Higher Costs and Fewer Customers Are Killing Texas BBQ Joints

[Mosca]

From Texas Monthly.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so tough for restaurants in general, across the country. We used to go out for breakfast once a week; now it’s once every couple months. Same for dinner. Here in Wilkes-Barre, just for bbq, Smokey Bones locked their doors abruptly last week. Caribbean Smokehouse was dark at 5:30 yesterday. And other restaurants have been tossing in the towel, too.

[58limited]

Lots of food places are struggling in Texas.

Redbird BBQ here expanded their hours, they are now open Thursday and Friday from 5pm to sell out (or 7pm) in addition to their regular 11am-sellout hours Th-Sat. Not sure if this is because they are doing well or are trying to increase revenue.

Redbird was going to open a burger joint next door but the facebook page for Luckie's Burgers hasn't been updated since 9/29/25

[Donw]

Just personal belief but this is everywhere and not limited to BBQ.

[Michael_in_TX]

I've been following Bar-A-BBQ on social media ever since we went there in the April Meat-Up. The owner is quite open about the day-to-day business decisions of running a BBQ restaurant with razor-thin profit margins.

In the past few months, he's had to close the restaurant a few times if the projected foot traffic was going to be below a certain level.....usually due to street closures for construction on the weekends.

[Michael_in_TX]

Also, like Don said, it's everywhere. The perceived value of eating out just isn't what it used to be. The cost is a large driver, to be sure. I had a road trip two weekends ago and stopped off at a Jack-in-a-Box and got just a Sourdough Jack....and just the sandwich was $8...and it's good, but it is not that good!

A delivered pizza is nearly $30 these days (and they are definitely not good lol).

I think eclectic restaurants are doing better than most. People go there, in part, to spend more money than they should.

[Oak Smoke]

I see no sign of the problems easing. I’ve wondered if a bbq place could survive with only take out available. No dining area or the personnel to operate it. Several of the places I get food from have well designed web pages and are easy to put an online order together on. My two favorites have my debit card on file and charge to it automatically. I don’t know if drive throughs and whatever delivery services are available there would help offset the cost of food and labor.

[BKYDBBQ]

This seems like it would be similar to a food trailer that is set up in a permanent location, except with a building instead of a trailer. So I think it could work.

Curbside BBQ pick-up goes back to the early days of BBQ joints, if I remember my BBQ history reading correctly.

[Purc]

I have been to Heim BBQ (as mentioned in this article) in Fort Worth 4 times and the last time was 6 months ago. It was never very crowded, and I never had a great meal. Panther City BBQ in Fort Worth is much better. I went to Pecan Lodge BBQ in Dallas, several months ago, good food but no real crowds. The last 2 mini Meat Ups at Dayne's Craft BBQ and Cattleack BBQ (both in Texas Monthly Top 20) had good crowds and most importantly good food. In the past 2 months I had dinner at a local Tex Mex, a Thai and an Italian restaurant, a sports bar, and lunch at a Chicago style deli, good food and all were busy. If I want BBQ, I will smoke it myself, except for brisket. Maybe that's the problem. Go figure.

[Oak Smoke]

We’ve got to have you down to the house to cook a brisket! It’ll be fun!

[ecowper]

Here in our kinda small town in Western WA we had an Indian restaurant open a year ago, with amazing food, great service, and prices as reasonable as they could make them. By December, with almost no traffic to speak of, they were going to close their doors. A couple of community members found out, got on the community Facebook pages (we have two, each with about 10,000 members), and the response was amazing. The community has showed up every single night since mid December and filled every seat while the restaurant is open. It's been so good for them that they are now able to commit to staying open on a month to month basis.

This, of course, is not the norm but it does show what a determined community can do for a small, local business if we want to.

