Once they no longer needed to unpack every time they served, Ross said, \u201cWe felt real inspired in what we could do with our time again.\u201d That meant expanding the menu, which now features barbecue ramen, a smoked-meat taco salad, and the burger that took home the trophy for being the fan favorite at the 2024 Cowtown Burger Showdown. Pitmaster Victor Flores was just pulling a tray of the half-pound, ground-brisket patties off the smoker when I arrived, so I had to try one. I placed my order at the window, then waited inside the brewery for my buzzer to go off.<\/p>\n
![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/smoke-and-bone-bbq-2.jpg\")
Smoke & Bone\u2019s award-winning burger and handmade sausages.Photograph by Daniel Vaughn<\/p>\n
Smears of chipotle aioli and avocado salsa provided creaminess and spice in the burger. Thick slices of smoked pork belly gave it some crunch, but a bite through the loosely packed patty met almost no resistance. The melted, house-made IPA cheddar cheese covered the patty like a blanket, and the edges of the patty were browned from the flattop. It was a behemoth for sure, but none of the toppings overwhelmed this balanced burger.<\/p>\n
The sausage trio is the most popular appetizer. The beefy basil wasn\u2019t quite ready when I visited, so I tried the other two. The one with sriracha and kimchi was great, but I was more impressed with the unusual chicken sausage. It\u2019s not a common protein in Texas, and the few places I\u2019ve tried it served a pretty dry link. This one, with a blend of chicken thighs and pork shoulder, was super juicy, thanks to the addition of frozen butter into the grind.<\/p>\n
Katherine said they returned to their roots by hand-making the sausages. \u201cWe had time when we were a pop-up, but then we got busy,\u201d she said, so the couple used commercial sausage for a while. Now they\u2019re back at it thanks to the crew they\u2019ve been able to hire, and the results are one of the highlights of this impressive food truck.<\/p>\n
Another feature are the pork belly burnt ends. Ross described the multistep process that includes smoking a whole, skinless pork belly, chilling it, and then cubing it. The cooks take the cold cubes and sear all six sides on the flat top until they\u2019re meltingly tender. Asha Chatlani works the register and suggested I get them tossed in hot honey. The salty pork mixed with the sugar and spice was perfect, as were the crispy edges on these tender nuggets.<\/p>\n
Dr Pepper barbecue sauce and jerk sauce are the other options for orders of smoked chicken, pork belly burnt ends, and pork spareribs. I asked for the latter drizzled over the tender pork ribs, which are also garnished with sesame seeds and fresh cilantro. I wished for more heat but enjoyed the unique take on ribs.<\/p>\n
The brisket offers no surprises, but it\u2019s great. A thick, fatty slice was tender and juicy, with a great bark. The smoke flavor was quite heavy, which Ross chalked up to the wet oak he received from a wood supplier. He has since switched suppliers and wood, now choosing to smoke exclusively with pecan.<\/p>\n
Before Smoke & Bone, Ross cooked at the Heritage Table in Frisco, Shady\u2019s in Dallas, and Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose. While at the last, he took a liking to the now-defunct Ranch House Barbecue in Glen Rose, especially its red-jalape\u00f1o potato salad. (The red jalape\u00f1os were actually chipotles.) At Smoke & Bone, he makes a version as close as he can remember. I didn\u2019t much like the green beans, which were drowned in basil aioli and topped with big chunks of fresh tomato. The creamy mac and cheese was more satisfying, especially after paying the extra dollar to add chopped brisket and jalape\u00f1o on top.<\/p>\n
After the meal, I came away impressed with the barbecue and the burger, of course, but also with the variety this team is able to produce out of a small food truck. \u201cWe bite off a lot every week to execute,\u201d Ross said, which is what keeps him and the crew excited about cooking. He and Katherine said their reward is seeing the overwhelmingly positive response from their customers. As Ross explained, \u201cYou leave your heart on the tray every day, and it\u2019s never going to be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smoke & Bone Read Next<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ross and Katherine Marquette were service industry veterans when the COVID-19 pandemic left them both jobless. They maintained…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1960,7659,1805,46376,116,118,117,7661],"class_list":{"0":"post-101377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-bbq","9":"tag-bbq-joint-reviews","10":"tag-burgers","11":"tag-food-trailers","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","14":"tag-fort-worth-news","15":"tag-sausage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>501 N. Main, Fort Worth
<\/a>Hours: Wednesday 4:30\u20137:30, Thursday noon\u20137:30, Friday\u2013Saturday noon\u20138, Sunday noon\u20137
Phone: 682-233-3785
Pitmasters: Victor Flores and Ross Marquette
Method: Pecan in an offset smoker
Year opened: 2023<\/p>\n