Triple J's Smokehouse

You can tell by the giant flames mural and faint bass lines bumping inside Triple J’s Smokehouse in Trinity Gardens that a meal here will be a party. Mostly a take-out joint, Triple J’s stays packed with a long line snaking around the inside, as neighborhood folks and anyone working nearby queues up for a takeout tray loaded with smoked meat. Known for loaded baked potatoes and an enormous line of folks angling for giant turkey legs every year at the Houston Rodeo, Triple J’s smokes up some of the best old school Houston barbecue in town. 

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Open since 1994, Triple J’s represents a specific, old school style of Houston barbecue: Part country cookout, part Texas-style low and slow smoked barbecue, and part East Texas potluck, all smashed together. With new school Central Texas-style barbecue garnering all the accolades, sidelined East Texas barbecue tastes comforting and nostalgic. Lifelong Houstonians that grew up going to rodeo cookouts or big country picnics know this style well, likely because it was force-fed to us from infancy. Add on fast-paced but familial service, walls heaving with every ironic joke and punny sign imaginable, and a mostly standing-room-only dining room, and you’ve got a barbecue spot built for the neighborhood.

While most of y’all think brisket represents the be all, end all of barbecue, but we think that’s some Central Texas propaganda. While we love a tender fatty brisket as much as the next person, the brisket at J’s takes more of a supporting actor role, and is best served chopped over a giant baked potato. But the smoky, sauced-up pork ribs, fire-breathing boudin, and fatty sausage here will expand your definition of what constitutes some solid ‘cue. The sides here hit just right, with  homestyle macaroni and cheese and pot likker-stewed green beans that have the same deep, soulful flavor as any of the meat. And if your cue doesn’t come with quite enough sauce, there’s a five-gallon spigot dispenser full of sauce by the to-go silverware.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

photo credit: Richard Casteel

The experience at Triple J’s focuses on the whole meal, the familiar friendly service, and running into your neighbor or teacher or sister’s boyfriend’s little cousin while waiting in line. And when you see folks carrying out multiple plastic bags shoved full of sides and sausage, you know somebody somewhere is about to feast. We appreciate that old school spots still have long lines holding it down for Houston country-style barbecue. Go here if you want a takeout meal you won’t forget, some of the best boudin in town, or a barbecue blast from the past.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Ribs

The smoky pork ribs will have you licking the bone, your fingers, and possibly the to-go container. We will throw down on these every time.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Sausage

Spicy, snappy, porky, and loaded with spices, the sausage at Triple J’s could sustain us. Actually, if we are ever lost at sea, but somehow had a magical and preferably large emergency stash of J’s sausage, we might be okay, maybe. For now we’ll just keep ordering it to-go.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Lil’ J Chopped Beef Baked Potato

This Lil’ J ain’t so lil’, especially when it comes out loaded down with a ladleful of sweet and smoky chopped beef, cheese, and sour cream. There are a couple schools of thought here: take down the beef first and then enjoy the potato, or, our preferred method: Stirring it all up into a cheesy beefy mash, just like we did as kids.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Spicy Boudin

What makes a great boudin is personal, and while this ain’t Louisiana, plenty of us Texans enjoy this spicy sausage and rice Cajun meat treat. It’s especially good (and actually spicy) at Triple J’s, where it comes with the only thing a truly great boudin needs: Saltines.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Macaroni And Cheese

The execution of any batch of macaroni and cheese is liable to divide entire families. Wars have probably been started for less. Macaroni and cheese is deeply serious, and Triple J’s knows this, and beautifully delivers a cheesy, not-too-creamy, but not overbaked, just-right version that could mend whatever broke the Hatfields and McCoys.

photo credit: Richard Casteel

Green Beans

The first time we tasted the green beans, we closed our eyes, took a deep breath, and felt at peace with the world. While you might not experience this specific level of amazing food-induced nirvana, we will say the deeply flavorful (probably mostly from pork) pot likker of these green beans will taste how you wish every vegetable (again, so much pork) could.