Unlocking at least one secret to what makes Fargo's Pit BBQ so good

Alan Caldwell, owner and pitmaster at Fargo's Pit BBQ in Bryan, has been very protective of the cooking secrets that help make his joint one of the top two or three in Texas.

In the past, he has refused to tell the Posse and BBQ Snob Daniel Vaughn the kind of pit he uses or the kind of wood he burns.

"You still refusing to show anyone your pit?" he was asked during our weekend barbecue tour that covered 700 miles and took us to the Texas Gulf Coast.

"That's my secret," he said. "Let's talk about something else."

After we had eaten and Caldwell came out from behind the counter to talk, he seemed to mellow a bit.

He said he cooks with a brick pit that he had built on site.

"I like it because it will just seal in that flavor," Caldwell said of his smoker.

And, without being specific, he said he uses a mixture of wood.

Before we drove to our next stop, we did sneak a look through a gap in his fence. Outside his smokehouse was a big stack of oak.

Was that for real? Or, just a prop to fool BBQ snoops like us?

Only Caldwell knows for sure.


Photos ©Jim Rossman, bottom, & Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

The Houston BBQ Tour - A quick look at our itinerary

Here's a quick look at the itinerary for our first Houston BBQ Tour. Last Friday, we headed south down I-45 for a 700-mile journey, searching for the best smoked meats in the Houston area. Over the next two days, we stopped at eight joints stretching from Huntsville to Galveston.

This was our tenth organized BBQ tour since November 2009, when an early-morning visit to Snow's BBQ in Lexington started an obsession to search for the best BBQ in Texas. Barbecue would never taste the same again after that day.

We'll be writing about the tour in an upcoming travel story in The Dallas Morning News and on dallasnews.com, but here's a sneak peak at our itinerary.

HOUSTON BBQ TOUR ITINERARY

FRIDAY June 1
8:30 am: Leave Dallas
11 am: New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbecue, 2601 Montgomery Rd, Huntsville, TX 77340, 936-294-0884, Open: Thur-Sat 11 am-7 pm.
1 pm: Fargo’s Pit BBQ, 1220 N. Texas Ave., Bryan, 979-778-3662. Hours: Tue-Sat, 11 am-7 pm.
2:30 pm: Mallett Brothers Barbeque, ‪9339 Texas 6, Navasota, 936-825-9440. Hours Mon-Thurs 11 am-8:30 pm, Fri-Sat 11 am -9 pm, Sun 11 am-3 pm.
7:00 pm: Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue, 1703 Shepherd Dr, Houston, 713-227-2283. Open Mon-Sat 11 am-8 pm.
Overnight in Houston. Sheraton Houston Brookhollow Hotel

SATURDAY June 2
10 am: Stop by Galveston Beach for an hour of fishing and sun.
11 am: Leon's World's Finest In & Out Barbeque, 5427 Broadway St, Galveston, 409-744-9363. Open Sun-Thurs 11 am-7:30 pm, Fri-Sat 11 am-8 pm.
1:00 pm: Gatlin's BBQ, 1221 W. 19th St, Houston, 713-869-4227. Open Tues-Sat 11 am-7 pm.
2:30 pm: Virgie’s Bar-B-Que, 5535 Gessner Dr, Houston, 713-466-6525. Open Wed-Fri 11 am-6:30 pm, Sat 11 am-5:30 pm.
3:45 pm: Byron's Gourmet Bar-B-Que, 2101 W Little York, Houston, 713-290-0870. Open Mon, Wed-Sat 10 am-6:30 pm.
4:15 pm: Leave for Dallas, home at 8:15 pm.


Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

The thrill is gone from New Zion Missionary Baptist Church BBQ

Everyone in the Posse -- all five of us on this trip -- looked forward to our visit to New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbecue in Huntsville, the first stop on a 700-mile, 35-hour tour last weekend to the Texas Gulf coast.

Some love the Church's food and wax poetic about the atmosphere. But we were disappointed. Really disappointed.

"It was like a bubble burst," said Posse member Phil Lamb. "Boy, the romance is gone from that place."

"It was probably good yesterday," Jim Rossman said after tasting the brisket. No smoke, no taste, and the meat looked as if it had been reheated. The ribs and sausage were also routine.

"Our brisket at the K.C. hall is better," echoed Jim's dad, Tom, making his first tour with the Posse. Tom lives in Katy. He said his Knights of Columbus council cooks more than 100 briskets at a time for special occasions.


The first tip-off that things have changed at the Church's barbecue joint sat right outside the front door: a still shiny Ole Hickory smoker, mainly gas fired.

When did you get the new smoker? we asked the order taker.

"October," he said.

Does that thing use wood?

"Yes, some wood," he said.

We each ate a rib and finished the sausage but we couldn't eat all the brisket.

"When has the Posse last left brisket on its plate?" Lamb asked as we left.

Exactly.

The Church, aka: New Zion Missionary Baptist Church BBQ, 2601 Montgomery Rd, Huntsville, 936-294-0884. Open Thur-Sat 11 am-6 pm.


Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

Avoiding the dreaded barbecue belch

On a barbecue tour, sometimes wisdom sneaks up on you.

And so it was in Galveston on Saturday when Leon O'Neal told us his secret to preventing his customers from burping after they ate his smoked meat.

Use dry wood, the owner of Leon's World's Finest In and Out B-B-Q said, standing in front of a tall wall of cut oak. "That's where the after belch comes from."

In other words, sappy wood is burping bad.

Some might put this wisdom in the same category as always buy brisket from the left side of the cow, which we wrote about a while back.

Perhaps.

But Leon, with his straw cowboy hat, red apron, patent-leather-shiny black shoes, white mustache and soul patch, is the most stylish barbecue proprietor we've ever met.

So, until proven otherwise, we're cutting him some slack.

Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

Follow the Texas BBQ Posse on Facebook and Twitter

The Texas BBQ Posse began in November 2009 when six friends took their first BBQ road trip to Central Texas. As we sat beside the smokers at Snow's BBQ, our lives changed with the first bite of brisket during breakfast at the legendary Lexington joint. Stops at Louie Mueller, Smitty's and Kreuz Market followed that day. We started the Posse blog shortly thereafter.

Since then, we've driven 4,000-plus miles of Texas highways and backroads. Whether on organized tours or meandering road trips, we're always searching for the best BBQ in the state. We've reported on our adventures on the blog, on Facebook and sometimes in The Dallas Morning News, where about half of the Posse members work as writers, photographers and editors.

While the Texas BBQ Posse blog is the online foundation of our group, you can also join the Posse facebook page or subscribe to our Texas BBQ Posse twitter feed. Each outlet serves a different purpose as we combine channels to share everything we can find on the subject of Texas barbecue.

Our Twitter page is used for for breaking barbecue news, fun links or to alert followers of a new story on the Posse blog. It's our hope that the Posse Facebook page can serve as a digital community meeting place for all fans of Texas barbecue. Please help us spread the word by inviting your BBQ friends to check out the page. Also, always feel free to post your photos and stories on the page.

We promise to do the same as we continue to follow the smoke in search of the best smoked meats in the greatest state in the union!

Thanks/Chris Wilkins & Gary Jacobson

Katy Trail Ice House: The new kid on the BBQ block

We had the pleasure of checking out the latest serious BBQ player in Dallas on Friday. The Katy Trail Ice House, located on the trail near Reverchon Park, has been cooking BBQ on a huge custom-built smoker for the past two months. The results are quite impressive, especially given the short time they've been smoking meats.

Alerted by a recent blog post on written by Stephen Doyle on cravedfw, we rounded up a group and headed there for lunch. BBQ Snob Daniel Vaughn also rounded up a posse of five from nearby Good Fulton & Farrell, the architecture firm where he and photographer Nicholas McWhirter work.

We took over a table on the huge patio, named last year by D Magazine as the "Best Big Bar Patio" in Dallas. This is the kind of place you could easily spend the afternoon nibbling on some BBQ while diving into their huge beer selection. We sampled ribs and brisket, both chopped and sliced. They usually serve sausage, made for them by Rudolph's Market in Deep Ellum, but they didn't have any on this visit.

The consensus from our table of eight was two thumbs up all the way. The meats were cooked very well, with nice rub. The brisket was central Texas style, salt and pepper, and the ribs were cooked just right by my standards, very tender but not quite falling off the bone onto your plate. Posse member Phil Lamb likened the cole slaw to Salt Lick and the beans were very original, in a thick gravy.

We enjoyed meeting general manager Jimmy Fell and pitmaster Eduardo Flores. They really believe in doing things right, low and slow, and not taking shortcuts. Though neither has cooked BBQ commercially before, they each have a wealth of experience in the restaurant business. Currently, BBQ is usually only served only on Saturday & Sunday. We got lucky on this Friday, though Jimmy says they plan to expand to Fridays soon. We'll put out an update when they do.

It's hard to fully grasp a BBQ joint based on one visit, so we won't try to. Daniel mentioned he plans to make another visit of two before bestowing his coveted star rating on the Full Custom Gospel BBQ blog. Not to be too dramatic, but if Katy Trail Ice House can keep up this quality of BBQ on a consistent basis, Pecan Lodge and Lockhart Smokehouse will have some company atop the Dallas BBQ mountain.

Katy Trail Ice House, 3136B Routh Street, Dallas, 214-468-0600. Open Mon-Fri 11am–2am, Sat-Sun 10am–2am. BBQ served only on Saturday & Sunday.

The patio at Katy Ice House was voted "Best Big Bar Patio" last year by D Magazine.

Pepper coats some just-sliced brisket, hot off the pit.

Our posse digs into a big spread of sliced & chopped brisket and ribs, along with cole slaw and beans.

Ribs and brisket were on the menu this Friday, they usually have sausage as well.

BBQ Snob Daniel Vaughan shows off a huge burnt end right before we devoured it.

The next day's briskets, rubbed in salt and pepper, get started on the smoker in the early afternoon.

Katy Ice House general manager Jimmy Fell loads more red oak wood in the smoker. 

Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse