Anthony Bourdain Once Called This 53-Year-Old Houston BBQ Spot 'Legendary'

Some restaurants attract attention with trendy dining rooms, meticulous plating, or carefully staged social media posts. Others, especially authentic, local BBQ joints, build reputations the old-fashioned way: smoke rolling from well-used pits, tasty oversized portions of just about everything, and generations of loyal customers spreading the word. That's exactly what iconic author and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain found in Houston, Texas, at a neighborhood joint called Burns Original BBQ. In fact, he deemed it "legendary," which isn't a word lightly tossed about in the culinary world.

In a 2016 visit that appeared in the Houston episode of CNN's "Parts Unknown," Bourdain referred to the restaurant as "the legendary, family-run Burns barbecue." It wasn't his first trip to the restaurant. Bourdain had also filmed at Burns for the Food Network in 2004, when founder Roy Burns Sr. was still at the helm. During the 2016 visit, Bourdain shared his meal with Houston rapper Slim Thug and friends David Stunts and Roderick "Red Bone" Dearborne. The table was piled high with barbecue, brisket, ribs, sausage links, and what Bourdain called a "torpedo-sized" baked potato with cheddar cheese, chopped barbecue beef, and homemade link sausage. 

The history of Burns BBQ stretches back to 1973, when Roy Burns Sr. started selling barbecue from a roadside pickup truck. The operation gradually moved into the family's former home on De Priest Street, but when the founder died in 2009, the well-loved restaurant closed briefly, then opened in several locations run by his family heirs. Finally, Roy's grandsons (one a MLB player for the Boston Red Sox) brought it all back home, purchasing the original De Priest home, making the necessary repairs, and reopening in 2012 as today's Burns Original BBQ. 

All these decades later, the menu at Burns BBQ remains rooted in old-school East Texas-style barbecue. The restaurant is particularly known for smoky pork spare ribs soaked in tangy sauce, chopped beef with smoky crisped edges, house-made sausage links with snappy coatings, and those enormous loaded baked potatoes championed by Anthony Bourdain. Patrons can also order things like brisket, smoked chicken, burnt ends, and an array of smoked-meat sandwiches. Accompaniments follow a similar authenticity with Southern side dishes such as dirty rice, mac & cheese, green beans, southern-style BBQ baked beans, and more. 

Customers frequently praise those same dishes online, though reviews aren't universally glowing. One Tripadvisor reviewer called the homemade links "stupendously good" and enjoyed the ribs, while criticizing the brisket for being dry. Other reviewers extol the high quality, with one calling the food consistently delicious and saying that "Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain told the truth about this place! **may God rest his soul**"

With all that goodness under a single roof, it's no wonder that Burns BBQ made its way onto our list of Anthony Bourdain's 12 favorite spots to eat and drink in the South. Rumor has it that, during Bourdain's 2016 visit, there was plenty of moonshine mingling with the tasty food and lively conversation — which, in typical Bourdain fashion, included much more than the BBQ. The restaurant has become the perfect cultural diving board into deeper stories of the neighborhood, Houston's music scene, diversity, and the renowned "Slab car culture."