New restaurant in Fort Worth brings solid Texas-style BBQ — via the Middle East
The co-founder of a now-closed Italian restaurant on East Belknap Street is returning to Texas and bringing “the best barbecue in the Middle East.”
“Tony” Ramadani, who helped open Mamma Mia Italian Grill before selling it, is reopening the restaurant, 3124 E. Belknap St., as Smokey Beards Q.
He left pizza-and-pasta restaurantsin Benbrook and Fort Worth six years ago to open Smokey Beards in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, serving Hill Country-style Texas barbecue.
“We’ve become famous there for barbecue,” he said last week as Mamma Mia was closing.
A partner in Riyadh is former rapper Napoleon, a member of the late Tupac Shakur’s band.
Patrons have include boxers Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua, rappers Kanye West (now known as Ye) and Macklemore and actor Martin Lawrence.
“We’ve developed a celebrity following,” Ramadani said.
He had run pizza-and-pasta restaurants in Texas and sold real estate more than 10 years when he visited a California friend in Riyadh, Ramadani said.
When he hosted a backyard barbecue with brisket and beef ribs, according to Ramadani, the friend said, ‘We gotta bring this to Riyadh,” Ramadani said.
According to photos on social media, Smokey Beards Q draws long lines for brisket, beef ribs, sandwiches and skin-on fries.
The website “Time Out Riyadh” describes it as “the de facto place for Texas barbecue” and “one of the OGs in the Riyadh American barbecue scene.”
.The name is simple, he said: “We are guys with beards and we smoke barbecue.”
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Smokey Beards Q is the same as Texas barbecue, smoked over oak, pecan or hickory here instead of the acacia wood he uses in Riyadh, Ramadani said.
The rub is simple salt and pepper with just a little cayenne, garlic and paprika, he said.
For Saudi tastes, he offers a choice of house-made barbecue sauce, cheese sauce or a mushroom sauce.
The sides are familiar: fries, pintos, mac-and-cheese, slaw and potato salad.
There’s no pork, only brisket and beef ribs. But the photos from Smokey Beards Q in Riyadh could have come from anywhere in Texas.
Ramadani ran Napoli Pasta & Pizza in Benbrook before Mamma Mia.
He sold Mamma Mia to a family that opened a second location. It was later sold again.
“I love this place, and I wanted to open a new restaurant here,” he said.
The neighborhood is home to Fort Worth’s oldest barbecue restaurant, Sammie’s, open since 1946. It now also serves the former menu of another neighborhood restaurant, the Smoke Pit.
“I know the people here and loved being part of the neighborhood,” Ramadani said. “I think Texans will like our barbecue.”
He expects to open by midsummer.
