From brisket to beans, this is the best barbecue joint in Pierce County, readers say
A 5-year-old restaurant owned by native Austinite and former design engineer Gary Parker has won over the brisket-lined arteries of South Sounders.
In a tight race, readers of The News Tribune have crowned Gig Harbor’s BBQ2U as the best source for Southern barbecue in Pierce County. Readers also praised the beans and mac and cheese.
The restaurant specializes in the Central Texas style, where brisket seasoned simply with salt and pepper, smoked low and slow over mesquite and coast oak wood, rules. Key to the experience at BBQ2U is a commitment to that authenticity, said Parker, from his approach — honed through decades of home cooking, pilgrimages to cherished destinations across the South and conversations with pitmasters — to the ordering queue.
Parker also has strived to support community groups, hosting a featured author every month for book sales and signings, painting classes and free bingo every Tuesday.
BBQ2U snagged 174 tallies, which might not sound like a lot, but more than 1,000 votes came in, splitting the ticket.
An early lead slipped away from the runner-up, Brank’s BBQ and Catering in Sumner. The family-owned and operated restaurant fell short by just three votes, ending with a total of 171 or about 16 percent.
Not far behind, with 15 percent or 158 tallies, was another Central Texas-style choice, also from a fellow native Texan and ex-tech (Boeing): Jack’s BBQ. From its original restaurant in South Seattle, Jack’s expanded to Algona in 2020 and this year to Lakewood.
In fourth place, My 4 Sons BBQ in Midland was the only other restaurant to hit above 100, garnering 141 tallies.
Rounding out the Top 5, Opal Lounge in South Tacoma landed 70 votes.
Other top vote-getters included Bob’s Bar-B-Q Pit in Hilltop, BBQ Pete’s, Warthog Barbecue Pit and Brimstone PNW Smokehouse, also in Gig Harbor.
A confident 36 voters selected the “nowhere ‘round here!” choice, for what it’s worth.
Read on for details of our champion and some quick facts about the Top 5.
BBQ2U
4814 Point Fosdick Dr., Gig Harbor, 253-313-5656, texasbbq2u.com
▪ Established: 2018
▪ Menu: Central Texas brisket, plus pulled pork, chicken, turkey breast, sausage and spare ribs; most meats available by the pound, on trays or on a kaiser bun; sides include mac, coleslaw, potato salad and banana pudding
▪ Readers said: “Great beans — add a touch of BBQ2U BBQ sauce and it’s even better.” “BBQ2U makes the best Texas-style mac and cheese and beans I’ve had outside of Texas, and I travel there often.”
Walk through the doors of an unassuming storefront next to an Ace Hardware in one of Gig Harbor’s many shopping plazas to a wide-open space that, for many, transports customers back to their Texas home.
Parker orders a half-cord of logs from Texas about once a month, along with sausages from South Side Market and specialty foodstuffs like Big Red Cola (“It tastes like bubblegum!” said Parker) and Bluebell ice cream. He has adorned the walls with myriad memorabilia of school flags (he’s partial to burnt orange emblem of the University of Texas at Austin) and canvas prints of the pitmasters who have inspired his techniques, including Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Southside Market originally in Elgin, The Original Black’s BBQ and the family-feud spinoffs of Terry Black’s and Black’s BBQ in Lockhart.
You line up just as you would at traditional outposts in the state: If you order brisket (and you absolutely should), staff slices by the pound right in front of you with a long, curved knife.
“We just can’t make enough,” said Parker. “Cause it’s barbecue — it takes us all day to make it!”
Last year, BBQ2U tore through more than 40 tons of brisket alone, or more than 80,000 pounds, according to the owner, who told us he is wholly a sauce-on-the-side guy, occasionally dipping a tear of white bread in their housemade sauce. He also admits to relishing a bite straight from the fridge the next morning.
“We’re really authentic Texas barbecue. Everything about this place is Central Texas,” he told The News Tribune in June. “It’s the mix of the beef. We always use salt and pepper. We don’t mop. It’s all about salt, pepper, smoke.”
The process beings every morning in the 4 o’clock hour when the first of his tight 10-person staff arrives to trim the briskets and light the fire in the pit — here a J&R Manufacturing Smoke-Master 250, forged in the town of Mesquite, Texas. With an enclosed chamber for the wood, the hulking black steel oven is hooked up inside the kitchen and holds up to 800 pounds of meat at a time, said Parker.
