25-year-old Chuck Charnichart's restaurant Barbs B Q in Lockhart, Texas, earned a James Beard nomination and Eater Best New Restaurant award within a year of opening in 2023. At the Barbs counter, customers can have their pick of pork ribs, turkey, fajita sausage, pork stew — and even choco pudding for dessert — as well as its famous brisket, coated in Mexican spices and smoked for over 12 hours.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 It's Friday morning.
00:02 First thing we do is try to get the briskets on the smoker.
00:05 Get it going, 'cause those will take about 12 to 13 hours.
00:09 The briskets that we get are from Creekstone Farms.
00:12 They're pretty much about, like,
00:14 the highest quality that you can get.
00:16 This one looks very nice.
00:18 I just want it to have a good amount of fat all on top.
00:22 That way, it's protected,
00:24 and it has that nice fatty bite.
00:28 Once it's cooked, I have the job of making it pretty,
00:31 and I can make anything look pretty.
00:35 [ Laughs ]
00:37 Three pork ribs.
00:40 Half-pound brisket.
00:42 ♪♪
00:50 I'm trying to get the brisket to be as curvy as possible.
00:58 Aerodynamic, pretty much.
00:59 That way, when it's on the smoker
01:01 and it's being hit with dry heat,
01:05 it's not going to crisp up.
01:07 If you leave any corner-pointy parts on the brisket,
01:10 they will crisp up no matter what.
01:12 I'm pitching into the fat
01:14 so that it reveals to me how much more I need to trim off.
01:18 So it feels a little harder where there is a little more fat.
01:21 And so we just want to make sure
01:23 that it's a quarter-inch fat all around.
01:27 Anything more than that won't render.
01:31 So these are ready to be seasoned.
01:33 I like to season the table first,
01:38 and then I'll just put them on there directly.
01:42 I think for brisket, the bottom doesn't really matter
01:46 because the grate rubs it off.
01:48 So I just do a light season at the bottom.
01:52 Then I would just use some mustard water.
01:56 I just want it to be wet so that the rub and the pepper sticks.
02:00 Our rub is pretty special.
02:03 We grind all our peppers here,
02:05 and we use chile guajillo, chile de arbol,
02:08 oregano, bay leaves, thyme, all the good stuff.
02:12 It can be pretty spicy, too.
02:14 A lot of people, we can tone it down.
02:16 Like, we have level 5 spicy and then level 1 spicy.
02:20 And so I'm holding the shaker pretty high.
02:23 For that reason, it helps so that the spice
02:27 falls pretty evenly.
02:29 The lower I do it, the more uneven it'll fall down.
02:32 Having the shaker a little higher
02:34 helps have a little more control.
02:36 I'm so glad that our rub is orange
02:39 because of all the peppers,
02:40 'cause then I can also tell by the color,
02:42 like, how much I've seasoned or how much is enough.
02:45 All right.
02:47 I think I feel good about loading these guys.
02:52 All righty.
02:54 These on the smoker.
02:56 These briskets that I have on the smoker
02:58 have been on for about two hours, maybe.
03:00 By the size of these, they'll probably catch up
03:02 to the rest of the cook by the time we're at the 13-hour mark.
03:07 And after we load them, it's, like, a huge relief.
03:10 Like, oh, like, that's, like, the most urgent,
03:12 important thing to do at 5 in the morning.
03:15 That way, we're not here all night.
03:18 I think these two are decent.
03:21 Just lay it down.
03:23 We're gonna start firing up the yakitori
03:26 so we can roast the poblanos
03:28 and some other peppers, tomatoes, for our salsa.
03:33 So, this right here, we have a mill-scale yakitori.
03:36 We use it for our direct-heat cooks.
03:39 I'm gonna put these on.
03:40 And these poblanos are for, I would say, our signature side
03:44 that everyone goes a little wild for, our green spaghetti.
03:48 We'll roast all these poblanos
03:50 till they get pretty charred all around.
