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

If you want good BBQ in Houston, get in a car and drive 2 hours

Gatlin's BBQ, located just a few miles from downtown Houston, might have the best motto we've ever run into on our barbecue tours.

"Welcome to Gatlin's," the sign said. "Where love is the secret ingredient."

And if you want to experience the reality of life in a no-zoning, anything-goes big city, this is the place.

Next door is a garden expo that looks like a nursery. Directly across the street are an engine repair business, a house where people live and an automotive sales building.

Welcome to Houston.

Gatlin's gets rave reviews from some, but the Posse was underwhelmed.

"If this is the best Houston has to offer, we've kicked their ass," Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins said, referring to the Dallas area.

Houston photographer Smiley Pool, who sandwiched a tour of duty at The Dallas Morning News between working at the Houston Chronicle, joined the Posse on this stop.

In Houston, Pool observed, "everyone says that if you want good barbecue you pile in a car and take a two-hour drive." He referred to the great joints in Central Texas.

The Posse agrees. At Gatlin's, we ordered brisket, ribs and chicken. To begin with, the service was excruciatingly slow. Then, the brisket was moist, but bland. And the ribs and chicken were just O.K.

"It's a lot of O.K.," Posse member Jim Rossman said.

Of course, you might want to discount Rossman's opinion just a bit. On a solo run to City Market in Luling that morning, he had what he called the best rib he had ever eaten.

"Moist, creamy, crunchy perfection," Rossman said.

Yes, the best barbecue in Houston is two hours away.


Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

The Posse takes a beach break in Galveston

For me, a little beach goes a long way.

So, during the Posse's 45-minute beach break in Galveston last weekend, midway through a 700-mile, 35-hour barbecue tour, I mainly watched the pelicans dive-bombing for fish. At times, I'd swear those big birds were flying in attack formation.

Phil Lamb, an attorney and also the wheelman on the tour in his Chevy Tahoe, fished from a rocky breakwater nearby. He caught one small mullet and 15 pounds of seaweed.

Chris Wilkins, a photo editor at The Dallas Morning News, shucked his shoes and walked into the surf for a while.

Then he did what he always does. He started taking photographs ... of Lamb and other fisherman...of the buildings just across the road from the seawall ... and of me, watching the birds.

All in all, it was a nice way to spend part of a Saturday morning as we waited for Leon O'Neal to open the doors of his joint -- Leon's World's Finest In and Out B-B-Q -- just a few minutes away.


Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

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