Throughout the day, his pitmaster-in-training moves in the restaurant’s six other meats, including pork shoulder (for pulled pork), chicken, turkey and spare ribs (prepared St. Louis-style). The brisket comes out of the smoker after 12 hours and heads to a roughly 200-degree oven, wrapped in foil and set in a pan where its juices can gather — the essential rendering step of the process that creates the crackly, textural bark.
Asked if people should bother smoking meats at home, Parker replied enthusiastically, “Yes!” But he cautioned the most common mistake is trying to grill it and, sigh, rushing what you just can’t rush.
“If you’re lookin’, you ain’t cookin’!” he said, one of many such taglines. As a sign above the ordering counter reads: “Barbecue: because America wasn’t built on salad.”
The name BBQ2U stems from Parker’s early days making the barbecue he longed for at his new home in the Puget Sound. After working for IBM, he got a job with Intel, moving here in 1997. He recalled setting up an offset smoker from Lowe’s on his back porch. A neighbor, born and raised in Washington state, called over to him: “‘He was like, ‘Your deck’s on fire!’ I said, ‘It’s not on fire.’”
He began informally catering parties and off-site events for his Intel colleagues — bringing the barbecue to you. The restaurant debuted in 2018.
“If you’re interested, you take to it,” he said. “Barbecue finds you.”
BRANK’S BBQ & CATERING
▪ 13701 24th St. E., Sumner, 253-891-1789, branksbbq.com
▪ Established: 1995
▪ Menu: baby-back and St. Louis-style ribs, Texas brisket and Carolina tri-tip, plus chicken, pork; sides include cowboy beans (what started it all), potato salad, coleslaw, cornbread muffin
▪ Readers said: “The mac and cheese is to die for.” “Their ribs are tender and flavorful; the beans are top-notch!”
JACK’S BBQ
▪ 12115 Pacific Highway SW, Lakewood, 253-625-7580, jacksbbq.com
▪ Tuesday-Friday 7 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (‘til 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday)
▪ 35731 West Valley Hwy S, Algona, 253-249-7728
▪ Tuesday-Friday 5 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.-8 p.m. (‘til 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday)
▪ Established: 2014
▪ Menu: Central Texas brisket (from Washington’s Double R Ranch), pork ribs (go out of your way for the Thursday-only beef rib), pulled pork, sausage and chicken; sides include Texas caviar, collards, corn pudding, ranch beans and buttermilk cornbread
▪ Bonus: open early for breakfast tacos, full bar with good cocktails
▪ Readers said: 18 readers responded that Jack’s serves the best sides in general.
MY 4 SONS BBQ
▪ 9823 Portland Ave. E., Tacoma, 253-777-4677, my4sonsbbq.com
▪ Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (or sellout)
▪ Established: 2018
▪ Menu: pellet smoker with hickory churns out brisket, St. Louis-style ribs, pulled pork and chicken; sides include smoked beans, four-cheese mac and broccoli salad; barbecue sundae for dessert
▪ Readers said: “Consistently delicious BBQ and sides, and those pickles!! They also have the good ice, iykyk!” “My4Sons does a fantastic job at blending what I consider to be the best forms of BBQ.”
OPAL LOUNGE
▪ 5226 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253-302-5650, facebook.com/opallounge253
▪ Wednesday-Thursday noon to 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday noon to 10 p.m.
▪ Established: 2019 (sister Southbay Dickeron’s BBQ in Olympia est. 2003)
▪ Menu: brisket, ribs, sausage and hot links, pulled pork and chicken; available by the pound and in plates, plus pub-style dishes (Cubano, smoked meat salad, burger); sides include baked beans, greens, cornbread and mac
▪ Bonus: prime rib Fridays, full bar with great whiskey selection
▪ Readers said: “The Opal is my hands-down favorite for all of these things [BBQ and sides]. The atmosphere, the food, people and the amazing selection of high-end whisky with the prime rib dinner on Friday always hits the spot.” “The Opal has a great atmosphere with a fun bar and the sides were awesome.”
This story was originally published June 28, 2023 at 5:15 AM.