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La Feria Restauranteur Opens BBQ Joint Inside Historical Building
- Updated: May 18, 2018
A look inside Texas BBQ & Watering Hole in Harlingen. Photos: Tony Vindell/LFN
by Tony Vindell/LFN
The historic Rainbow Bread Baking Co. building in Harlingen now offers Central Texas-styled barbecue.
Eduardo Casas, owner of JC Wings in La Feria and co-owner of a second alitas de pollo restaurant in San Benito, decided to rescue the decades old building by opening an eatery called Texas BBQ & Watering Hole on West Harrison Avenue.
He said the restaurant opened in January of this year, or about a year and a half after he started selling BBQ from a shack down the street from there.
“A building kind of dictates what kind of business you can go into,” Casas said. ‘I have been interested in opening something different and when the opportunity came up, I took it.”
He said a friend of his told him about the old bakery building, saying a mechanic shop was going in.
“What a shame!’ he told himself. “I told him I could open a BBQ place.”
And so it was.
Today, the large building still has paintings depicting parts of Harlingen history.
Among them include a mural of the 1993 Bird Bowl, Harlingen Cardinals, the old HEB Food Stores, an old Coca Cola sign and a mural boasting this central location of town as being the capital city of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Casas said business has been going good so far, despite the ups and downs known in the restaurant industry. High employee turnover is one, for example.
Pitmaster Gabriel Rodriguez prepares and order of brisket plate placed by a costumer.
He said he decided to open this business because Central Texas-styled BBQ is unique from other types of cooking.
An average of 2,000 pounds of brisket, chicken, ribs and turkey are cooked on a good day on two large pits.
Customers such as Lucia Montalbano said they love the food.
“I got a little bit of everything,” she said. “The meat is juicy, not dry. Is really good.”
Casas attributes his success to the first restaurant he opened.
“JC Wings in La Feria set the foundation for the other businesses we have today,” he said. “It was in 2011 when we opened the restaurant there and people have been responding ever since.”
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