This Fort Worth restaurant has added steaks, cocktails to the award-winning Texas BBQ
Before Everman, Rendon and Kennedale became the “Barbecue Triangle,” Cousins BBQ served south Fort Worth’s favorite brisket.
It’s still a favorite after 39 years, and now the busiest Cousins had a new Hill Country look to greet diners at 5125 Bryant Irvin Road.
When Cousins opened in 1983, it rocked Fort Worth’s barbecue world. The perennial beer hall debate between Angelo’s and Sammie’s became a three-way debate. (Railhead Smokehouse followed in 1986.)
Today, Cousins is an old-school barbecue joint playing a new game.
The brisket is prime. The pork is Duroc. The decor at the Bryant Irvin Road location is sprawling and airy, although the original Cousins at 6262 McCart Ave. is unchanged.
Unlike the other old-school restaurants, the new Cousins even serves steaks — a smoked aged ribeye ($32) or smoked New York strip ($28), with a chipotle Dr Pepper barbecue sauce.
That means Cousins is now an alternative to steakhouse chains such as Saltgrass, along with serving eight barbecue meats for $12.75-$17 as a platter with sides, or a la carte $16-$26 per pound.
In the now-heralded Fort Worth barbecue world, Cousins fits somewhere between Railhead and Heim, still serving the recipes that took founder Calvin “Boots” Payne’s brisket to the White House and to help launch what is now Disneyland Paris.
The remodel switched the Bryant Irvin Road location from old-time cafeteria-style service to an order counter offering appetizers such as smoked or fried wings, brisket-stuffed smoked jalapenos or chopped-brisket nachos.
The busy take-out counter also has a grab-and-go case with smoked pimiento cheese, serrano queso, salsa and guacamole.
Cousins still ranks high on social media for the basics: sliced and chopped brisket, pulled pork and the choice of 12 sides led by the popular broccoli-rice casserole.
An expanded bar at the Bryant Irvin Road location now also offers whiskey lemonade and a wide choice of specialty cocktails — something unavailable at most barbecue joints.
“People come here and see they can get the same thing at Cousins as at the other restaurants, and with more to choose from,” sales boss Brandon Smith said.
Cousins’ familiar customers come in now and order more than just a dinner plate, he said. For newcomers, there’s something for everybody in a family or group.
The take-out counter is also a butcher shop selling aged steaks and meats to go, ground beef and house-made sausage, including the breakfast sausage Cousins serves at its two DFW Airport locations (Terminal B).
If this is all too much of a change, the McCart location remains mostly true to the way “Boots” Payne opened it after the former Paschal High School football star had learned the business under the tutelage of 1960s presidential celebrity pitmaster Walter Jetton.
Cousin’s is open daily except Sunday. The Bryant Irvin Road location is 1 mile west of the Chisholm Trail Parkway or 1 mile south of Interstate 20; 817-346-3999, cousinsbbq.com.
This story was originally published July 6, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
