Houston BBQ king Jerry Pizzitola's epiphany: His brisket isn't in the same league as Snow's

WARNING: This post contains some gloating, but we hope it stops well short of excessive celebration.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about our latest BBQ tour, in search of good smoked meat in Houston.

We didn't find any. And we quoted Houston Chronicle photographer Smiley Pool, who shared a Pulitzer Prize while at The Dallas Morning News, saying if you wanted good BBQ in Houston, then you had to get in a car and drive two hours.

Several readers chided our taste and challenged our BBQ expertise. One even took at shot at the beer we drank. That's low. Really low.

Now comes a story out of Houston about Jerry Pizzitola, owner of Pizzitola's Bar-B-Cue on Shepherd Drive, one of the places we visited. We found the history of his joint better than the barbecue.

It seems that Pizzitola had an epiphany while eating at Snow's in Lexington early this year. After tasting Snow's brisket, Pizzitola realized that the brisket he served wasn't in the same league.

The Posse agrees. We think Snow's brisket is great. Only two other places in the state -- Franklin's in Austin and Fargo's in Bryan -- are equal or better.

Since seeing the light, Pizzitola and his pitmasters have been experimenting with different sizes of brisket, different cooking times, temperatures and wrapping techniques.

"It's better," Pizzitola told the Web site 29-25.com last week, "but it's not where we want it to be. Not now. Not yet."

We applaud Pizzitola's honesty and wish him luck in his quest. Better brisket is a noble goal.

And, we have to thank him for supporting our original judgment about Houston.

Indeed, good barbecue there is still two hours away.

Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

History more interesting than BBQ at Pizzitola's in Houston

Pizzitola's. Great name for a pizza joint.

And that's exactly what what some potential customers mistakenly thought until the place changed its signs several years ago, adding references to barbecue, said manager Lexie Moore.

"Everyone thanked us for bringing barbecue to the neighborhood," Moore said. "We had it all the time."

We arrived at Pizzitola's Bar-B-Cue on Shepherd Drive in Houston about an hour or so before closing on a Friday night.

The joint touts itself as "Houston's Home for Spareribs" and they weren't bad. Neither was the sausage. But the brisket was closer to roast beef, dry and without much taste.

The real story of Pizzitola's, though, is its history rather than its smoked meats.

The joint's lineage traces to the 1930s and pitmaster John Davis, who ran Shepherd Drive Bar-B-Q. "John P. Davis, World's Greatest Barbecue Man," says one sign on Pizzitola's wall.

According to a 1988 Houston Post article that also hangs on the wall, Davis, who was black, segregated his customers. Blacks in the front and whites in the back.

Jerry Pizzitola, who played football for the Texas Aggies in the early 1960s, took over operations from the Davis family in the early 1980s and changed the name. He retained the original wood-fired brick pits, which are still used.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the two 12 foot-by-6 foot pits are examples of "traditional open pit barbecue that can't be found anywhere else in Houston."

Moore said retaining that history comes with some limitations. Pizzitola's can't make major changes to its building.

"If we do, we lose our grandfather clause on the pits," he said as he gave us a tour of the place.

That would be a shame.




Photos ©Philip Lamb (top) & Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse