Pizzitola’s Heritage BBQ — Restaurant in Houston

Me and a couple of my barbecue buddies recently headed to a seriously old-school barbecue joint in The Heights area of Houston called Pizzitola’s Bar B Cue. The sign out front says “Serious Bar B Cue Since 1935” (oddly, the sign on the side of the building says “since 1934” – not sure which is correct. But either way, that is a long time). Any place that has been open that long has to be doing something right, so we had to try them. Entering the building, the first thing we noticed was how truly old-school the place is. It definitely looks and feels like it has been around for a long time. Another thing that is different from most BBQ joints I’ve been to was that they had table service – they actually seated us and gave us menus. Very interesting, and definitely not like so many Hill Country meat market-style joints.The other sign out front, but directly on the building, says “Houston’s Home for Spareribs”. So naturally I had to give them a try. And since this is a Texas BBQ joint, I had to try brisket as well. The waitress came and took our orders, and strongly recommended the beans as a star side dish. So I ordered both the beans and potato salad. The brisket – I was very happy to have gotten some lean and some moist. It was hard to judge the bark, given the way it had been sliced in the back and plated (I always prefer to see the meat being sliced). Even so, the smoky flavor was excellent, and the fat was well-rendered. Given how challenging it is for them to cook briskets on their ancient pits, I was impressed. You see, the fire in these pits is right at the edge, not off in a firebox separated from the cooking chamber, like so many modern offset pits. The heat nearest the fire is way too hot for the cooking a brisket low-n-slow. So all throughout the cook, the pit men and women have to rotate the briskets back and forth from the near end to the far end in order to not cook them too quickly or dry them out. Pizzitola’s pits are Houston’s last remaining “grandfathered in” open brick pits from a bygone era. The pork spareribs – in a word, they were sublime. The simple salt & pepper rub was all they needed to be delicious (from what I saw/tasted, they don’t mop them). The meat was so tender and flavorful, with perfectly-rendered fat. Bite after bite pulled away from the bone cleanly, but did not just fall off like happens with oversteamed ribs. The beans, as recommended by our waitress, really were very tasty, with plenty of salty flavor and some good chunks of meat. The potato salad was fine – nothing to write home about, but certainly nothing to complain about either. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to try Pizzitola’s, they are definitely worth the drive to experience this unique old-school barbecue joint from another era. They’re not even hard to get to – less than a quarter mile south of I-10...

The friendliest staff. Met the owner and had a personal tour! We're big bbq fans and while we love our hometown KC bbq (Jack Stack!) We love trying other regions styles. Texas is brisket country and this place doesn't disappoint. It's been a Houston staple since the 30's. The pits are original and unique. And the method is unique and provides outstanding taste. Owner Tim would love to explain it all if you're lucky enough. We began a friendly discussion about regional bbq styles and differences with our server Esteban and he did his best to make sure we had a full experience of trying the best of Texas style and Pizzitola's original taste. He brought out several different sauce styles to try. He even included a sweet dark almost KC sauce for me to try. Everything was great! Brisket- best I've ever had! Texas 1. Pork spare ribs, no sauce, awesome. Still want my KC sauce. Texas 1, KC 1. Pulled pork, no sauce, very nice. Tied. Smoked chicken breast, Pizzitola's 1. (NO contest, strictly a cooking secret.) Pinto Beans, have never had beans like this! Texas 1. Street corn- OMG!!! L Beats out our Jack Stack cheesy corn without a fight!! Banana pudding made over the pit?? Yes please!!! But when you find a place that can combine the best two food styles on the planet, Mexican and bbq, you have a very special place indeed. Try the bbq fajitas! They are soo amazing! This KC girl tips her hat and curtseys to Pizzitola's! Thank you for your hospitality! Come to KC and see us...

Man food was SO good, affordable and nice customer service! I wish i took pictures of the food. I had ribs, brisket and jalapeño and cheese sausage with spicy corn, cabbage and jalapeño corn bread. I should have put hot sauce on my corn to give it a kick. The corn was fresh, and obviously not frozen or canned and moderately sweet. The cabbage has bacon and bits of sausage in it, which is what was listed on the menu, but I was surprised that there was a bit of a vinegar taste so i liked it better when I had a bite of brisket along with the cabbage on the fork with each bite. It was soooo good. I loved all my meat and the barbecue sauce was good.

My husband got the same meat except his sausage was not jalapeño flavored and it tasted average and pretty boring so I was glad I got what I picked. His side of macaroni was not as good as I thought it was going to be and I did not try the pinto beans. The warm large thick cornbread with butter on top was so amazing!! I’m trying to explore more small business barbecue restaurants in right now. This one’s at the top! Next time I want to try the breakfast brisket n egg jalapeño...