I had a conversation last month with a guy who runs a 60-seat BBQ joint outside Beaumont. He pulled up his Sysco invoices from 2021 and compared them to this spring. Brisket — same packer grade, same supplier — was running him about $2.89 a pound back then. Now he's looking at $4.60 on a good week. That's not a small bump. That's a completely different business model.
And here's the thing: he's not alone, and you already know that. Everyone in this industry is feeling it. But what I've been watching closely — partly because of my own food truck operation, partly because I talk to restaurant owners through our equipment business every week — is how the operators who are surviving aren't just raising prices and hoping customers stick around. They're rethinking everything.
The Brisket Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Look, brisket has been the flagship of Texas BBQ for decades. It's what people drive hours to eat. But at current prices, a lot of operators are running margins so thin on whole briskets that they're basically using it as a loss leader to get people in the door. That works if your sides and drinks are dialed in. It doesn't work if your whole menu is priced like it's still 2019.
I've seen three approaches that seem to be working.
The first is portion restructuring without making it obvious. One operator I know switched from a standard two-meat plate to a "pitmaster's choice" format where they control the protein ratio. Customer still gets a full plate, still leaves satisfied, but the kitchen is running maybe 30% less prime brisket per serving and supplementing with pulled pork or turkey — both of which smoke beautifully and cost significantly less per pound. He told me his food cost percentage dropped four points in two months.
Second approach: leaning hard into burnt ends and chopped brisket sandwiches. You're using more of the flat, which traditionally yields less per pound of raw weight than the point does for sliced presentations. Chopped beef sandwiches have always been a thing, but now they're getting featured. Burnt ends — done right — command premium prices while using trim and point sections more efficiently.
Third, and this one surprised me at first: some places are just being transparent. Menu note that says something like "market price" on brisket, or a straightforward explanation that prices reflect current costs. The Instagram BBQ crowd sometimes roasts this approach, but actual paying customers — the ones keeping your lights on — tend to respect honesty more than we give them credit for.
Pork Is Having a Moment (Again)
I'll admit I dismissed this trend early on. Felt like a step backward for Texas-style operations. But I was wrong — at least from a business perspective.
Pork shoulder is running somewhere around $1.80 to $2.20 a pound depending on your supplier and volume. The yield after cooking is worse than brisket percentage-wise, but the starting cost is so much lower that you're still coming out ahead. And pulled pork sells. It's not what purists drive three hours for, but it's what families order when they're feeding four kids and trying to keep the bill under sixty bucks.
Ribs are trickier because spare rib prices have climbed too, though not as dramatically as brisket. St. Louis cut spares are still viable for most operations. Baby backs are getting harder to justify unless you're charging steakhouse prices.
What I've noticed from operators who are making pork work: they're not apologizing for it. They're featuring it. Pork belly burnt ends. Cuban-influenced pulled pork with mojo. Korean BBQ pork tacos on special. You're not abandoning your identity — you're expanding it in a direction that actually makes financial sense right now.
Chicken and Turkey: The Underrated Workhorses
Smoked chicken quarters are genuinely underpriced for what they deliver. I'm talking $0.90 to $1.10 a pound for leg quarters in case quantities. The smoke penetration is excellent, cook times are short, and the margins are — honestly, they're kind of ridiculous compared to beef.
The catch is that chicken has never been a draw item for traditional BBQ. People don't wake up craving smoked chicken the way they crave brisket. So you have to think about positioning. Chicken as a combo option. Chicken in salads (which also lets you charge for greens at a markup). Chicken sandwiches competing with the fast-casual market.
Turkey breast is similar math. More labor-intensive to keep from drying out, but the per-serving cost is favorable. I've been running turkey in my rotisserie setup — an SP-700 that's been in service for about four years now — and the consistency of the cook makes all the difference. Steady hold temps mean the breast doesn't go from perfect to sawdust while you're dealing with a lunch rush.
Actually, that's something I should mention more directly: your equipment choices matter more during tight-margin periods than they do when money is flowing. A smoker that holds temp within a few degrees over a 14-hour cook wastes less product. Period. I've talked to operators using cheaper imported units who are throwing out entire batches because of temp spikes overnight. That's not a $200 problem — that's a $2,000 problem, and it happens more than once.
Sides Aren't an Afterthought Anymore
This is where I've seen the most creativity, honestly. Sides have always been high-margin, but a lot of BBQ places treated them as obligatory. Mediocre coleslaw. Beans from a can with some burnt ends thrown in. Potato salad that tastes like every other potato salad.
The operators adapting well are treating sides as profit centers with actual attention. House-made mac and cheese with smoked gouda. Jalapeño cornbread that people talk about. Loaded baked potato casserole. These items cost pennies per serving compared to protein, and customers will pay $4-5 for a side they genuinely want.
One restaurant owner in Lake Charles told me his side revenue increased 40% after he revamped the lineup and started letting customers build their own three-side plates as a standalone menu item. Vegetarians come in now. That was never part of his customer base before.
Catering Contracts Need Different Math
If you're doing catering — and most commercial BBQ operations are, because that's where volume lives — you need to be renegotiating or restructuring your standard packages. Contracts written 18 months ago are underwater now.
What's working: tiered pricing with protein choices that steer toward your better-margin items. Instead of "BBQ package includes brisket, ribs, and two sides," you're offering "Choose two proteins from our selection" and making pulled pork and smoked chicken the default, with brisket as an upcharge.
Also — and this is uncomfortable for some people — shorter quote validity windows. I used to quote catering jobs 60 days out with locked pricing. That's insane right now. Thirty days max, with language that allows adjustment for commodity swings on larger events. Most corporate clients understand this if you explain it once.
Equipment Efficiency Matters More Than Ever
I keep coming back to this because I see it constantly: operators trying to cut costs by deferring maintenance or buying cheaper replacement equipment. It almost always backfires.
A rotisserie system that's struggling — worn bearings, inconsistent gas flow, door seals that aren't sealing — burns more fuel and produces less consistent product. You're spending more to make food that's harder to sell. The SPK-1400 I've been recommending to higher-volume operations has a fuel efficiency that pencils out over time, even though the upfront cost is real. And parts availability matters. I've seen guys with off-brand smokers waiting three weeks for a replacement igniter because everything ships from overseas. Three weeks of limping along or shutting down entirely.
Southern Pride of Texas keeps domestic stock specifically because we've watched that scenario play out too many times. It's not a sales pitch — it's just reality. When your margin for error is this thin, downtime kills you.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Some BBQ restaurants aren't going to make it through this period. That's not pessimism; it's math. If your rent is high, your equipment is aging, and your customer base won't accept any price increases, the numbers don't work.
But the operators I'm watching succeed — and there are plenty of them — share a few things in common. They're willing to change their menus without feeling like they're betraying tradition. They're treating efficiency as a survival skill, not a compromise. They're investing in equipment that reduces waste and labor, even when cash is tight, because they understand the alternative is worse.
And they're not pretending everything is fine. They're adapting. Which is what this industry has always done, even when the challenges looked different.
The brisket-centric Texas BBQ menu isn't dead. But it might need to share the stage for a while. And honestly? Some of what's emerging from this pressure is genuinely good. I had a smoked pork belly taco last week from a truck in Galveston that I'm still thinking about. That dish exists because someone had to get creative with their margins.
Sometimes constraints produce the best work.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas | QSR Magazine | Restaurant Business Online
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About the Author: Travis operates a competition BBQ team and a Gulf Coast food truck, and documents his commercial cooking process for food service professionals.