When Brandon Cruz lastly discovered the potential smoker for his future restaurant, again in 2007, it was on one of many worst days of his life. Driving by the Jack within the Field in Wharton, he noticed a truck and trailer loaded with outdated propane tanks. Cruz supplied the motive force $175 money for a glossy 380-gallon tank he may flip right into a smoker. The driving force refused, saying it may fetch $300 on the scrapyard. Simply then, the motive force seen a flat tire on his trailer and requested Cruz if he had a jack sufficiently big to assist. “For 100 and twenty-five {dollars} I’ve a jack,” Cruz advised him, and the motive force agreed to half with the tank at Cruz’s decreased value.
Cruz was elated, and he dropped the tank on the home of a good friend, an area pit builder, who may convert it right into a smoker. As he drove away, he noticed his stepfather, Damon Lackey, driving by in his Suburban. Lackey turned a nook to move house, and when Cruz seemed down the road after him, he noticed the rear finish of the Suburban protruding of a ditch. Alarmed, Cruz approached the SUV and located Lackey struggling a coronary heart assault. He referred to as 911, broke the window of the locked automobile, and pulled Lackey out to carry out CPR. Cruz couldn’t revive him, and neither may the paramedics who arrived shortly after.
A decade later, Cruz and his spouse, Shelly, have been planning to make use of the barbecue expertise they’d gained on the competitors path to open their very own place. When it got here time to call it, Cruz thought again to his final dialog with Lackey, two weeks earlier than his dying. Cruz had dropped off a smoked hen for Lackey and his mom. Lackey referred to as him afterward to inform him it was the very best hen he’d ever eaten. “At some point you’re going to deliver actual Texas barbecue to the world,” Cruz remembers Lackey telling him, so the Cruzes determined to call Damon’s Actual Texas BBQ in honor of him.
Cruz was born and raised in Wharton, about an hour southwest of Houston, however he fell in love with northern New Mexico by means of his journeys with Shelly to the Taos space. In 2019, pals there inspired him to open a joint of their barbecue-starved land. The Cruzes held pop-ups in Wharton to avoid wasting up for a restaurant in New Mexico. However when the COVID pandemic hit, in 2020, their plans modified. Cruz’s different profession as a bail bondsman dried up: Most defendants awaiting trial in Wharton have been launched in the course of the pandemic and didn’t require bonds. If he and Shelly didn’t begin serving barbecue often, they wouldn’t have any revenue. They started promoting extra often from their yard to make ends meet.
In 2021 a good friend offered them a snow cone stand. It was greater than a shack—there was area for a kitchen and a pit room, and the big picket deck had a cover to maintain it shaded. They purchased a brand new smoker so as to add to the 380-gallon offset. After portray the pink buildings black and including the Damon’s brand, they opened for actual in Might 2022.
The couple has saved the enterprise going by means of two lean years. Their barbecue hasn’t acquired protection from the native press, and Cruz has tried to fill the hole with social media movies explaining the cooking processes and describing the day by day specials. Nonetheless, there have been quite a lot of days on which Damon’s introduced in lower than $500 in gross sales. “Up to now two years, you don’t know what number of instances we have been so near not having the ability to open the following week,” Cruz stated. “The factor that I’ve prayed for greater than something is to be seen,” he added. “Simply give me the chance to current our meals.”
The barbecue speaks for itself. The St. Louis–lower ribs get a heavy rub that’s salty and spicy, together with a candy glaze. The meat was tender sufficient to drag proper from the bone. Cruz makes use of Prime-grade Angus briskets, and he places a black bark on them with pecan-wood smoke. Beneath the bark was a melting fats cap and juicy, tender beef. It was the very best brisket I’ve eaten from among the many many small-town joints within the space. On Fridays, Cruz chops the brisket to fill and high the tacky enchiladas on particular.
To be taught sausage making, Cruz requested to shadow a good friend who makes venison sausage for native hunters and smokes it in his smokehouse. After serving to with many batches, Cruz now makes his personal sausages for the restaurant. “I nonetheless use the identical recipe he taught me,” he stated. For the unique hyperlink, that’s a beef-and-pork mix utilizing REO seasonings from Huntsville. It was finely floor, with much less fats than I desire, however I appreciated the seasonings, smoke, and snappy casings.
Whereas cooking for competitions, Cruz developed a mop sauce by simmering lime juice, onions, margarine, and Italian dressing collectively in water. He makes use of it on simply the poultry. I didn’t strive the hen, however the sauce introduced a novel zest to the juicy smoked turkey breast. On the competitors path, the Cruzes additionally needed to discover ways to enliven leftover barbecue. That’s how they developed recipes for the aforementioned enchiladas, pulled pork egg rolls, and nachos that commerce out tortilla chips for thinly sliced fried potatoes referred to as ribbon fries which might be extra usually discovered at county gala’s. “Barbecue will be extra than simply conventional stuff,” Cruz stated.
Carb lovers will swoon over the aspect choices. Mac and cheese, tacky potato casserole, and diced potatoes fried with onions and bacon are all accessible, together with the ribbon fries. The creamed corn was wealthy, with a little bit of spice. My favourite was a vegetable—roughly chopped cabbage sautéed in bacon and onions—which I desperately wanted in the course of a two-day barbecue crawl.
I nearly skipped dessert, however on the ordering window, Shelly implored me to get the bread pudding. “I needed to beg Brandon’s mother for that recipe,” she stated. The bread pudding was additionally Lackey’s favourite—he prioritized it over his dinner. “He would aways eat that bread pudding earlier than the rest,” Cruz stated. His mom initially ignored Shelly’s many requests for the recipe, however on Christmas Day 2021, she gifted Shelly a laminated copy.
“All the pieces on the menu is our story,” Cruz advised me. He’s not making an attempt to imitate anybody else’s barbecue. When Damon’s opened, Cruz stated he harassed an excessive amount of about prospects telling him how he and Shelly needs to be doing issues. He determined to focus extra on the story they needed to inform with their meals. “I’m going to give up worrying about it, and put it over to God to start out dealing with it,” he advised himself, and he stated each the enterprise and his high quality of life have improved since then. The Cruzes agreed that they wouldn’t add one other case of briskets to their weekly order except they offered out three days in a row—this week, they’ll add that further case. And Cruz stated they haven’t given up on their dream of including a location in New Mexico. “If we will make it in Texas,” he advised me, “we will make it anyplace.”
Damon’s Real Texas BBQ
807 N. Alabama Road, Wharton
Telephone: 979-532-4227
Hours: Thursday–Saturday 11–8; Sunday 9–8
Pitmaster: Brandon Cruz
Methodology: Pecan in an offset smoker
12 months opened: 2022