Logan Glenn was able to get again into barbecue. He had his first style of the enterprise in 2013 whereas working within the pit room at Oak Leaf Smokehouse, in Houston. The joint closed two years later, and Glenn moved to a job at a meal-prep firm after which at a gelato store. At Oak Leaf, he had labored with David Welch, who now owns Fire Craft BBQ, in Kingwood, a neighborhood in northeast Houston. The 2 acquired again collectively to prepare dinner for the Houston Livestock Present and Rodeo in 2022, and the fireplace for barbecue was rekindled in Glenn.
Welch provided him a job, however Glenn wasn’t prepared to surrender on gelato simply but. Glenn’s sporadic barbecue pop-ups must scratch the itch. When Glenn was lastly prepared a yr later, Welch didn’t have a place for him, however he did have a meals truck with a smoker on it that wasn’t getting used. Glenn purchased it at a steep low cost, and in April he opened House Metropolis BBQ, which is parked at Meals Vans on the Hill, in Baytown, east of Houston.
Glenn realized easy methods to smoke on a Southern Pleasure again in his Oak Leaf days. A smaller model of the rotisserie smoker sits on the tip of the trailer, burning put up oak wooden. As quickly as one meat comes out of the smoker, one other goes in, so he can present quite a lot of proteins on his menu. It begins with a stable sliced brisket that has well-rendered fats, a smoky black bark, and good beefy taste. Tender spareribs get a beneficiant coating of candy glaze, however there’s nonetheless some smoke taste beneath.
Sausage is a problem to provide, particularly in a meals truck, so Glenn talked to some seasoned professionals. The blokes on the Rosemeyer Bar-B-Q meals truck in Spring make some unbelievable hyperlinks and invited Glenn to assist make them. In return, he provided them some recommendation on their house-made ice cream, they usually now provide rotating flavors day-after-day. At House Metropolis, the smoked sausage is an easy beef-and-pork combination with loads of black pepper. It’s juicy with a quick casing, which Glenn guarantees can be the case for the smoked boudin he usually provides alongside however couldn’t make that week.
I’ve by no means had blackberry-flavored Crown Royal besides within the glaze on House Metropolis’s pork stomach burnt ends. Glenn opened a bottle of the whiskey together with his spouse one night and remarked that it could style nice in a barbecue sauce. He blended the fruity whiskey with some blackberry jam and used the sauce to coat the chunks of the fatty meat. Glenn prefers to dice the stomach earlier than smoking it. “I like getting the bark all the way in which round,” he stated. Each piece was tender, and I liked the blackberry taste with the smoky pork.
The day I visited, Glenn was making an attempt out a brand new sandwich particular. He chopped a few of that pork stomach to layer atop peppery slices of smoked turkey, lettuce, tomato, provolone, and chimichurri aioli. It was marketed as a membership, so I hoped for every little thing to be between slices of Texas toast, however the nice mixture of textures and flavors nonetheless labored nicely on a potato bun.
A properly toasted potato bun can be the carb of alternative for the thick, juicy smoked burger with a patty coated in black pepper, a melted slice of American cheese, and the star of the present: bacon-and-onion jam that’s candy and sticky. The corn casserole facet was on the dry facet, and the inconsistently cooked pinto beans had been additionally much less spectacular.
Glenn’s creativity comes by means of in his menu, which is extra concerned than I anticipated for a brand new meals truck the place he’s the only prepare dinner. “I make every little thing in addition to the pickles and bread,” he stated. That features quite a lot of sauces, just like the aforementioned blackberry glaze and chimichurri aioli, together with a candy mustard sauce and a tangy pink sauce. And if the entire day by day specials are nearly as good because the trio I attempted—the membership, smoked burger, and pork stomach burnt ends—I’m excited to see what House Metropolis BBQ will provide you with subsequent.
Space City BBQ
7623 Farm-to-Market Road 3180, Baytown
Telephone: 713-823-8742
Hours: Thursday–Saturday 11–5
Pitmaster: Logan Glenn
Methodology: Oak in a gas-fired rotisserie
Yr opened: 2024