Parish Barbecue in Austin is the best Houston-style barbecue joint that’s not in Houston.
When I refer to “Houston-style”, I’m talking about the outsized influence that Cajun and Creole cuisines have on the smoked meats of the Bayou City.
Shreveport native and former Houstonian Holden Fulco, owner and pitmaster at Parish Barbecue, has created perhaps the most creative and delicious combination of Texas barbecue and Louisiana cookery on this side of the Sabine River.
Fulco, 33, grew up hunting and fishing and grilling his catch on backyard pits made from 55-gallon oil drums that is grandfather, V.J., built as a hobby.
He got his first taste of Texas barbecue when V.J. took him across the state line to the legendary Bodacious Bar-B-Q location in Marshall.
“He would always get a rib plate, that’s what that place is known for,” says Fulco, “Still, to this day, it’s my favorite barbecue place in the world.”
After graduating with a business degree from Louisiana Tech University where he cooked barbecue for fellow students, he followed his parents to Katy when they moved in 2015. A short stint in real estate convinced him his calling lay elsewhere.
“I was like, you know what? This is a waste of my time. This is not what I want to do,” says Fulco of his brief career selling property. “So, I walked into Pinkerton’s Barbecue [on Airline Drive] and talked to the general manager and said ‘Hey, I want to work in barbecue’.”
He got the job there in 2018, and then moved on to work at both Franklin Barbecue and InterStellar BBQ in Austin over the next few years. He opened Parish Barbecue this past March.
The menu here is loaded with so many Cajun and Creole specialties, I didn’t even have a chance to order the brisket (I’ve heard it’s stellar). I started with the cured and smoked ham, which is both a classic menu item at Louisiana barbecue joints as well as old-school Houston joints.
He starts with a boneless pork shoulder that’s soaked for a week in a brine of curing salts, brown sugar, fennel and mustard seeds and black peppercorns. He then par-cooks the hams to a safe temperature and then finishes them on the pit at high heat to render the fat.
It makes for a buttery-tender, intensely savory bite of pork. This ham is one of my favorite barbecue bites of the year.
Another standout dish is the crawfish cornbread dressing. Fulco uses the slightly-sweet nostalgia of cornbread made from Jiffy mix that’s crumbled and covered in a creamy cheese sauce, then mixes in the trinity of onions, celery and bell pepper, and adds Cajun spices and chunks of crawfish tails.
It’s reminiscent of the memorable seafood dressing we’d eat at Thanksgiving growing up in Beaumont, whose provenance was not fully known, except that it maybe came from the cousin of a friend who brought over a few pans from Lake Charles that morning. You can occasionally still find it at old-school Houston joints like Burns Original BBQ.
To be clear, I think Fulco’s decision to open in Austin is a good one. Houston’s supercharged barbecue scene, with its embarrassment of riches when it comes to established as well as newly minted joints, would require significantly more effort to stand out from a crowd of Louisiana-inspired smoked meat vendors.
That said, for Houston barbecue fans, Parish Barbecue is the one that got away. Fortunately, it’s a quick day trip to Austin.
Parish Barbecue (trailer)
Located at Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches
3220 Manor Road, Austin; parishbarbecue.com
This article originally published at The best Houston-style barbecue in Texas may now be in Austin.