Where’s the beef? Not in Texas — at least, not as much as it used to be.
Texas barbecue joints are shutting their doors across the Lone Star State as sky-high beef prices turn brisket — once the centerpiece of a blue-collar meal — into a luxury item that many customers can no longer afford.
From Houston suburbs to rural smokehouses, pitmasters say soaring wholesale beef costs, inflation and shrinking customer traffic are crushing margins and forcing some of the state’s most celebrated BBQ institutions out of business.
“This is as bad as it gets,” Houston-area pitmaster Russell Roegels told the Washington Post.
“Everybody’s at risk these days: You’re one bad week from closing.”
Among the casualties is Brett’s BBQ Shop in Katy, which closed late last year after seven years in business, according to Texas Monthly.
The once-beloved smokehouse struggled with a steep rise in operating costs while customers cut back as menu prices climbed.
Kirby’s BBQ in New Caney also shuttered after owner Shawn Jones warned that “absolutely insane” brisket prices were making barbecue prohibitively expensive for middle-class families.
“When brisket costs $36 a pound for the consumer and then you got ribs and sausage and sides and desserts and all that … you can easily be spending $70 to $100 for barbecue,” Jones told his followers on YouTube.
“That’s just not something that most of middle America can do as often as they would need to to support most barbecue joints.”
Other closures 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 carnage comes as the domestic cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest level in roughly 75 years following years of drought, soaring feed prices and mounting operational costs.
Ground beef prices are up more than 15% from a year ago, while pitmasters say wholesale brisket now routinely costs $5 to $6 per pound before smoking, trimming and labor — forcing some restaurants to charge as much as $35 to $40 per pound just to stay afloat.
Industry leaders say the economics of brisket have become nearly impossible for small operators.
A brisket can lose roughly half its weight during trimming and smoking, meaning a restaurant paying around $5 to $6 per pound wholesale can wind up with a true cooked-meat cost north of $10 per pound before labor, wood, utilities and rent are factored in.
Justin Manning, co-owner of C&J Barbecue in Bryan, said restaurants would need to charge close to $40 per pound just to maintain sustainable margins.
“To have a margin, I would need to be selling beef for $40 a pound, which no one 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 surcharges has become drastically more expensive over the past two years.
Texas Restaurant Association CEO Emily Williams Knight warned that independent barbecue joints are especially vulnerable because they cannot easily pivot away from brisket, which remains the signature draw for Texas BBQ customers.
“If you’re a barbecue restaurant, you don’t really have anywhere to move,” Knight told KBTX.
“And I think that’s where you’re seeing a lot of these smaller barbecue restaurants begin to close, because they just don’t have any options as the price continues to increase.”
Even top-tier destinations are struggling.
Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin — ranked Texas Monthly’s no. 1 barbecue joint — raised brisket prices to about $38 per pound and is considering limiting brisket availability to certain days of the week.
Owner Ernest Servantes said his restaurant has been operating in “survival mode” for the past year.
“There’s always been price increases, but there’s always been relief and it’s gone down,” Servantes told the Washington Post.
“Now we don’t see any end in sight, and it’s going to get scary here.”
Some pitmasters blame consolidation in the meatpacking industry, where four giant companies control the overwhelming majority of US beef processing.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched investigations into possible anti-competitive conduct by major meatpackers amid allegations that ranchers are being underpaid while consumers and restaurants are getting hammered by record-high prices.