03:53 And then we'll peel them and add on more greens --
03:57 cilantro, jalapeno.
03:58 Mix it with a creamy base sauce,
04:00 and it'll be very much umami, creamy, and green.
04:07 So, our green spaghetti is known as espagueti verde.
04:10 You can find it in South Texas, for the most part,
04:13 but only at, like, celebratory events,
04:15 like birthday parties, baptisms, weddings.
04:19 It's like, if you see it, it's because someone's mom made it.
04:22 I think it's pretty cool that, like,
04:24 I am able to bring this to Central Texas
04:27 and sort of invite the whole world to try it.
04:30 I think everyone in the Valley
04:31 actually makes green spaghetti differently,
04:35 but I think my mom's is the best,
04:37 and so this is my mom's recipe.
04:39 Now, it's funny because she's such a good cook,
04:42 and now she'll taste things that I make,
04:44 and she'll be like, "What'd you do?"
04:46 Like, she wants to know, like, what I know now.
04:49 Sort of like the -- What's that saying?
04:52 The student becomes the master.
04:55 I think these are pretty much good to go,
04:58 and then I'll just put a lid on these.
05:00 By letting them sit with the hot air,
05:02 it'll soften them up even more,
05:04 and then so when I'm ready to take off the skin,
05:07 it'll remove really easily.
05:10 I was born in Brownsville, Texas,
05:12 the tip of South Texas,
05:15 border town right next to Matamoros, Mexico.
05:17 Our menu is very much South Texas.
05:20 A lot of peppers, a lot of citrus.
05:23 The tip of it all, it's all about comfort for me.
05:27 Right now, the way that things are done at Barb's,
05:29 I'm still learning.
05:31 Everyone's learning, and we're all figuring out.
05:33 'Cause I'm also only 25 years old,
05:35 so I'm just like, "Hey, I'm learning."
05:38 These are the peppers that have been sitting,
05:39 that were fire-roasted, the poblano peppers.
05:44 So you can smell that smoky charredness.
05:48 Very, very simple.
05:50 It comes off pretty easily,
05:52 just getting that skin off.
05:55 In a normal-sized blender,
05:57 about two poblanos, one or two jalapenos,
06:00 half a stem of cilantro,
06:03 some dairy to make it creamy.
06:06 Just all the good stuff.
06:08 It sort of turns from light green to green-green
06:12 as the cilantro blends all the way.
06:14 [ Blender whirring ]
06:16 ♪♪
06:19 All right. There's that green sauce.
06:23 That's it for the sauce.
06:24 We'll pretty much do this 15 more times,
06:27 and then we have enough for the whole weekend.
06:31 All right. Check these briskets.
06:35 They have been on for about five hours now.
06:38 About four hours in, that's when they start sweating,
06:42 and that's called when the briskets enter the stall.
06:45 So it lasts about five hours,
06:46 usually five hours of them sweating.
06:49 So the pooling, if it's a little too much pooling,
06:51 then I'll dump them,
06:53 because from now on, for the next four hours,
06:56 all they're doing is sweating.
06:57 So I just want to make sure that the rub is not washing off.
07:01 While it's doing that, then I can just read the briskets
07:04 and, like, know where they're at in the cook.
07:06 So throughout the cook, they'll shrink and they'll shrink.
07:09 After every four hours, I'll move them more
07:12 towards the back, away from the fire.
07:15 Because as they sit on the smoker, the longer they are,
07:17 the more prone they are to getting crispy.
07:19 So just doing everything possible
07:22 to keep them nice and soft.
07:24 From the beginning to the end,
07:27 the briskets need so much attention.
07:29 That's why I feel so attached to them.
07:32 That's why we have that saying on that T-shirt,
07:35 "All these briskets is my son's,"
07:36 because it's a lot of touching.
07:38 It's a lot of nurturing, making sure they're doing okay.
07:44 From my understanding of brisket growing up,
07:46 it was cooked in a crock pot.
