This will be my final blog entry about my February 2017 trip to Texas. I have already written about most of the great BBQ experiences I had, and wanted to do up a quick entry on a couple of others places I had the chance to visit while in Houston.
I was down there for work, which spilled into the evening on a few occasions, so unfortunately I did not have much opportunity to visit Houston area BBQ spots, even though I did have a list of places I hoped to visit while I was there.
One of my Calgary work colleagues happened to be down there at the same time with his wife and we met up at Pizzitola’s. They are famous for their spareribs and have an interesting story. They have a 70 + year old brick pit in the restaurant that they cook on. Houston does not allow such pits in restaurants anymore for safety reasons, but Pizzitola’s pit has been grandfathered in and is still allowed. They problem they have is that they cannot do any renovations or expansions because that would void the allowance for the pit, so it puts them in a bit of a tough spot. That said, it is a neat old place with lots of pictures and historical mementos on the walls. We all ordered the ribs since that is what they are known for, and also because by dinner time they were out of a couple other meats. The ribs weren’t they best I’ve had, but they were pretty good. All in all it was a good BBQ meal shared with some good company!
The other place that I’m not going to dedicate a whole blog entry to is Pappas BBQ. Pappas is a chain restaurant that is part of a larger group of restaurants and they have a number of locations in Houston, including one in Humble not far from my airport hotel. I’ve been there on past trips and while it is a big commercial operation, the BBQ is decent, they always have everything available, the portions are generous with good sides and I love their pecan pie! I bought a whole pecan pie this trip to bring back home to Calgary for the family. When I leave the office late and don’t feel like exploring some area of Houston away from my hotel, it’s nice to have Pappas to fall back on for a good BBQ dinner!
All in all, I had some wonderful BBQ experiences on this trip and really that is what led to this blog. I have already started making a list of new places I want to get to on my next trip south and I look forward to sharing those stories with you. Until then, I am going to start writing about some of the joints closer to home that I have had the opportunity to visit.