Unfortunately, during that same time frame, we have had a brewery and a bbq joint shut down ..... and there was only one bbq joint anywhere close :-(

[jayjordan]

Being involved in the restaurant industry, I agree it's not just BBQ and its not just Texas. We're seeing restaurants all over the country that have been open for 20+ years to just 3 or 4 years call it quits.
As in regards to Texas BBQ, I've been wondering for a while how the market can support as many "craft bbq" places that have opened in the past decade.
I'm going to say something controversial - that as many specialty and boutique type bbq places close it gives those places that are long-time institutions in Texas BBQ a better chance of surviving and that's not a bad thing.
And I'm with Purc - except for brisket (and sausage which I haven't tried to make) I can cook ribs, pork butt, turkey and chicken that's as good as most bbq places.

[TripleB]

Totally agree. Became a KCBS BBQ judge back in 2017. BBQ competitions were booming, BBQ TV shows, BBQ celebrities, etc. Now.... less than 1/2 the comps in CA now. BBQ is a fad and it's losing steam.

Also, having worked in the food industry too, the profit margin on BBQ must be so small. Pasta is cheap and the profit margin is large. But proteins....that is tough to make money on.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Here BBQ places keep popping up. The ones popping up are changing their menus to cheaper cuts and lots of starches included, so you get less meat but still full for the same price as fast food. Granted most of them are food trucks or other type restaurants that have a couple BBQ things featured.

Some places need some better marketing so people know they exist and why they should be seeking out something other than brisket or ribs. On the non-bbq side been seeing a lot of pho and Indian places popping up, which is wild because that market has been neglected here for decades.

[synodog]

Cost has definitely gone up but if the food is good they seem to still attract a crowd here in The Valley of the Sun. We eat out regularly but we have our “cheap” rotation of places we eat and throw in an occasional “nicer” place.

[Richard Chrz]

My wife and I are definitely part of the problem, we go out once a year on our anniversary for no budget dinning experience. We go to a small little tavern for breakfast and bloody Mary’s maybe 4 times a year and maybe 2 - 3 other times by family invite.

I have not been inside a chain location in probably 10 plus years.

I just cannot justify or truly afford the expense of eating out.

[SheilaAnn]

You are all hitting the nail on the head! Costs are crazy! COGS, Rent, Utilities, Supplies, Construction/Remodel/Upgrades. etc. It's a nightmare!

[ecowper]

COGS? Cost of goods and services?

[Steve R.]

COGS = cost of goods sold ecowper

[Lynn Dollar]

I wonder how many people learned to smoke barbecue at home during covid. The seasoning businesses boomed, as did grills/smokers. Now, they're making really good barbecue at home.

Though me, I like to eat barbecue prepared by someone else, occasionally. I like going to new places also. Gives me something to compare mine to.

But yeah, its an expensive meal at the joints. For my wife and I, its easily $60 to $70. Although last place we went was Sid's in El Reno, home of the Oklahoma Onion burger, and we got out of there for $22. Gonna do more of that.

[LA Pork Butt]

With food costs and other inflationary factors it is pretty difficult to pay someone to cook your food and cleanup after the meal. If you remember during COVID people learned to cook at home. When I was growing up restaurants were few and far between. Usually there was one wage earner and the other cooked and took care of stuff at home. That was how families made ends meet. Now we have two wager earner households and as prices have risen there is no room to in income to cover the increase. It is either fast food or cook at home. Either one will give BBQ joints or Restaurants a hit. I recently read an article that said the Chipotle took a hit because their clientele could no longer afford to eat there.

[ecowper]

I’m 58 and restaurants, movie theaters, etc were very costly. We rarely at out in the 1970’s and it was a huge treat when we did. Mom was a homemaker, dad worked, we ate at home. We went to the movies once every couple months, probably the same with eating out. And likely that was something not too expensive, like Denny’s. Which I recall being much better then than now.

[LA Pork Butt]

ecowper I was a grade schooler in the ‘50’s. Labor was cheap and materials were expensive. If people could repair it themselves they saved on labor. Where I grew up there were neighborhood theaters. No one made any money, but we would be dropped off on a Saturday for a double feature matinée. It cost $.25 with a margarine coupon. I think it was a form of inexpensive baby sitting.

[Donw]

LA Pork Butt Yes, the Sunrise Theater on Saturday mornings was my favorite babysitter of them all. Besides the movies all the kids in town were there too.