07:49 Experiencing Texas smoked brisket for the first time
07:53 was life-changing.
07:55 Before opening Barb's, I was working at Goldie's.
08:00 I was there for almost three years.
08:02 Very much started at the bottom with them.
08:04 Johnny, Jalen, Lane, the squad, they're rock stars,
08:10 and I love them.
08:13 The team at Goldie's, they put me on a pedestal.
08:16 They were the stepping stone of change for Barbecue.
08:19 Now there's more people that can add on to the change,
08:22 and I'm so excited to see, like,
08:25 who's the next Chuck for Barb's.
08:29 We're gonna start making our salsa
08:31 that we use for one of our sides, pork stew.
08:34 One of our new and favorite dishes
08:37 is the pork stew with calabacita and corn
08:40 that is served over rice,
08:41 which we make from the trimmings from the pork ribs,
08:45 and it's just, like, the ultimate comfort dish.
08:48 I didn't mess too much with it
08:51 and let all the ingredients do the work,
08:54 like the tomatoes and the jalapenos.
08:55 The tomatoes will be fire-roasted and smoked,
09:00 so I'll put this at a lower heat,
09:03 and then we can go outside and start roasting those tomatoes.
09:08 I don't really want these to cook much
09:12 because this holds a lot of water content
09:14 that is needed for the sauce.
09:17 It's just, like, a very quick, very quick char.
09:21 You can smell, like, that the tomato taste will change
09:25 because of it being charred.
09:28 I feel like the smell is, like, earthy, like, I don't know.
09:32 Just yummy, yummy smell.
09:34 All ready.
09:37 So, this is the pork that we get from trimming our pork ribs
09:42 that we'll use to make our side, the pork stew.
09:45 The seasoning, just salt and pepper for this dish.
09:48 We'll sort of marinate it with it,
09:50 and then we'll fry the pork, a very quick sear.
09:53 This is Diego's first day.
09:55 -You were saying you were kind of starstruck, right?
09:57 A little bit. -A little bit, yeah.
09:59 I mean, I saw, like, about a year ago
10:01 a bunch of videos about Goldie's,
10:02 about, like, you know, Blaine, Jaylen, Chuck.
10:05 So, on Wednesday, when I interviewed, I was like,
10:07 "Oh, my God."
10:08 I think that's the first thing I said.
10:09 I was like, "I'm a little nervous.
10:10 I'm a little starstruck right now."
10:13 Yeah, so it's a dream come true,
10:14 working here and learning from Chuck, man.
10:17 -Right now, we're eight months in.
10:19 Still very much small team.
10:21 Today, we actually had Diego start his first day of barbs,
10:25 and he's been doing really amazing.
10:27 He's actually our first real hire.
10:30 I'm really excited that this moment is being captured
10:33 because this is just the beginning for us.
10:36 So, Diego, you're going to add the olive oil
10:38 and then the pork stew,
10:40 and then it's going to be, like, a real quick --
10:41 You just want to brown it.
10:43 -Yeah.
10:44 -And then if you think you need more oil,
10:46 you can add on more.
10:48 -I think once it starts releasing on its own,
10:49 'cause it's pork, so it will be fine.
10:53 -If you leave it too long,
10:54 then it will start releasing all those juices
10:56 that you want to keep for the salsa.
10:59 So, this is more just, like, real quick, real fast,
11:02 just to get some color and some, like, fat flavor.
11:07 Cilantro, onion, garlic.
11:11 Now we just blend.
11:13 ♪♪
11:18 Now we'll get the real salsa.
11:21 This would be really good with, like, chips and stuff.
11:23 One day, we'll be a chips and salsa restaurant.
11:26 [ Blender whirring ]
11:28 So, I'm just blending it
11:29 till every little piece of cilantro is blended all the way
11:33 'cause it adds so much more flavor to it.
11:35 Rather than having it this way, it tastes very different.
11:39 There's our broth.
