade beef which is an outlier in this small corner of Texas where select grade is the norm. Sides have their own twists, including a smoked gouda pasta salad and a deviled egg potato salad. Recent specials include kimchi fried rice topped with honey gochujang burnt ends. In a state brimming with barbecue heavyweights and long lines, Weaver and his team are carving out a unique identity – one rooted in creativity, camaraderie, and the kind of offbeat charm that only life on the road can teach. Kenefick might not be on the typical barbecue pilgrim’s map, but may be soon. Go now, before the secret’s out and the line stretches down the gravel parking lot. Weavers BBQ 3808 FM 1008, Dayton; 409-277-3292 Open Thu-Fri 11am-8pm, Sat Sun 11am-6pm (or sold out). https://www.houstonchronicle.com/fo...0MWEwLTliODQtZDljM2Q5MWEyOWEy&sharecount=MQ==
