As long as local barbecue aficionados can remember, Arlington’s traditional barbecue game has always been strong. Joints, restaurants, and ‘cue holes-in-the-wall like David’s BBQ, Oh My BBQ, and Eddie Deen’s Crossroads Smokehouse have done a serviceable job in the brisket, ribs, and sausage business.
Tastes in barbecue have dramatically changed over the past several years, though, as there’s been a statewide paradigm shift toward the Central Texas-style craft ‘cue popularized by places like Franklin’s in Austin. Fort Worth, in particular, has been quick to adapt (need we remind you that Goldee’s Barbecue has been crowned best in the state by Texas Monthly?), and now Arlington is catching up, with spots like Hurtado BBQ and a location of Dallas-based Lockhart Smokehouse.
Add to the mix 225 BBQ. What started out as a food trailer four years ago, nearly to the day, is now a full-fledged restaurant. Husband-wife owners Rene and Joyce Ramirez can now be found smoking meats and making creative sides in a brick-and-mortar location, just a few blocks from where they used to park their trailer.
Rather than open their own restaurant, the couple arranged to share space with an already-established business, Maverick’s, a popular sports bar. The couple and their staff run the kitchen, while Maverick’s handles the bar side of things. Rene says Texas’ brutal, unpredictable weather was the main factor in taking their business inside.
225 may not be as well-known as other new ‘cue spots (their trailer was only open one day a week), but the couple’s food has been ahead of the curve. Loyal, in-the-know customers will recall they were mixing barbecue with Mexican flavors long before it became a thing, and they were also early purveyors of experimental, non-traditional ‘cue dishes, such as brisket ramen, burritos stuffed with Hot Cheetos, and nachos made with Takis and brisket.
“I won’t serve something unless I’m satisfied with it,” says Rene, whose days as a barbecue cook started at family cookouts in Pleasant Grove, where he grew up. “I experiment a lot, and sometimes an item doesn’t hit the menu for months.”
Texas Monthly’s Daniel Vaughn was an early fan of 225, championing the trailer for its cherry bombs, bite-size habanero peppers stuffed with brisket and cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, then smoked and dipped in a spicy barbecue sauce and dusted with Parmesan and crowned with a jalapeno. A variation of the cherry bomb is the atomic bomb – it’s made with the ridiculously hot ghost pepper.
Ramirez named 225 after the temperature he uses to smoke his brisket, and the outcome is consistently solid, a mix of fat, bark, and meat that is as rich and it is smoky. Other menu items include pork ribs, birria tacos, sausage in rotating flavors, honey-glazed pork belly, barbacoa tacos, brisket burgers, and sides such as bacon-studded mashed potatoes, charro beans and elote topped with chopped brisket.
It was an unusually large menu for a trailer, but now, thanks to a bigger kitchen, Rene and Joyce have plenty of legroom.
“The bigger kitchen has been a dream come true,” he says. “There’s no telling what kind of stuff we can come up with now.”
601 E. Main St., Arlington, facebook.com/225bbq
