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There is enough ferment and creativity in the Houston barbecue community right now to fuel a Blue Origin rocket.
A place to taste the latest and greatest is the sleek new brick and mortar home of Fégès barbecue, which began life in the Greenway Plaza Food Hall before adding this impressive location to Spring Branch.
The genius of Feges has always resided in the unique blend of talents of the owners. Here’s your modern Houston mom and pop: a decorated veteran, Patrick Feges, who’s also a veteran pitmaster; and a skilled chef, Erin Smith, who honed her New York wine skills and knowledge at Per Se and Babbo. At Greenway, Smith’s inventive sides were as bad as Feges’ whole belly and pork.
Together, they’ve crafted an opening menu that offers everything from a classic barbecue to a sit-down dinner, accompanied by a carefully chosen wine list.
I opted for the double-double cheeseburger I had been eyeing on various Instagram feeds, especially after a friend on Twitter declared it “an absolute unit of a sandwich,” and Feges confessed to eating three. In a week.
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My partner in crime dined on a fabulous porcini crusted suspension steak, served precisely to the point on a lively base of romesco sauce, roasted cauliflower and deeply caramelized onions. There is a large, gleaming kitchen behind the demi-service counter, and it turns out serious food like this.
This burger, however. Here’s how it stacked up.
THE PRICE: $ 16 for the Double Double Prime beef cheeseburger with fries; $ 14 for a glass of Stolpman La Cuadrilla Syrah blend from California, for a total of $ 30.
ORDERED : Go up to a checkout counter, where you’ll order, pay, and receive a table flag which is a colorful postcard centered on Houston. (Ours featured Sheryl Swoopes of the Houston Comets.) Collect your glassware and visit the condiment and pickle bar, then find a table. A member of staff will bring your food when it is ready.
ARCHITECTURE: Salad stuff on the background. On a roasted potato bun, there is a splash of homemade “Riot Sauce”, large slices of bread and butter pickle and sliced ​​iceberg lettuce, followed by a thin crushed beef patty. , a soft slice of American cheese, another patty and another slice of cheese. The final touch is a deeply caramelized onion fillet.
QUALITY: Yeah, baby. This one really clicks like a sandwich: one that balances the elements into an extremely satisfying whole that you can pick up with both hands and, with a little dexterity, bite down all the way.
The patties had a crisp sear and came out on a calculated medium – still juicy on the inside and vibrant with a clear beef flavor. The chewy cheese, intensely flavorful onion, and wonderfully edgy homemade bread and butter pickles were all paired with the laid-back, secretive riot sauce to produce the required slip and slide.
I admired the choice to omit the tomato slices that so often sabotage a burger. I savored the crunchy pickle and iceberg and pancake crust. And I enjoyed the way the ribbons of iceberg flew off as I ate, remembering how having a good time.
FOLLOW-UP ASSESSMENT: Juicy, not dripping.
CLASSIFICATION BY LETTER: Solid A.
VALUE: It’s pricey, but well-executed frozen fries are a bit of a pain reliever – especially when dipped in Smith’s lively Alabama white barbecue sauce, available on tap at the condiment bar.
BONUS POINTS: Options for adding a well-matched wine, like the La Cuadrilla blend – in which French Syrah and Grenache play well with Italian Sangiovese – add value to the experience. The same goes for Smith’s salads (the grilled Caesar with Serrano dressing and delicious anchovy breadcrumbs) and desserts.
Another big plus is the helpful staff, some of whom have been with Feges for years.
LOCAL COLOR : Feges and Smith live nearby with their young son Wyatt, and Smith says they’ve made their restaurant the kind of place they’d like to hang out. There is a fun playground with synthetic turf for the kids, presided over by a gigantic pig’s head (!), Right in front of the large picture windows that surround the corner space.
Vintage westerns unfold silently on 3 different walls in an airy room decorated in cream and black, with joyful bursts of orange-red. And there is a well-appointed front patio that offers a magnificent view of the sunset that will never get old.
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