Must watch: Behind the scenes at Goldee's BBQ
This YouTube documentary captures early mornings, late nights, and Smash Bros at the #1 BBQ joint in Texas
At the #1-ranked barbecue restaurant in Texas, early mornings, late nights, and Smash Bros keep the restaurant running.
In a great behind-the-scenes documentary, videographer Alvin Zhou details the happenings behind running Goldee’s Barbecue, the state’s #1 barbecue joint, according to Texas Monthly.
Zhou spent a week with the Goldee’s crew in their wooden shack in Kennedale, near Fort Worth, and captured their weekly routine to prepare for their Friday-through-Sunday service.
“We didn’t set out to be number one,” co-owner Jalen Heard says, who narrates much of the documentary. “We’re going to have this title the next four years. We gotta keep this up.”
Interesting Nuggets
The crew works seven days a week, starting Monday when they prep their desserts and sauces. Everything is made in-house, and they use a lot of their trimmings for other items on their menu — ex: the ends of their housemade bread are used in bread pudding, brisket trimmings are used to make sausage and tallow.
Goldee’s spends between $8,000 to $10,000 per week on briskets alone — that ballparks to roughly 120 briskets. “Brisket is pretty much the most important meat in Texas barbecue,” Jalen says. “If you have a Texas barbecue restaurant, the brisket has to be the best thing on the menu.”
Speaking of meats: Goldee’s serves between 200-250 pounds of sausage and upwards of 150 racks of pork ribs each week.
Speaking of bread: Goldee’s makes its own bread and gives it for free with every order. Jalen says bread is often a throwaway item at barbecue restaurants, but they didn’t want that at Goldee’s. “We wanted to make it so good that people didn’t [throw it away.] We do about 50 loaves a day. People always ask if they can buy the bread. No, we give it away for free.”
In an hour of service, Goldee’s sells roughly: 20 briskets, 18 racks of ribs, and 6 turkeys.
People begin lining up as early as 6 or 7 a.m. to get a spot at the front. It’s “nice to see,” Jalen says. “We’re going to have some customers today.”
On Wednesdays, after all the meat is on the smoker, the crew likes to play Smash Bros in the dining room of the restaurant. Jonny is the best amongst the crew, Jalen says, then Lane and Jalen coming in last place.
Once a week, the crew visits another barbecue restaurant [in the documentary it was Panther City BBQ], hangs out with the pitmaster, and orders a big tray. “You want to go check other barbecue restaurants to see what they’re doing, see how we’re still comparing,” Jalen says. “[We’re] still trying to learn stuff at this point and see how to make our food better.”
Quoteworthy
“Texas barbecue, especially with briskets, you want to do low and slow. We start off at about 200 and it doesn’t get any hotter than 300. That’s a long process. It takes about 12 hours for the briskets.”
“I like a long cook. It’s just you and the fire hanging out. It’s really relaxing, honestly.”
“We’re going to have this title for the next four years. We gotta keep this up.”
– Jalen
“I’d say [beef ribs are] my favorite meat. They’re just so rich and so good. But brisket is more of a challenge, so I like briskets better.”
“I’ve been doing the brisket shift for about six months now, and I’m still really happy that I get to do it.”
“There’s a saying that if you have a barbecue restaurant and you have a really good cook, you’re either going to have to offer them ownership or they’re going to open their own barbecue restaurant, because that’s just how it is. And for me, I’m going to open my own barbecue restaurant.” [Chuck plans to open Barbs.B.Q in Lockhart, Texas, at a date TBD.]
– Chuck Charnichart, head pitmaster
Watch the Documentary
It’s well worth your time.