Fort Worth’s Goldee’s is losing a pitmaster to Austin. But first she’s doing a pop-up

Texas’ No. 1 barbecue restaurant will take next weekend off, but one of the pitmasters is taking up the slack.

Pitmaster Chuck Charnichart will open Goldee’s Aug. 5-6 and serve her own specials, such as chori-queso sausage and pineapple upside-down cobbler.

Charnichart — her Instagram name is “bbqrat” — plans to open her own restaurant next year in the Austin-Lockhart corridor, she wrote in a message.

Like many of the Goldee’s partners, she worked in the Austin barbecue scene. After a stint at Austin mainstay Franklin and at barbecue restaurants in Cairo, Egypt, and Oslo, Norway, she came to Dallas-Fort Worth two years ago and worked at Zavala Barbecue in Grand Prairie, along with Goldee’s.

Goldee’s, 4645 Dick Price Road south of Kennedale, has become known for its menu of small-batch craft barbecue and house-made sides and breads. But Goldee’s also offers Lao sausage, jerky and other specials with Asian influences.

Charnichart’s pop-up menu next weekend will include Tex-Mex charro beans, cactus salad and green salsa, but also Lapsang souchong Chinese smoked-tea-beet barbecue sauce.

She’ll also offer fresh-squeezed cucumber lemonade.

She took over Goldee’s for a pop-up last August, serving barbecue her way to the crowds that come every weekend from around Texas.

“Everything is made from scratch and with lots of love,” she wrote in a message.

Goldee’s, founded by Lane Milne, Jonny White and childhood friends from Arlington, was ranked No. 1 last year by Texas Monthly magazine.

Barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn said there were many contenders but every time judges went to Goldee’s, “it was spot-on perfect — there was never anything dried-out or that tasted like it had been there a while.”

Goldee’s led a local Top 50 barbecue parade that also includes Panther City BBQ in South Main Village near downtown Fort Worth (No. 10); Hurtado Barbecue in downtown Arlington and Little Elm, coming soon to south Fort Worth; Dayne’s Craft Barbecue in the Westland neighborhood of far west Fort Worth; Smoke-A-Holics BBQ in Morningside Heights; and Zavala’s in downtown Grand Prairie.



A list of Nos. 50-100 included 407 BBQ in Argyle, 225° BBQ in downtown Arlington, Bare Barbecue in Cleburne, BBQ on the Brazos in Cresson, and Heim Barbecue’s multiple locations.