Pierson & Company BBQ - Houston, TX w pix

Hello LTH,

After teaching a summer documentary fieldwork college class in Acadiana, LA, I spent the rest of the summer in East Texas and the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston, where I trained for my private pilot license (“Will fly 4 good food”?). Hot links from Pittsburg, TX, fried catfish and hushpuppies, fresh Gulf seafood from the fish markets in San Leon (redfish, red snapper, flounder, oysters, shrimp and blue crab: grilled, pan fried, baked, stuffed, “bbq-ed,” etc.). More about that later.

(There also was lots of Shiner beer involved: Bohemian Black, Bock, Blond, 100th-Anniversary).

I’d been hearing about a new BBQ master in Houston: Clarence Pierson. He’s a former grave-yard shift iron-worker who convinced a Texas Cajun pitmaster near the ironworks to take him on as an apprentice. Clarence opened his own place last summer.

After only year in bidness, Pierson & Co. (the company is his sister), was voted by the readers and food critics of the alternative weekly Houston Press as offering the best BBQ in the city (a helluva accomplishment in a state that takes its BBQ near and dear to heart). He certainly did his work: he explained that he experimented with his technique for several years. “I’m a perfectionist,” Clarence says. “I threw out a lot of meat.” He also experimented with holding the briskets after smoking. Many places use heat lamps, move them to a low-temp zone or wrap the briskets in foil after removing them from the smoker. Clarence discovered that loosely enveloping them in plastic wrap kept the briskets juicy enough for his tastes. “Heat lamps and holding in the pit dry them out,” he says. “Wrap them in foil: they continue to cook and get too well done.”

Clarence uses a Houston-made Klose smoker and mesquite for his pork ribs, brisket, turkey, chicken, pork, links, smoked boudin and ham. On three visits, I sampled the ribs, brisket, links and boudin. The ribs were meaty, chewy and perfectly done. The brisket was moist, nicely dry-rubbed, smoky and savory. The links were exquisite. The boudin? How could you improve a good pork, pork liver and rice sausage? Smoking it over mesquite. A born and bred East Texan, ribs have always been on the wee side of my personal food chart: to me, bbq is mainly brisket and hot links/sausage, although I developed a taste for pork in N.C., mutton in Kentucky, cabrito in South Texas, and ribs in Chicago. Pierson’s ribs made me a proselytizing and drooling convert.


Pierson & Co. BBQ


Brisket and hot link


Ribs


Brisket and hot links


Clarence Pierson

I can’t vouch for Clarence’s sauce. BBQ condiments, to a Texan, mean sliced onions and dill pickle chips. Oh, and white bread: Clarence uses Mrs. Baird's, a local and favored brand. At Pierson’s, they properly inquire: “Sauce on the side?” My non-native fiancé and her son pronounced the sauce very good; there were whole bay leaves in the batches we got. For dessert, opt for their peach cobbler, as good a rendition as I’ve had. It’s nicely dosed with nutmeg, but not tarted up with too much cinnamon, as is often the case.

His links are more finely ground than you will find in the Czech and German bbq joints in the Texas Hill Country, more closely resembling the hot links prevalent in East Texas and Louisiana. They are nicely and assertively spiced, with a lingering after-burn. East Texans and Houstonians prefer their brisket trimmed lean, but you can order it cut on the fatty side.

Pierson’s is a place of which my late mom would’ve approved (she did not think highly of my Texas bbq and seafood choices; she loved the food if I got it to go, but she would not set foot in them: “shacks,” she used to call them, with a disapproving nod of the head). The small dining room is bright, impeccably clean and air-conditioned. “I’m a clean freak,” Clarence says. Clarence and his sister are gregarious and friendly. And they take credit cards.

Clarence is about to pave his gravel parking lot, to offer some outdoor shaded dining areas (not recommended in Houston in June-August), and to book some bands for Saturday).

Caveat emptor: when he’s out of a menu item, he’s out for the day. This happens early these days because of the word of mouth that has developed, and because of reviews in the Houston Press and the Houston Chronicle. Chicken is currently available only on Friday and Saturday (“That’s when,” Clarence says, “people seem to want them.”). A new smoker, he says, will alleviate the shortages and make the chicken a daily offering.

Pierson & Company BBQ
5110 W. T.C. Jester
Houston, TX
713-683-6997
Tues.-Sat.: 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

Off topic:


The West end of Galveston Island, TX from 4,500 feet in a Cessna 177B Cardinal