When I first visited Brendyn’s BBQ, in Nacogdoches, six years back, owner Brendyn Todd offered a sample of a coffee-rubbed brisket alongside a conventionally seasoned one. I liked the coffee flavor so much, I urged him to ditch the other. He did, but it took me far too long to return to see just how far he’d come since those food truck days. Todd opened a permanent spot in 2020 in a building he now owns, and his barbecue joint has become locally beloved.
“We had an overflow of daily loyal customers,” Todd said of his motivation for expanding. His timing gave him reason for pause when the COVID-19 pandemic set in just after he made the move. Todd worried about his business, but the locals assured him they would support it. “They made sure that we stayed afloat,” he said.
Since then, Todd has been perfecting his brisket. The first step was getting the rub right. He kept adding more coffee grounds until they made up half of the rub. The other half is equal parts coarse-ground black pepper and kosher salt. The original coffee rub used freshly ground artisanal coffee, but as the popularity of the brisket increased, so did the cost of the coffee. Todd did a blind taste test for employees and customers with briskets that had been rubbed with expensive coffee or Folgers. “Nobody could tell a difference,” Todd said. He doesn’t use Folgers, but he now sources large quantities of affordable preground coffee.
When Todd cracked the top of his rub tub, the aroma of coffee filled the air, and the mix looked like crumbled Oreo cookies. Todd said he wraps the briskets in foil for the latter part of the cook, and the liquid that collects in the bottom further seasons the meat. I loved the bold flavor on the bark, and the coarse texture helped pick up a more pronounced smoke flavor. The juiciness had also improved quite bit since I last visited.
With the expansion into a restaurant, Todd needed more smoker capacity. He pulled a large steel tank from his grandfather’s property and dropped it off at the welding class at Central Heights High School in Nacogdoches. The students spent six months welding it into a reverse-flow smoker that is now the workhorse in the pit room.
There’s also a Pitmaker Vault smoker back there. The kitchen inside is small and doesn’t have room for a stovetop or an oven (hence the commercially made white cheddar mac and cheese), so the cooks use the Vault for baking biscuits and cinnamon rolls for the monthly breakfast menu. No matter what’s cooking, it’s smoked with a mix of white oak, red oak, and post oak sourced around East Texas.
Brendyn’s BBQ doesn’t do combination plates. Its barbecue is sold by the pound, and Todd assured me that I could get as little or as much of anything as I wanted. “We’re a one-rib restaurant” is how he described it. After eating plenty of recent barbecue meals with half-pound or half-rack minimums, this was a welcome relief. You can sample a wide variety of meats from the menu, but when it comes to chicken, you have to commit to half a bird. Thankfully, it was smoky, salty, and juicy.
You’ll probably want more than one rib. They have a dark, smoky bark that shimmers. Rather than using sugar in the glaze, Todd mixes his barbecue sauce with mayonnaise. “I like the shine it gives them,” he said, and the mayo doesn’t add any extra sweetness. That puts the ribs at odds with the sweeter ones I normally find in East Texas, but Todd said he’s heard no complaints.
The Pig Apple sandwich, featuring pulled pork, slaw, and slices of green apple, gets no complaints either. I called it one of my favorite barbecue bites back in 2018, and it’s still a great combination with a refreshing crunch of tart fruit. “I don’t think there’s anything to change on it,” Todd said. One thing he did change from back then was adding beans to the menu, and they’re good, but his best-selling side is jalapeño creamed corn. The first bite will be a surprise if you’re expecting the flavor of sweet cream. Instead, Todd blends cream cheese, pickled jalapeños, and jalapeño juice. The result is tart with a hint of spice, and it’s unlike any other creamed corn I’ve had. I would order it again.
It’s ironic that I’m writing this week about how Brendyn’s BBQ was able to leave the food truck behind. The restaurant building needed some roof repairs and Todd decided it was time to renovate the restroom, so he’s back to serving from the food truck temporarily, with shortened hours. The truck is parked next to the building, so it’s easy to find. If you miss it, just follow the smell of East Texas oak smoke tinged with roasted coffee.
Brendyn’s BBQ
601 E. Main, Nacogdoches
Phone:936-585-1030
Hours:Tuesday–Saturday 11–7
Pitmaster:Brendyn Todd
Method:Oak in a reverse-flow smoker
Year opened:2018
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