For many in the Houston Heights area, Pinkerton’s Barbecue is an institution. Life before COVID-19 was good. Business was booming. Each and every morning, the pit masters came in early to cook all the food for the day, and then customers would simply go through the line, order their brisket, ribs, sausage, or chicken, based on what was available and watch their meat get cut right in front of them. That’s it. No food made to order. And, when it was gone, it was gone.

But all that changed in recent weeks when dining in and human interaction became a thing of the past and the line-style barbecue that Pinkerton’s is famous for became an impossibility.

So, Grant and his team shut down the restaurant and along with it their passion for serving up some of the best barbecue in Texas. But that only lasted for a week. Grant’s employees needed a steady income, so he and his team reinvented Pinkerton’s Barbecue with a new short order menu, new phone system to handle incoming orders, a partnership with DoorDash for delivery, a new website to handle online orders, and expanded hours to accommodate all of us who are now stuck at home.

While the new menu was somewhat of a departure, Grant says that the response on social media has been overwhelming. He added breakfast tacos for Saturday mornings, which have been a huge hit with pre-orders starting each Wednesday.

Today more than ever, health and safety are at the forefront of everything Grant and his employees do with a model that minimizes contact between employees and customers down to the brand-new pens that are used each time a customer signs a receipt.

For Pinkerton’s Barbecue, like most restaurants surviving in only a take-out/delivery world, revenues will be down but certainly better than no revenue at all. Always the optimist, Grant says it has been fun for him and his team to see how quickly they could pivot to bring a totally new restaurant concept to life. And he’s proud his team is able to work again.

When things do get back to a “new” normal, the new menu items and breakfast tacos will be part of the regular offering at his Houston restaurant as well as a second location, currently under construction and slated to open in San Antonio this fall.

In spite of all that has transpired with Pinkerton’s Barbecue, Grant is a big believer in paying it forward. He and his team are focused not only on providing food to their paying customers, but also on cooking additional food each day and donating it to COVID-19 testing centers across the city.

“We’re just doing our part to help those who are putting themselves at risk to get this thing under control,” says Grant.