#12 - THE PIT ROOM: Eat Your Vegetables (after your brisket)

In March, after completing my photography tour of Texas, I had some free time in Houston. Instead of wasting away at the airport margarita bar, I elected to make a run to The Pit Room, one of Texas Monthly's top 50 BBQ joints.

The Pit Room is a 2-year-old BBQ joint on a corner in the Montrose neighborhood. It's got an old school feel with plenty of wood and outdoor seating that oversees Richmond Avenue.  It's also got a small parking lot, so you need to get there early or find parking somewhere in the neighborhood.

The line at high noon

I arrived around 11 am on a Friday and was one of the first in line. It's clear that plenty of people prefer the Pit Room. By the time I left, the line was through the restaurant and out the door.

The pits at the Pit Room

You've gotta love a BBQ joint that isn't afraid to show off its pits. The pits from the Pit Room are attached directly to the restaurant, which means that there's little to get between a man and his meat. They've mastered the secret to smoking good BBQ and they use top-notch USDA prime beef and Berkshire-Duroc pork from California.

The brisket and sausage from The Pit Room were terrific, but my visit was memorable for two reasons. First, I ordered smoked chicken in addition to my traditional proteins, and second, I was wayyyy impressed with the condiment bar. That's right, be still my heart doctor.

Brisket, smoked chicken and Czech sausage

The Pit Room brisket had a nice, peppery bark and the Czech sausage was particularly memorable, loosely packed and full of flavor. The chicken breast was remarkably moist and smoky. Pretty much perfect, the kind of chicken you wish you could make at home but no, you're just not capable of it no matter how hard you try. So you go to KFC, bring it home, put it on a plate and try to pass it off as your own. Or so I've heard.

But let's talk about the elephant in the Pit Room...the condiment bar. What BBQ joint has a memorable condiment bar? Most will make a cursory nod to veggies by loading the condiment bar with limp pickles, watery onions and nuclear-red cherry peppers. Not The Pit Room. The quality of the sides and garnishes are easily among the best I've ever seen at a BBQ joint.

Sure it's a condiment bar.  But it's The Pit Room's condiment bar!
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Wright

These simple carrots pack one helluva punch

Better question...who eats the vegetables from the condiment bar at a BBQ joint?  I'm embarrassed to admit it, but when I go back to the Pit Room that's one of the first things I'm going to attack. Because of my beef obsession and previous day's trip to Killen's, I didn't spend enough time sampling the condiments. They have habanero dill pickles, pickled green onions and delicious carrots that are indescribable, unless you're the Houston Press, which describes them thusly, "Taqueria carrots snap assertively, an oil richness and resinous savory edge courtesy of a good dose of thyme finding dusky favor with the brisket’s richly favored fat.”


Um, right, that’s exactly what I was thinking.  But allow me to translate. These carrots freaking rock.  Go ahead and eat them.  Do it.

The Pit Room was a great stop and so far, one of my favorite BBQ joints in Houston.

The Illuminati love The Pit Room