Truth BBQ…..Houston,Tx

[Panhead John]

In case anyone thinks Austin has a stranglehold on great Texas BBQ joints, hold on just a minute. Houston does pretty well itself thank you. 58limited and I met this morning for lunch at Truth BBQ…located in the upscale Heights neighborhood, just south of I-10 and a little west of downtown. Truth BBQ in Houston was rated the #3 BBQ joint in the state by the last Texas Monthly Top 50 in Texas list. They also received a Michelin Bib Gourmand award earlier this week. There’s been a lot of buzz about Truth BBQ the last few years so David and I decided to see what it was all about.

Back in 2015 Leonard Botello opened Truth BBQ in Brenham, Tx, a little over an hour west of Houston. [home of Blue Bell ice cream] Just 2 years later he was awarded a #10 ranking in the 2017 Texas Monthly Top 50 list! Fast forward to 2019 and he opens his second location, where we ate today.



I arrived around 10:05, after parking I thought I’d be first in line!


Dumbass me thought that was the entrance, no, it was the exit! The entrance was at the other end of the building…🙄 Worked out pretty good anyway, David and I were number 9 and 10 in line.



Since we had some time to kill, I walked around to check out some of their smokers. These were just their outside smokers…😳




The stack on this thing must have been about 15’ tall!




After getting inside, there’s a glass wall which allows you to see the inside smokers and prep areas.


Their menu


I really liked the atmosphere of the place and plenty of seating…inside and outside.


Everyone was super friendly, as well as their Head Busser Jerry


Ok ok, enough already! How about the food? Gimme a few minutes, I’m out of picture space in this post….

[captainlee]

Hope you didn't get hurt this time trying to be first in line. Keep finding these great places.

[Panhead John]

I ordered the 3 meat plate, which came with 2 sides. [$30.]. My meats were brisket, pork ribs and some jalapeño and cheese sausage. Sides were tater tot casserole and some baked beans. A small fountain drink was $3.50…🙄 While in line I thought I’d buy a koozie and one of their Truth BBQ T-shirts. There was no pricing on the T-shirt shelf but I grabbed one anyway, thinking…it’s only gonna be maybe $15-$20, tops….NOT! After she rang up my order the damn thing was THIRTY &}$#%%@ dollars! Never again will I do that! Anyway, here’s some eye candy……..

From bottom left…excellent pickled onions, sausage, brisket, ribs, pickles 👍, bread , tater tot casserole and the baked beans




The brisket slice barely stayed in one piece

Close up of the jalapeño and cheese sausage and brisket


I consider myself both lucky and blessed to have such great BBQ within my reach. I thought the brisket was very good, although it could have used a little more seasoning IMO. The pork ribs were great, not quite fall off the bone [good] but very tender and a nice smoke flavor. Believe it or not, the sausage was my only, slight, disappointment. While pretty good, it actually had too much cheese in it for my tastes. About half that amount with a little more jalapeño added and it would have been great. The cheese actually took away from the taste of the sausage. My tater tot casserole was excellent and the baked beans were pretty darn good as well. Overall grade from me is a solid A. [excluding the sausage]

The line was about 60-75 people strong when we left.

[Lynn Dollar]

Panhead John .......... hey that's great !! She says THANKS !!

[Panhead John]

Y'all are welcome! I’m gonna have to try that myself now. 😋

[RichieB]

Yea that looks good and I'm a Tatar Tot fan. Dropped in Paprika.

[Jfrosty27]

Dayum John. 👏👏.

[captainlee]

Wow, looks fantastic. Lucky to have such great places close by.

[Michael_in_TX]

I spent $30 at Taco Cabana today (jeez their tacos are expensive now!). You got the better deal.

Two years ago Matt Pittman of Meat Church did a twenty-five minute video in which Leonard Botello IV, the owner of Truth Barbecue, walks you though a brisket cook there. There is nothing earth shattering in it, but I found it very interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4c6C--WXa0

[Michael_in_TX]

I just noticed this.....in the video there is a shot of the prices.

Here's what the prices were two years ago....



And here's John's shot from this morning for comparison:



So brisket has gone up a bit and the sausage as well.....I was surprised to see most things have stayed the same. Also looks like they added several sandwiches.

[realdocBBQ]

Can't see the pic from 2y ago with prices. But I'm looking at today's prices and just SMDH.

[Panhead John]

Same here Tom.

