by Richard Foss
Get away from the garish modern boulevards of the South Bay and you find relics of an era when this area was rural and farms stretched as far as the eye can see. I always smile when I pass the Lomita Feed Store, established 1927, where you can stock up on all your hay, alfalfa, and chicken feed needs. My yearly requirement for bovine and equine fuel is zero, so I don’t stop in, but I like to know it’s there.
I’ll be driving past that feed store on Narbonne more often now that I’ve dined at Harry’s Oklahoma-Style Smokehouse BBQ, which occupies a more modern building a few blocks away. Harry’s started serving that distinctive midwestern style of smoked meats 35 years ago as a restaurant, but after only a year or so owner Jon Harry Bayouth was doing so much catering business that he decided to focus on that aspect exclusively. The pandemic canceled the big occasions they’d focused on, so they started serving take-out, and 10 months ago they reopened the dining room that had last been in service over three decades before.
A three-meat combo plate from Harry’s – pork ribs, tri-tip, and chicken — with sides of molasses baked beans and mac and cheese.
That dining room is a cheerful place festooned with family photos, Oklahoma sports jerseys, and a couple of pinball machines. It’s the latest in a series of businesses operated by the Beyouth family, who moved from Lebanon to the U.S. in the early 1900s. Jon Beyouth proudly related that his great-uncle Saul was the role model that Rodgers & Hammerstein used for the traveling salesman in the play “Oklahoma!” and his family operated a store in Collinsville as early as 1916. A hat from that store has a place of pride by the register.
You’ll probably spend a while studying the menu, because, while the smoked meat selection is straightforward, there is an impressive array of side items. The expected brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken, and links are joined by a country-fried steak, which we didn’t order this time, but intend to investigate in the future. Sides include the ones you expect, cole slaw, potato salad, beans, and the like, but they also offer corn fritters, fried green beans, green beans almondine, and others. There’s also a strawberry-kale salad, an item so unlike everything else that we joked about it being lonely.
I visited with four of my family members, and between us we ordered a substantial percentage of the menu items. First to arrive were starters: fried mashed potato balls laced with onion chunks, corn fritters, cornbread, and waffle fries. The potato and onion balls and corn fritters were popular around the table, but the cornbread was not the style I prefer. This was cakelike and sweet, and I prefer the version made with rough-ground cornmeal that has more corn flavor.
The main items arrived before we were half finished with the starters, and that was a good thing – if we had been left alone with the starters we would have finished them and not had room for the avalanche of food that came out of the kitchen. I’ll describe those in detail shortly, but first will address the question that is probably in your minds: how is Oklahoma barbecue different from that served in Texas?
The answer is that it is similar, but not exactly the same. Texas barbecue is often cooked over mesquite and oak, occasionally mixed with pecan or walnut. Oklahoma barbecue is almost always smoked with hickory, which infuses a mild sweetness without the sharp tang of mesquite. The barbecue rub in both places is based on salt, sugar, garlic, and pepper, but in Texas they’re likely to add more cayenne, mustard, and other spices. The Oklahoma sauce is similar to what I’ve had in Texas, thick and with a balance of sweetness and heat, but Harry’s is less peppery. Finally, and crucially, barbecue in Texas has a focus on the bark, the crusty exterior, while the Oklahoma version is all about getting the meat as tender as possible.
This is something you particularly notice when you order burnt ends, the trimmings of brisket that are usually the most smoky and chewy cut. The burnt ends at Harry’s are very good brisket, but soft and without much caramelization on the meat. We had that on a combination plate with the brisket, which was rich and soft as butter but had no bark at all – it must have been trimmed along with the exterior fat before serving. For those who enjoy mildly smoky meat, this may be the best you’ve ever had, but I like more smoke and spice.
I got that on both the beef and pork ribs, which were meaty and smoky and rank with the best in the area – I’d have to try them side by side with Willingham’s to be sure. Beef ribs can often be tough and dry, but these remind you that beef ribs and prime rib are after all the same part of the cow.
Two types of links are available, standard and jalapeno. At our server’s urging we ordered the jalapeno. I had low expectations because jalapeno sausages are usually so heavily spiced that you can’t taste anything else, but these were very well balanced. Like the brisket and burnt ends, they arrived already sauced – this is another difference between Oklahoma and Texas, where the sauce is almost always on the side. Harry’s has two sauces, sweet and spicy, and at our table spicy won hands down.
While most items are similar to Texas barbecue, Harry’s also served pulled pork sandwiches, which are a more Southern specialty and probably native to Georgia or the Carolinas. (West Texas barbecue snobs regard pork shoulder as something that shouldn’t even be near their pit, while in East Texas it is celebrated.) The pulled pork sandwich is first rate due partly to the meat and partly to the cole slaw, which is crisp, lightly vinegary, and not drenched in mayonnaise.
Other sides we tried were mac and cheese, green beans almondine, potato salad, and fried okra. Okra is something you like or hate based on texture and the strong flavor, and I like it. I prefer a cornmeal crust to the flour mix used here, but it scratched that itch. The potato salad was popular with everyone thanks to mild seasoning and small slices of pickle and a dusting of paprika, but nobody liked the mac and cheese. This was very soupy and sweet with no crust from baking, and was the only item that went back to the kitchen almost untouched.
Two housemade desserts are offered, cherry and peach cobbler, and since we were full near to bursting we ordered both to go for breakfast. There are many variations on cobbler, and the version here is seasoned cooked fruit topped with a disc of biscuit rather than the crumble style. I was expecting both cobblers to be very sweet but was pleasantly surprised – the cherry in particular had a light, fresh tartness. If you are more moderate than we were about starters and have room for dessert, I recommend it.
After so many years as a catering kitchen and take-out only spot, many people don’t know that Harry’s even had a dining room. They do, and have applied for a wine and beer license. Go while it’s still a secret spot, because once the word gets out, this little dining room is likely to be full.
Harry’s Oklahoma-Style Smokehouse BBQ is at 25501 Narbonne Avenue in Lomita. Open daily at 11 a.m. Close 8 p.m. Mon -Thurs., 9 p.m. Fri–Sun. Street parking. Wheelchair access good. Noise level moderate. (310) 326-9842. Homeofharrysbbq.com. Pen