Some of Texas’ most popular BBQ joints have been forced to close due to high beef prices
Where’s the beef? Not in Texas – at least, not as much as it used to be.
Texas barbecue joints are closing their doors across the Lone Star State as skyrocketing beef prices turn brisket — once a staple of blue-collar cuisine — into a luxury that many customers can no longer afford.
From Houston’s suburbs to rural areas, pitmasters say rising beef costs, inflation and declining customer traffic are breaking boundaries and forcing some of the nation’s most popular BBQ establishments out of business.
“This is as bad as it gets,” Houston-area traffic manager Russell Roegels told the Washington Post.
“Everyone is vulnerable these days: You’ve had one bad week since the shutdown.”
Among the casualties was Brett’s BBQ Shop in Katy, which closed late last year after seven years in business, according to Texas Monthly.
The once-popular smokehouse is struggling with rising operating costs while customers are cutting back as menu prices rise.
Kirby’s BBQ in New Caney also closed after owner Shawn Jones warned that the “absolutely outrageous” prices made barbecue unaffordable for middle-class families.
“When brisket costs $36 a pound to the consumer and you get ribs and sausages and sides and desserts and all that … you could easily spend $70 to $100 on a barbecue,” Jones told his followers on YouTube.
“That’s not something most average Americans would do as often as they would need to support many barbecue joints.”
Other closings include acclaimed Fort Worth smokehouse Sabar Barbecue, East Texas staple Wright On Taco & BBQ, Hill City Chop House in Tolar and Sweetie Pie’s Ribeyes in North Texas.
The massacre comes as the domestic cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest level in 75 years following years of drought, rising feed prices and rising operating costs.
Ground beef prices are up more than 15% from a year ago, while pit bosses say wholesale brisket now costs $5 to $6 per pound before smoking, trimming and processing — forcing some restaurants to charge as much as $35 to $40 a pound just to stay afloat.
Industry leaders say the economics of brisket have become almost impossible for small operators.
Brisket can lose about half its weight during cutting and smoking, meaning a restaurant paying about $5 to $6 per pound can find the cost of cooked meat north of $10 per pound before labor, wood, utilities and rent are factored in.
Justin Manning, owner of C&J Barbecue in Bryan, said restaurants would need to charge about $40 per pound just to maintain tight margins.
“In order to have a margin, I would have to sell beef for $40 a pound, which nobody can do,” Manning told KBTX.
The pressure is not limited to beef.
Restaurant owners say everything from butcher paper and Styrofoam containers to insurance and fuel costs have become more expensive in the past two years.
Texas Restaurant Association CEO Emily Williams Knight warned that independent barbecue joints are especially vulnerable because they can’t easily move away from brisket, which remains the signature of Texas BBQ customers.
“If you’re a barbecue restaurant, you don’t really have a place to move,” Knight told KBTX.
“And I think that’s where you see a lot of these small barbecue restaurants start to close, because they don’t have a choice as the price keeps going up.”
Even high-end destinations are struggling.
Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin – ranked by Texas Monthly no. 1 barbecue joint – raised brisket prices to $38 per pound and is considering limiting brisket availability to certain days of the week.
Owner Ernest Cervantes said his restaurant has been operating in “survival mode” for the past year.
“There’s always an increase in prices, but there’s always an easing and a decrease,” Cervantes told the Washington Post.
“Now we don’t see an end, and it’s going to be scary here.”
Some pit executives suspect consolidation in the meatpacking industry, where four major companies control the vast majority of US beef processing.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into anti-competitive behavior by major meatpackers amid allegations that ranchers are underpaid while consumers and restaurants receive inflated prices.
