Backyard BBQ earns its reputation: Harlingen restaurant serves tender, sweet brisket

HARLINGEN — Spices and herbs thick in the air greet me as I enter the restaurant.

The Saturday afternoon is disturbingly slow, and the temperature reading 91 degrees feels peculiar and out of touch with the late December day.

But cars in the parking lot tell something rather different. They tell a story of hunger and activity and the desire for food which has earned a reputation.

The moment I enter Backyard BBQ at 3134 Wilson Road, across the street from Harlingen Sports Complex, I know I’m in a classic South Texas BBQ place.

“For here?” says a kind and attentive waitress who quickly directs me to a large dining room.

In the dining room I find a South Texas presence with heavy brown wooden tables and tall chairs. Billy Ocean sings Lover Boy which is not South Texas but as we all know South Texas is more than Waylon and Willie.

I like Billy Ocean singing “Lover Boy,” and I like the color scheme of the restaurant with wooden walls painted in subtle shades of light and dark browns. A bird of prey on the branch of a bare tree painted on the wall is a very nice touch.

The menu is not an extensive menu, but it is a good menu.

The meat plates include two sides and a drink, and I can order “one meat” or “two meat” or “three meat” or the half chicken plate.

“Right now for our meats,” says my kind waitress, “we just have brisket, our quarter chicken, sausage and turkey. For our sides we have everything except for our charro beans.”

I look at the sides and they do include potato salad, rice, macaroni, French fries and onion rings.

The Backyard Specials include “Backyard Fries” with meat, cheese, BBQ sauce, and sour cream.

Under the heading “Tacos” the restaurant offers corn tacos and flour tacos. The “Backyard Taco” comes with meat, rice, beans, white queso and a drink.

I ask for the sliced brisket plate with French fries and rice.

I take a little time now for reflection on how I came to eat at this restaurant. Like many of my restaurant reviews, I learned about Backyard BBQ through Uber clients, casual conversations, and random suggestions on Facebook.

These comments from several sources put Backyard BBQ on my list. I planned to do this review for quite some time but somehow it just hadn’t happened. But, as I found the opportunity and moved toward that opportunity, I acquainted myself with the restaurant online and found an article by Remi Gibbs in the July 2024 issue of Explore Harlingen.

Sliced brisket at Backyard BBQ. (Travis M. Whitehead | Valley Morning Star)

Gibb says in the article the building has stood on this location since 2004 when the Gomez family opened it as Backyard Burgers. That restaurant had a short life because the owner, Valde Gomez, had medical problems.

“He rented the restaurant out for almost 20 years until his daughter, Carina Gomez, now 43, was ready to take over the helm,” Gibbs writes in the article. “The restaurant reopened just over a year ago.”

I was most charmed by this restaurant’s story, because the story revealed it has a history and therefore a personality. The existence of personality in a place makes it authentic and true and personal.

Today, I see many personalities. In front of me a woman with a face seasoned by her years chews quickly on an onion ring, and a boy next to her stands and scrapes his chair on the floor and then sits again. Another boy across the table from him sips through a straw. A large woman in a beige jacket has her back to me, and on the table itself I see spent paper cups and cream-colored bowls and crumpled napkins.

She leans over and scoops something out of the boy’s bowl. A man across from her rests his hand against his head and looks through his glasses and says nothing.

A young couple with two small boys takes another table. One boy needs assistance and the man in a blue muscle shirt carefully eases him into his chair.

My plate arrives and thick slices of brisket greet my eyes along with French fries. It all looks good and smells good. I pour BBQ sauce across the brisket and then work on it with my knife and fork. I do not have to work hard, because the brisket easily falls away.

This brisket immediately captures my attention. The tenderness of this brisket and its flavor and its juiciness impress me, and I know that tenderness and flavor will take a permanent place in my memory.

I know now why everybody is talking about Backyard BBQ, and if you go there, you will too.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

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