11:41 All righty. Now that we have the sauce,
11:43 we're going to add all that pork into here
11:46 and put a lid on it
11:48 and let it sit at a low flame for two to three hours.
11:52 What smells like mama's kitchen.
11:55 Delicious.
11:57 We're going to start on the choco pudding.
11:59 So, lots of milk, lots of chocolate, lots of yolks.
12:05 Logan's cracking eggs right now
12:07 and separating the yolks from the whites.
12:10 I think most barbecue restaurants have banana pudding,
12:14 and I was just like, "Enough."
12:17 So, this is a classic hot chocolate tablet
12:22 that people use in Mexico, South Texas.
12:26 Very influential.
12:28 We'll put it on the stove top, and it'll dissolve.
12:32 Sugar, lots of sugar.
12:34 So, I'll put this on the stove top,
12:36 and then all the other ingredients
12:38 will go in at separate times
12:40 as it's getting higher in temperature.
12:42 ♪♪
12:52 So, right now that it's about eight hours in,
12:56 I feel really good about them.
12:57 You can tell if you've had, like, a high fire
13:00 or a spike in temperature.
13:02 Once the leads sort of curve up like this,
13:05 then that means that you've been hitting it too hard, too fast.
13:09 And so, from what I see, like, they're all, like,
13:12 sitting down and not sort of curving up.
13:16 But these look really nice.
13:18 They feel really nice.
13:21 It's been a good cook so far.
13:24 They're probably at the last hour of the stall,
13:28 and I'm just going to try to remove all these puddles
13:34 and push them back once again.
13:36 And then they probably have about four
13:38 or five more hours to go.
13:40 These are looking pretty good.
13:42 It looks like they're just about coming out of the stall,
13:44 so we only have a couple more hours to go,
13:47 and we'll wrap them and let them rest,
13:49 and we'll feed them tomorrow.
13:52 We are all done with prep now.
13:55 I'm all stuttering because it's been a long day,
13:57 but that's it for today,
13:58 and we'll be back early morning tomorrow.
14:01 [ Birds chirping ]
14:03 [ Indistinct conversations ]
14:06 [ Water running ]
14:09 It's Saturday morning, and right now it's 8 a.m.,
14:13 and everyone is sort of taking on their different tasks
14:16 to get us ready for service.
14:18 In the morning, we all have about, like,
14:20 four things going on at the same time,
14:21 and then once 10 a.m. comes, it's like, "All right,
14:24 like, everything needs to be done by then."
14:29 Last night, we finished the briskets.
14:31 We finished pork ribs pretty late at night,
14:33 and now we're doing all the short cooks,
14:36 turkeys, lamb chops, sausage,
14:39 and then we'll be ready for service.
14:40 Turkeys are almost done, or some of them are done.
14:45 We're going to let them cool down a little bit more,
14:47 and then we'll wrap them with a little bit of butter,
14:48 a little bit of seasoning.
14:50 Now we're going to load the lamb chops and the sausage.
14:52 So, these lamb chops, it's a very hot and fast short cook.
14:56 They are seasoned with our herby spice.
14:58 So, right now, I mean, we only have three racks on.
15:01 We're still small guys,
15:02 but eventually I can see this pit loaded with lamb racks,
15:06 and I'm just treasuring the moment right now
15:09 where I can really fine-tune and get these perfect.
15:13 I think a year from now, it's going to be so different,
15:16 where instead of having a three- or four-person team,
15:19 it's going to be like eight or 10.
15:22 Cool, so now we're wrapping the turkeys
15:24 with a little bit of butter and some of our herby spice.
15:27 Just let it sit on there, and then it'll melt,
15:30 and it'll sit on a water bath, a butter bath, actually.
15:34 The butter sort of helps it keep moist
15:36 and not cook while it's sitting in the warmer,
15:39 and then while the spice sort of adds on
15:42 just a little more flavor, flavor blast.
15:45 Now, we are definitely running a little behind.
15:48 I know it's just, like, so stressful.
15:51 Weird things happen every time.
