New good barbecue in Fort Worth: Texas Monthly picked this restaurant for BBQ Fest
Brix Barbecue has made the big time, and soon, the whole state will know.
Football star-turned-pitmaster Trevor Sales’ hustle took him quickly from pop-ups to a South Main Village food truck to a handsome new restaurant and bar, 1012 S. Main St.
Now, Brix will be in the lineup for opening night at the state’s annual celebration of barbecue, the Texas Monthly BBQ Fest Nov. 4-5 in Lockhart.
Brix is one of eight new Texas barbecue restaurants chosen for the state’s premier pitmasters’ event and the only one from the Fort Worth or Dallas area.
The second day, Nov. 5, will feature established state Top 50 restaurants, including locals Dayne’s Craft Barbecue, Goldee’s Bar-B-Q, Hurtado Barbecue, Panther City BBQ and Zavala’s Barbecue.
Tickets are $55 for Nov. 4, $110 for Nov. 5 at texasmonthly.com/tmbbqfest. The event is in Lockhart City Park in a city known as the heartland of Central Texas barbecue.
Sales opened his restaurant this summer after operating three years nearby from his trailer, the “SmokeStream.”
Brix is near West Rosedale Street and only five blocks from vaunted Panther City BBQ. Equally highly regarded Smoke-A-Holics, Heim Barbecue and Hurtado Barbecue are all within about 1 mile.
Sales, a former star Indiana high school football guard and college captain at Buffalo, lived in Mansfield as a child and came back to Texas for a job selling the utility poles for transmission towers.
When Heim originally opened at the current Panther City location and drew waiting lines more than an hour long, “I was one of the people in those lines,” he said.
He started serving his own pop-up dinners in 2018 at a food hall on West Berry Street, then launched his truck.
“There’s so many new players now, and Texas barbecue has taken the country by storm,” he said.
So, he also sells hot chicken sandwich, flat-top grilled cheeseburgers and fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies, along with prime brisket, pork ribs and house-made sausage.
“These days you need what I call ‘barbecue-adjacent’ dishes,” he said.
That’s why he serves the chicken, burgers, tacos and a rolled stuffed pork belly, he said.
Texas Monthly visited about a month ago and described Brix in a headline as “the Best New Spot in Town.”
All the barbecue chefs are good neighbors and each has its own niche, he said.
He hopes to add a bar menu for later hours and maybe a steak-for-two couples’ dinner one night a week, he said.
Brix is open for lunch Thursdays through Sundays; 219-363-6210, brixbarbecue.com.
