Back Country BBQ looks to the next 50 years

Like any industry, there’s always going to be change in the barbecue business.

Innovative smoking techniques, never-before-blended rubs and novelty proteins pop out of the woodwork almost every time Texas Monthly prints an issue. Longtime staples close and are replaced by newer, decidedly-Instagram forward concepts serving platters built for influencers’ cameras. And as any pitmaster will tell you, meat prices are anything but fixed.

But, sometimes, change comes in the form of new blood working the pit.

Scott Collard bought Back Country BBQ in 2016 after spending 40 years working his way first from the dish pit to the register, then from the smoker to the manager’s office at Big Al’s Smokehouse. Over the last decade, he’s introduced new menu items and tampered recipes — a delicate dance at a business that first opened near Ferndale Road and Northwest Highway in 1975 before moving to Vickery Meadow in 1988.

“At first, we didn’t change a whole lot,” Collard says. “But I slowly changed things over the years. Some of my recipes, I think they’re better.”

Still ketchup-based like its predecessor, Collard’s barbecue sauce recipe utilizes juice from caramelized onions and lemons to create a sauce he says is “sweeter and tangier.” Regulars, apparently, haven’t had too much of a problem with the alteration.

“Nobody knows that I’ve changed the sauce,” he says. “Nobody has noticed it, but I’m getting compliments on it. They know something’s different.”

Recently, he and his team added jumbo bacon-wrapped jalapeño popper “bullets” smothered in the mixture to the menu.

Aside from slight alterations to a few other recipes and incorporating chicken wings on select days each week, Collard is also throwing a higher quality of protein in the smoker these days with a menu advertising angus beef briskets and duroc pork shoulders.

“(The key is) good employees, good barbecue and happy customers,” he says. “And it’s gonna be the quality. You’ve got to have quality food. You can’t just go down and buy something. The lowest bidder doesn’t get meat around here.”

But not all changes have been welcomed by longtime customers. “The potato salad, I left alone. I tried to change it, but I got some real big kickback on that,” Collard laughs. “They said, ‘Don’t change that potato salad.’ And here’s the funny thing, french fries, I tried to change french fries. They don’t sell. You just don’t realize how much you sell until you do something different.”

What is selling well is brisket, sausage and pork and beef ribs, a speciality for Back Country. Collard uses choice two-thirds brisket as he believes USDA Prime-grade beef to be too fatty to smoke, while hot links and jalapeño sausage are made in-house.

Another longtime staple that hasn’t gone anywhere is the homemade chili con carne, served without beans (Frito’s optional) in true Texas style. The stew is made with house-ground brisket and typically simmers for a few hours. While many recipes call for flour for structure, Collard says he’s been able to forego it since switching to brisket.

“I don’t know. I’ve yet to figure that out. Something just thickens. Maybe it’s the brisket, because I’ve always made it with hamburger meat.”

Back Country BBQ marked 50 years of business with a special anniversary celebration this August. At the celebration, Earnest Griffith Jr., who loaded hickory into the Back Country pit for over 45 years following its opening, met with old customers and shook hands.

The restaurant looks largely the same as it did when Griffith would have first walked through the doors in 1988. And it’s still serving the same homemade peach cobbler and banana pudding. And cole slaw. And beans. And, albeit with a few small tweaks, brisket.

But the biggest constant for Collard? The most important part of his business still walks through the front doors.

“It’s all about the customer and it’s all about the way the meats are prepared. When you’re serving that excellent brisket to that customer, and they’re happy, that’s all it is.”

Back Country BBQ, 6940 Greenville Ave., 214.696.6940, backcountrybbq.com