[DaveD]

No before photo on Chrome via PC.

[RichieB]

Thanks for sharing. Looks good. I usually buy hats. There a bit cheaper and I wear hats all the time to make my bald skull warm.

[DavidNorcross]

Man this looks fantastic!

[Panhead John]

David, it was pretty darn good but you know what? At the NC MeatUp, I actually liked the brisket at East of Texas a little better, and man, I keep thinking about those tater tots they served….👏👏👏

[DavidNorcross]

Those tater tots were good. So was the squash, we still make that one ourselves. That was a good place and a wonderful time for sure.

[58limited]

I agree with Panhead John , this was an excellent dining experience. I got the three meat plate plus a slice of turkey. The meats: brisket, ribs, Spicy Pepper Jack sausage, and the turkey. For sides I got the corn pudding (bottom right) and the tater tot casserole (top right). The turkey is covering the brisket in my photo, didn't notice that when I took the picture.



Sliced Spicy Pepper Jack sausage:



I was not disappointed by anything. Me and John had a conversation about how blessed we are to have so much world class BBQ within easy driving distance. Its all good but when we get together and critique these places (either just me and PJ or the Meat Up crowd from AR), we often sound like snobs and seem like we are criticizing the food when in fact we are enjoying it but comparing it to other places. The average customer would be blown away by any of the places we've been to.

Critique: The brisket was really good and tender but as John said it needed a little more seasoning. Same for the ribs: good smokey flavor but just needed a little more rub. Mine were almost fall-off-the-bone. The turkey was tender, juicy, and good but a little bland compared to 1701 or Redbird near me. Still one of the better slices of turkey that I've had at a Texas BBQ place (most are on the dry side). The surprise on the plate was the Spicy Pepper Jack sausage: it tasted like a bowl of chili to me; chili powder forward with a strong cumin note (maybe a little too strong). The amount of cheese was fine (I agree with John - too much cheese in the Jalapeno Cheddar sausage).

The corn pudding was great, almost as good as Burnt Bean's but Burnt Bean did the cheese and mayo street corn topping which bumps theirs up a notch or two. The tater tot casserole was very good, on a par with the ones I've had from other places.


All in all, this short 200+ mile round trip was worth it. This was across the street from Truth:



If I ever move to Houston this is where I'm going to live: an apartment complex with a full size HEB on the ground floor! Imagine living right above your favorite grocery store, across the street from Truth BBQ, and across the street from a good music venue in a cool old bank building: Rockefeller Hall. I think PJ told me that he heard Pink play there several years ago Anyway, we popped into the HEB and I bought a double bone Duroc pork chop to try out (looks like commodity pork, not red like the Berkshire pork chops I get from Wild Fork) and some wagyu outside skirt steak to replace the one I lost in the freezer malfunction

[Panhead John]

Pink??!! How dare you say that! It was The Village People.

[Jerod Broussard]

The neat thing about making sausage is the shear number of variations. Or just add a little salt and pepper and call it a day.

[Michael_in_TX]

If I ever move to Houston this is where I'm going to live: an apartment complex with a full size HEB on the ground floor! Imagine living right above your favorite grocery store, across the street from Truth BBQ, and across the street from a good music venue in a cool old bank building: Rockefeller Hall.

The year is 2034. Due to a myriad of factors including exorbitant property taxes, windstorm rates, and coastal erosion, the Texas members of The Pitmaster Club have found themselves renting places in the HEB building on South Heights Boulevard. It was only natural for them all to be able to occupy most of the units....after all....for reasons....they tended to scare off all of the other tenants.

Panhead John was unanimously elected as the HOA President. (Something about women, but bourbon has dulled our memories.)

We meet every morning for our five-hour brunch at Truth Barbecue, being thankful that the newly discovered cholesterol-eliminating medicines are so effective.

After brunch we meander into HEB, because....it is HEB....and Texas. Michael_in_TX, now with his long, flowing sleet-white hair gets mistaken for Fabio and tries to convince the curious onlookers to this motley crew that we are not a cult....we just really like this grocery store.

[Sid P]

Ha ha. Put me down for a two bedroom unit.

[Michael_in_TX]

This actually is a grocery store.



It has escalators.

(Granted, the property values in this area of Houston are in excess of $800,000.....which is very pricey for Houston.)

[Panhead John]

Where is that Michael?