15:52 It's like, "Okay, why did the sauce taste
15:55 a little bit more bitter today?"
15:57 without, I don't know, uncontrollable factors
16:00 coming into play.
16:01 Hold on, hold on, hold on.
16:09 We just drained 11 pounds of pasta.
16:13 Joby's gonna go oil it, so that way it prevents clumping.
16:18 We cooked it to al dente so that by the time
16:21 it's service comes, it's still just, like,
16:23 that perfect spaghetti bite.
16:26 The green sauce will get mixed with the noodles per order.
16:31 That helps out keeping the sauce saucy and not clumpy.
16:37 It's a labor of love, very much.
16:40 This is our most selling side, so we make a lot of it.
16:43 We don't really want to run out,
16:44 and we want to have it the whole day
16:46 because it is a fan favorite.
16:47 People get, like, quarts of it,
16:49 even if it's just they'll get it, like,
16:51 some for here, some for later.
16:53 We just got the turkeys off.
16:58 We got the lamb chops on.
16:59 We're about to put sausage on.
17:00 We're a little bit behind, but we got it.
17:03 We're moving.
17:04 Our sausage is a three-day process.
17:06 We cold-spoke them on Thursday.
17:08 Today, we're cooking them for service,
17:11 and they are our fajita sausage.
17:14 So when you bite into it,
17:15 it's almost like a stuffed crust sausage.
17:19 This is the last thing that goes on the smoker
17:21 right before service starts.
17:22 Almost the last of everything.
17:24 We still got just a few more things to do,
17:26 and then pretty much ready for service,
17:28 and I think we have a line forming already.
17:32 Hello, hello.
17:33 How are y'all doing today?
17:36 Pretty good.
17:37 Are y'all going to be eating here?
17:39 Heck, yeah.
17:40 Let's start with brisket.
17:41 How much brisket are you thinking?
17:43 I think most people that come to Barb's right now
17:46 that sort of are seeking
17:49 and wanting to come here on their own will,
17:52 and then, like, when they try the food,
17:54 they're just, like, even more blown away.
17:57 It feels so special knowing that they already come in
18:01 with so much love.
18:02 All right. Hey, y'all.
18:04 How we doing today?
18:06 Nice.
18:07 Very good. Thanks for coming out.
18:10 When we put the sauce with the ribs,
18:13 the flavor, we call them Molotov ribs,
18:16 not because of the spiciness of it,
18:18 but because it's more so an explosion of flavor.
18:22 When we actually cut them to serve,
18:25 we slice them, we zest them on top
18:28 to give it that brightness
18:29 and sort of cut down on the fattiness of it.
18:32 So they become very addicting once you bite into them,
18:36 almost like hot Cheetos.
18:38 Two links of sausage and then two Ozark waters.
18:42 Fabulous.
18:43 All right. Your total is $88.21.
18:45 I think what we're doing with Barb's
18:48 is pretty significant.
18:52 What more than to do that in a town
18:55 that already has so much history with barbecue?
18:58 So Lockhart is the capital of barbecue in the world.
19:03 For us to bring Barb's here
19:07 and add on to that history,
19:09 it feels really good to be here and to be welcomed.
19:12 That's a perfect order right there.
19:15 1.1. Is that okay?
19:16 -Yeah. -Cool.
19:20 Whenever people get a tray of Barb's,
19:23 I want them to experience this journey of flavors,
19:27 'cause oftentimes when you go to eat at a barbecue restaurant,
19:31 most things start tasting the same a little bit.
19:34 Full house and then three lamb chops.
19:36 Like, a pork rib will always taste sweet, savory,
19:40 and then, like, most meats will have the same seasoning.
19:43 And so with our meats, we make it a huge effort for it.
19:47 Every single bite that you take at Barb's is different
19:51 and wows you.
19:53 When you bite into something at Barb's,
19:57 I want you to feel, like...
20:00 [ Laughs ]
20:02 ♪♪
20:09 (upbeat music)