The thought of biting into juicy, fall-off-the bone barbecue is still drawing North Texans out of their homes 鈥� despite the pandemic. But as locals stop by to indulge their cult-like obsession with the iconic Texas staple, their favorite neighborhood joints look a little different.
In the last few months, Black owners of barbecue restaurants in North Texas say the pandemic has presented new challenges for their businesses, like slashing catering and in-store sales.
But following the in early June, some said their stores are seeing surges in business 鈥� some shorter and others longer-lived 鈥� due to the rise in support for Black-owned businesses.
It has meant a season of financial highs-and-lows as entrepreneurs are seeing two of the country鈥檚 most significant headlines of the year 鈥� civil unrest and a pandemic 鈥� play out in their budget books. And though Black America has deep roots in barbecue history, their contributions to the field have long been overlooked in favor of their white counterparts.
Off the Bone Barbeque
Husband and wife Dwight Harvey and Rose Broussard are the co-owners of in South Dallas, where they鈥檙e known for their baby back ribs, sausage and a host of unique side dishes, like their blue cheese and bacon coleslaw. They said in the weeks following the protests, they saw a ton of new faces.
鈥淏ut I would say that those are more temporary because we no longer even see those anymore,鈥� Broussard said. The last three weeks of July were especially quiet.
Though temporary, Broussard said the heightened visibility for her store led to other media attention like the local Fox station featuring her restaurant. After the story was on TV, she said the restaurant saw a boost in sales.
鈥淲e got quite a lift from that,鈥� Broussard said. 鈥淭hey were like, 鈥榦h, we saw you on TV. We wanted to come here and support you.鈥欌��
While the initial wave of post-protest support may have faded, the impact of the pandemic persists. Broussard said their total sales are down roughly 20-30% compared to this time last year.
The Paycheck Protection Program loan (PPP), part of a federal loan forgiveness program for businesses that retain employees, helped them keep their employees, but the last few months have been full of obstacles.
鈥淚 think the federal aid part is definitely required for a small business like ours to stay afloat,鈥� Harvey said. 鈥淣o other way we can do it.鈥�
Catering has also been hard-hit after nearby office buildings transitioned to remote work. They had to find new ways to adapt, like targeting consumer product companies that are still working on-site.
In the last three months, there were three weeks when catering sales were higher than prior year, but sales have plummeted as low as 50-52% of what they usually do during weeks in the red.
Then, there was the skyrocketing price of meat, like beef which . Prices have decreased since then, but Broussard said the surge in pricing forced them to increase menu prices.
鈥淵ou know, people would come and say 鈥榶es, we want to support you鈥� and they look at the prices and they go 鈥檞ow.鈥� And understandably, they know what has driven those prices up,鈥� she said.
Smokey John鈥檚 Bar-B-Que
In 2013, Juan and Brent Reaves officially took over , their father鈥檚 store established in Dallas on the corner of Lemmon and Mockingbird in 1976.
They describe their barbecue as 鈥渄eep grandpa and grandma style鈥� with influence from the Carolinas towards Memphis, a bit of Texas spice and the sweet of Georgia. Their dad, 鈥淪mokey鈥� John Reaves, brought the tradition of hickory-smoked barbecue from East Texas.
Juan and Brent said the wave of support for Black-owned businesses brought in significantly more Black customers and some new white customers who wanted to support the business. The Reaves brothers estimate the number of new customers almost doubled in the weeks after the protests.
鈥淪o I think across the board, the initiative to support Black businesses has helped sustain us through the pandemic,鈥� Brent said.
He notes they鈥檝e developed a customer base of Black millennials who weren鈥檛 familiar with the store previously, but want to support it now.
鈥淲hat's happened is now through this whole period is kind of bridging an age demographic gap that we were aware of,鈥� Juan said. 鈥淏ut it's been blatantly obvious now because of the new interest, particularly through social media.鈥�
It鈥檚 that engagement with the community, whether through social media platforms like their , features on local TV or store specials that they say has really helped their business.
At the end of March, they partnered with the Dallas Mavericks to deliver meals to health care workers, which was highlighted by local Fox station . They said the re-running of that story in the following weeks brought a lot of traffic to their store. They also saw a huge surge in business during their 鈥淔reedom to Freedom鈥� promotion from Juneteenth to July Fourth.
鈥淲e had the biggest Juneteenth we'd ever had in the history of our business,鈥� Juan said. 鈥淔or that day, it [year-to-year sales] was probably about 400%.鈥�
From around March to the end of July, overall sales were up 11-18% compared to the same months last year. May and June helped to offset the lows of March and April caused by the pandemic, Brent said 鈥� especially those record days during promotions.
But they鈥檝e also faced some major challenges 鈥� like the cancellation of the Texas State Fair, which Juan calls a 鈥渉uge blow.鈥� The annual event brings in over a third of their yearly revenue. In 2019, the Reaves brothers won a Big Tex Choice Award for their Big Red Chicken Bread, fried chicken on a Big Red flavored frosted doughnut.
Now, they鈥檙e trying to recover some of their lost concessions revenue by selling meal packages through the .
Even so, 鈥渢here鈥檚 no way we can make all that up,鈥� Juan said.
