Again in 2017, the barbecue competitors particular BBQ Rig Race aired on Meals Community. On the finish of it, the Tu Bones BBQ staff, led by pitmaster Michael Prince and his buddy Kirk Boudreaux, took house the $10,000 prize. Fairly than utilizing the cash to get out of the meals truck he’d been working from, Prince gave it to Boudreaux, who desperately wanted a automobile. The enterprise thrived anyway, due to the popularity, and some years later, Worth traded his meals truck for a stall at Frisco Fresh Market, the place he nonetheless serves each Saturday and Sunday.
After early success on the market, Prince sought to develop into a brand new restaurant house, however the COVID-19 pandemic modified these plans. “This can be the suitable spot to remain at proper now,” he informed me of the small counter within the again nook of the market. It’s exhausting to argue when a line of shoppers kinds earlier than the morning opening (9 a.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. on Sundays). I arrived shortly after 11 a.m. on the primary Sunday of the month, or, as Tu Bones calls it, Soul Meals Sunday. The road wrapped again behind a number of different distributors, placing the menu out of sight. That’s when worker Andrew Flagg, sporting his Sunday greatest, walked up. Prince calls him the Tu Bones hype man. Flagg defined the menu, touted the every day specials, and shook fingers with everybody in line. I simply hoped the joint had smoked sufficient of its signature oxtails.
As the road inched up, I noticed how cheap the costs had been. A four-meat plate with two sides was simply $22. For $15, you will get a couple of pound of rib suggestions and two sides. Of the every day sides, I loved the properly browned mac and cheese and the smoked baked beans, made with a mixture of black, kidney, navy, northern, and pinto beans. The dessert particular of peach cobbler is topped with a lattice pastry crust and completed within the smoker. A giant portion is served in a pie tin with a facet of freshly whipped cream.
The cupboard smoker, made by Pits by JJ, sits behind the counter. Prince fuels it with a mixture of oak and pecan wooden. It’s exhausting to think about how the cooks are capable of match such all kinds of meats, sides, and desserts into one smoker. Prince mentioned it’s fairly the juggling act, and that the smoker runs from 4 a.m. on Friday till shut on Sunday. The remaining house behind the counter isn’t all that beneficiant, however, Prince mentioned, “We do something another restaurant can do out of there.”
A giant motive the road strikes effectively is Ericka Hightower, Prince’s spouse, who shortly assembles and dishes and sends out the orders. A couple of minutes after inserting mine, I used to be sitting with three baggage of barbecue on a picnic desk exterior the market. Once I opened the container of oxtails, the black bark glistened within the solar. The plate with two sides was a splurge at $30, however oxtails are costly in every single place. Prince observed their popularity growing in barbecue and added them to the menu final yr. The items of juicy beef pulled simply from the bone, although I needed I had some sauce or gravy to dip them in—be sure you request some along with your order.
Prince credit his worker Joe Harvey with the rib tip recipe. Harvey hounded him so as to add rib tricks to the menu, then imposed his will on the seasoning and the preparation methodology. The tender suggestions had a well-formed bark, loads of smoke taste, and nice seasoning. I most well-liked them over the usual pork ribs. I additionally cherished the specialty sides of wealthy soiled rice and creamy pink beans and rice that got here alongside.
Sliced brisket isn’t an choice at Tu Bones BBQ. Prince mentioned it bogs down the road and is harder to portion than chopped brisket. Each the chopped brisket and the pulled pork had been juicy, with loads of well-seasoned bark combined in. The baked candy potato is topped with a mixture of the 2, whereas the common baked potato solely will get chopped brisket. I requested for pulled pork as a substitute on my common potato, however I used to be informed brisket was the one protein allowed. That was the primary time I’d seen just one meat choice for a stuffed potato, and Prince mentioned he’d rethink the coverage.
The meals at Tu Bones BBQ doesn’t seem like that at many different new Texas barbecue joints, and that’s as a result of the Princes didn’t develop up in Texas. Hightower is from central Illinois, the place she grew up consuming regionally standard smoked rib suggestions, and Prince was raised in Tifton, Georgia. His grandfather Tvester Prince taught him learn how to prepare dinner complete hogs, and Prince cooked his first on the age of twelve. Tvester’s nickname was Tusome—he glided by Tu for brief—and the barbecue enterprise is known as in his honor.
Prince mentioned the employees battle to maintain barbecue accessible after 2 p.m. “It’s a blessing,” he mentioned, and so they’ll preserve smoking as a lot meat as they’ll. “We acquired a system. It’s working, however we’re operating out of house,” Prince mentioned, acknowledging that Tu Bones could outgrow the market finally. For now, he’s blissful to have his ft on the bottom as a substitute of getting to discover a place to park the previous truck.
Tu Bones BBQ
9215 John W. Elliott Drive, Frisco
Telephone: 469-777-8531
Hours: Saturday 9–4, Sunday 10–3
Pitmaster: Michael Prince
Methodology: Oak and pecan in a cupboard smoker
Yr opened: 2020