It has been too long (~18 months) since I ate at a great Eastern Texas BBQ joint in north Houston. In 2017 I did my first write-up of SouthernQ BBQ. Since then, Steve and Sherice Garner have been very busy continuing to drive the business forward. They have done such a great job, that last month they just opened a second location at Richey Road near I-45 North. Clearly they are doing something right. We got to the original location on Kuykendahl early – we may have been the first folks in the place on a Wednesday. But the staff was already very busy even so – which is a good sign. It may have been partly because they were getting ready for the first annual Sausage Wars that was held a few days later.

We were able to order and within a short time the food arrived. I once again ordered brisket. And this time I went with the pork spareribs. And for sides I tried the baked beans and grilled corn-on-the-cob. And since I was introduced to their “fire crackers” last time, I had to add those to my order. The moist brisket was very good. A very small amount had some not-quite rendered fat, which was disappointing. But the rest of it was excellent – it had a great meaty, smoky flavor. And the bark was absolutely killer. The pork ribs – OHHH the pork ribs. In Eastern Texas BBQ, spareribs are typically much more in focus than the typical central Texas brisket. And Steve and Sherice know how do to spareribs. The flavor was phenomenal. They had a great chew and texture. They were super moist (in fact, some of the fat dripped onto my jeans – I don’t see that very often). The meat pulled away perfectly from the bone, without the whole thing falling off the bone. The sides were very nice as well. The baked beans were very tasty, with a little bit of sweetness and great flavor. The grilled corn-on-the-cob was tremendous. The flavor was outstanding. And oh man those fire crackers are just amazing little snacky bites.

I loved the experience at SouthernQ on my first visit. And this latest visit just solidified them as somewhere I’ll go back to again and again.