Looking Back As A Way Forward
Despite barbecue having a legacy in the Black community that stretches back to the time when enslaved Black chefs served as pitmasters, Black-owned restaurants and Black chefs often don鈥檛 get the same recognition as their white counterparts.
鈥淚f you look at the history of barbecue, African-Americans have often been the standard bearers for great barbecue,鈥� Adrian Miller, a James Beard award-winning culinary historian and certified barbecue judge, said. 鈥淪o it's just ridiculous in this moment to not have African-Americans celebrated for the significant contribution that they've made to this really popular food.鈥�
Miller, who is a Black man, once worked as a White House adviser to former President Bill Clinton. Now he鈥檚 finishing up his latest book , which chronicles the history of African-American contributions to barbecue. In his own words, the book鈥檚 about 鈥渞eorienting the barbecue narrative from a black perspective.鈥�
Miller said it all starts with understanding where barbecue really came from. It鈥檚 Native American in origin with some meat grilling and preservation techniques from Europeans and Black Americans. But back in the day, when barbecue was as labor-intensive as cooking an animal over a trench, it meant enslaved Black Americans were the ones doing all the cooking.
鈥淲hite barbecue and Black barbecue were actually synonymous because it was pretty much African-Americans who were making the barbecue and white people were eating it,鈥� Miller said.
Historically, barbecue has long been part of Black entrepreneurship. Many Black Americans worked as 鈥渇reelance barbecuers鈥� as Miller calls them, before and during the Civil War. There's even a story of Mary John, an enslaved woman in Arkansas who made enough money doing barbecue to buy her freedom.
But now, when barbecue is more popular than ever, those origin stories are often forgotten or overlooked. Miller said in the barbecue community in particular, tensions about those historical contributions are even more heated now because the food is so popular.
鈥淧eople are making a lot of money off barbecue 鈥� and it's usually not the African-Americans,鈥� he said.
Miller cites two factors in the 1990s that have contributed to the exclusion of Black barbecue chefs in popular media: the rise in TV coverage and prominence of white chefs like Food Network鈥檚 Bobby Flay, and the lack of diversity in the competition circuit, which can be expensive and time-intensive to get into.
He said when it comes to food from other cultures, chefs should follow through on three levels: honor the dish by making it well, acknowledge where you got the dish from and economically compensate the people you got it from.
A Pattern Among Black-Owned Small Businesses
Off the Bone and Smokey Johns鈥� economic ups and downs are emblematic of what many Black-owned businesses in North Texas are experiencing.
Harrison Blair, president of (DBCC), said it has been encouraging to see the support for Black businesses, especially given the hard-hitting impact of the pandemic.
More than 40% of Black-owned businesses in the state say they could close because of the pandemic, according to the preliminary results of a statewide survey by the Texas Association for African American Chambers of Commerce. More than 50% of businesses who responded said they had lost 50-100% of their revenue.
Blair said similar trends are playing out across North Texas. He said the pandemic has clearly exacerbated issues, like a lack of capital and access to banking, that have burdened Black businesses throughout modern history.
鈥淭his is really a lack of infrastructure to really support the entire community that needs capitalization,鈥� Blair said. 鈥淪o we're really pushing for a systemic change that we think will un-redline access to opportunity like that.鈥�
According to Ashley Harrington, director of federal advocacy and senior council for the Center for Responsible Lending, of the first round of federal stimulus funding, whether from issues completing the application or not knowing about the funding.
Recognizing that gap, DBCC started a program to walk businesses through applying for emergency funding.
Dallas-based entrepreneur offered his MyCARESApp to DBCC in order to help local small businesses apply for federal relief programs. The app cuts the three-hour process down to 30 minutes by using a conversational chatbot to gather information from users and fill out their application.
Blair said his team at DBCC was able to help over 300 small businesses get access to over $5 million in federal funding through the app. Now, they鈥檝e offered the app to the city of Dallas to help other small businesses.
鈥淲e think that this is something that will outlive the pandemic,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o this will help a lot of small Black businesses, who may not speak the language of banks, quickly submit loan applications and really tell their story the way a bank is asking for it financially.鈥�
Blair said his team is also focused on ensuring the current wave of support of Black businesses is sustained by corporate partners, from their boardroom discussions to community outreach. One concept, a guaranteed pool fund, would encourage local companies to increase community investments.
A guaranteed pool means that private corporations, foundations and even cities would become funders of personal loans for entrepreneurs, instead of family members like aunts or parents serving as guarantors. There鈥檚 currently lending mechanism like this in the U.S.
鈥淭hat way across this entire region, any bank or participating institution you walk into, you can capitalize...,鈥� Blair said.
Juan Reaves of Smokey John鈥檚 said the movement to support Black-owned businesses makes a difference because it brings change from within communities of color.
鈥淚t affects households. I mean, there's a ripple effect in communities when you do that,鈥� he said.
He just hopes that support is reaching other minority-owned small businesses, not just the restaurant industry or barbecue establishments 鈥� which have long brought devoted customers through the door with their morsels of melt-in-the-mouth Texas classics.
Got a tip? Email Elizabeth Myong at emyong@四虎影院.org. You can follow Elizabeth on Twitter .
四虎影院 is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider today. Thank you.
