The sun bore down with a heavy heat on Thursday morning, but it did little to deter the waiting throng of Houstonians outside Barbecue Inn. News traveled fast of the impending closure of the long beloved Houston <a href="https://todaytrendnews7.com/whats-cooking-hawaii-restaurant-association-prepares-for-hall-of-fame-event/” title=”What’s Cooking: Hawaii Restaurant Association prepares for Hall of Fame event”>restaurant, which was set for Saturday. For the crowd braving the heat outside, it was their last chance to pay their respects to an 80-year-old institution
Houston’s Facebook foodie groups exploded on Wednesday night with reports of Barbecue Inn closing. Houston Heights Foodies creator John Frels told Chron he confirmed the news through a friend who texted a server who worked there. The outpouring of grief intensified throughout the night as restaurant insiders and regulars shared their memories of the place that had been serving fried chicken, barbecue ribs and hot pies since 1946
That year, Louis and Nell Skrehot opened Barbecue Inn at 116 W. Crosstimbers St. The Skrehot family stewarded the business over the decades as it passed down to their sons and later grandson. The menu largely stayed the same: Houston-style barbecue and Southern and Gulf Coast classics. Curiously, the restaurant became more famous for its fried chicken and shrimp than its brisket, ribs and sausage
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Generations of Houstonians have graced its familiar booths, including former Houston Press food critic and current social media food tastemaker Katharine Shilcutt. The fourth-generation Houstonian put her feelings simply: heartbroken and devastated. That said, there was no resentment toward Wayne Skrehot’s decision to retire. Ultimately, Wayne is 86 and the economy isn’t doing longtime restaurant owners like him any favors
“I’m being extra and dramatic about this, but we have so few of these places left,” Shilcutt said. “It feels like the burning of the Library at Alexandria.”
Shilcutt had included Barbecue Inn on her list of essential Houston restaurants, which went viral on Instagram a year ago. Back then, she said restaurants like Barbecue Inn and nearby Pizzitola’s Heritage BBQ—itself a 91-year-old business—harkened to an era when Central Texas-style cooking had yet to have such a stranglehold on the city.
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A food writing instructor at Rice University’s Glasscock School for Continuing Studies, Shilcutt would take her students to Barbecue Inn for research
“We’re losing a place wherein you could still see Houston’s past. It was almost a living museum. A window into time,” Shilcutt said. “You could walk in and see generations of Houstonians who sat in those booths and ordered those exact same plates.”
Betty Findley was first in line that Thursday with her husband, brother and sister-in-law. The 79-year-old has been a big fan of Barbecue Inn and knew the restaurant’s longtime servers
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“I don’t know of another one like it. It’s got great seafood, great barbecue, delicious chicken fried steak, baked potatoes—it’s always perfect, and their salads are great,” Findley said. “Their dressings—my brother has been trying to get their tartar sauce recipe for years but [Skrehot] would not give it out. I told him yesterday, ‘This is your chance. You need to ask him for his tartar sauce.'”
Though Barbecue Inn may be forever gone, there are still opportunities to frequent the restaurants that have formed the culinary DNA of the city. For example, there’s Christie’s Seafood & Steaks on Westheimer Road near Uptown, plus Mandola’s Deli near East Downtown.
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But the important thing is that you need to visit them because nothing is guaranteed in a city like Houston. One person in line at Barbecue Inn muttered that they thought getting there at 10:15 a.m. was “early.”
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“If it was like this everyday, they probably wouldn’t be closing,” he said
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