[Michael_in_TX]

Panhead John It's the same HEB/apartment complex you photographed, just from the Washington Ave side. Truth's is across the street to the right.

[Mosca]

I was not disappointed by anything. Me and John had a conversation about how blessed we are to have so much world class BBQ within easy driving distance. Its all good but when we get together and critique these places (either just me and PJ or the Meat Up crowd from AR), we often sound like snobs and seem like we are criticizing the food when in fact we are enjoying it but comparing it to other places. The average customer would be blown away by any of the places we've been to.

I second this. With a couple exceptions (the roundly derided and now defunct Valentina’s, and Black’s Original in San Marcos), ANY bbq I had in Texas was OUTSTANDING. It’s an exercise in parsing excellence; on a 1-10 scale it’s handing out 9.57 vs 9.49.

My last workplace did some remodeling, and yesterday held a “Grand Reopening” of the Mazda building, and they had a BBQ truck passing out sandwiches and sides. I spent a few minutes talking to one of the owners, and she said Texas was where they learned bbq when they lived for a number of years in Beaumont. So I told her I’d try the brisket, then.

It tasted like I was reading the write up of a post titled “First brisket, what did I do wrong?” Well, you made a dry brisket with a nice smoke ring and okay bark. Keep practicing! You’ll get it right! I had intended to snap photos, but it wasn’t worth it. The sides were canned Campbell’s baked beans and some pretty basic but really decent mac & cheese.

Good thing you left Texas.

Because it was free, I grabbed a pulled pork sandwich to go, with Carolina Gold bbq sauce on the side. That was okay, good enough but nowhere near as good as anything we had in North Carolina last spring. The Gold sauce was 50/50 bbq sauce and mustard, which, well, sure! That’s good. But there was nothing that elevated it. It was acceptable bbq. I just picked at it, I’ll grab a quick snap…



Eh. It’s good. The mac & cheese, I grabbed a double up. It was pretty good (and free), we’ll have it tonight as a side with ham slices and roasted acorn squash.

My point being: This is what happens in Pennsylvania. And that is why some places are celebrated for BBQ, and others are not.

[realdocBBQ]

Damn Mosca, I'm sorry you had to endure that... that... smoked meat. I won't call it BBQ, it sounds like it was an insult to the genre. I do think you're right, some of us easily get spoiled by what we have available - and by what we can DO! I'm no Aaron Franklin or Tuffy Stone, but I can turn out some que that most of my friends, neighbors and coworkers seem to think is pretty decent - even if I'm always overcritiquing my own, as my wife likes to point out! lol

[58limited]

I live near Beaumont which, until very recently, had no good barbecue or barbecuers. If the food truck poeple learned BBQ in Beaumont then I'm not surprised at the quality you experienced. I wonder if they scraped the fat off the brisket when it came out of the smoker? That's a common East Texas thing.

1701 BBQ and Redbird BBQ here in SE Texas trained in Central Texas. Redbird trained with Goldee's.

[Mosca]

Yeah, they very well may have scraped the fat off. Who knows. This was the kind of thing that you save by preparing a jus and simmering it in there, then serving it shredded.

[TripleB]

I love seeing these Texas write-ups, showing the location, smokers and people standing in line. I had great BBQ during the San Marcos Meat-Up. One of the best things I had was the lamb. I love lamb. I think I love it more than beef. I think I would rank my proteins in order of: Lamb, pork and beef/chicken are a tie.

We'll never see a BBQ house like this in So. Cal. Those smokers would never get permitted through the local Air Quality District . In the near future, kitchen gas stoves and heaters will be a thing of the past.

Great write up John. Thanks for posting.

[TripleB]

Panhead John In a nutshell, it's not CA regulations, but the Federal government. So. Cal cannot meet the Federal Air Quality emissions standards due to a natural inversion layer over the region. The Indians called So Cal, the valley of smoke. So for the Air Quality District to get funding from the Federal government, they have to put a plan in place to meet the Federal requirements. It is what it is. Our air is much better now than it was back in the 70's and 80's.

[Sid P]

Mosca Purc I loved San Marcos BBQ - including the "decor". One of those faded signs was for a beer I’d never heard of - Yingling or something like that. Turns out it’s a Pennsylvania beer and Tom knew all about it.

[Mosca]

Yep, Yuengling Brewery is about 50 miles from me. They’re the oldest continually operating brewery in the US, they made near beer and malt extract during Prohibition.