Award-winning barbecue joints from across Texas and country musicians from around the nation: we bet you can’t name a better combination. The Troubadour Festival returned to the shadows of Kyle Field in Aggie Park on Saturday, May 19, for the third year in a row.
Three College Station-area restaurants attended the festival. This year, KAMU wanted to highlight the people behind the barbecue — the pitmasters — and the origin stories of their establishments. Their passion for barbecue is just a glimpse into a profound dedication to giving back to the community.
The first tent we stopped at was 1775 Texas Pit BBQ, locally owned and operated by the Doans, a military family. The name is a tribute to the year the U.S. Army was founded. Brad Doan, co-founder and pitmaster, says College Station is home and means everything to him.
“This town has done a lot for us and meant a lot to us,” Doan said. “We always wanted to have something to come back to and have a business that we can call our own.”
From Coach Blair’s Charities to Hospice Brazos Valley, 1775 BBQ aims to serve others.
“We help support the local community because of how much they come out and support us,” Doan said.
Right next door at the festival: LJ’s BBQ out of Brenham, Texas. Matt Lowery, co-founder and pitmaster, credits much of his restaurant’s growth to the community. What started as a backyard hobby quickly became a full-time job. With the help of his cousin, Corey Cook, LJ’s became a reality. The name is a tribute to their late grandmother, Laura Jean.
“She would always say she didn’t like barbecue because it was too smoky for her, but she was a great cook,” Lowery said. “Growing up, we loved going to her house, eating good food and spending time with family.”
LJ’s BBQ enjoys donating to athletic teams and organizations from local schools to give back to the community that takes care of them.
“They’re the ones who keep our business alive,” Lowery said. “We try to do everything we can to support them in as many ways as we can.”
Just a couple of tents away was the Bar-A-BBQ tent, a business from Montgomery, Texas. Co-founder and pitmaster Caleb Abercrombie works alongside his brother and sister-in-law, Cooper and Shelby. The Abercrombie brothers started their barbecue journey by experimenting on the grill and getting feedback from local school teachers and football coaches.
“We felt like this was our purpose: serving food and trying to make it as good as possible,” Caleb Abercrombie said. “For us to be able to have an established business and be somewhat successful in the town that we grew up in, around the people we grew up with, is such a blessing for us.”
He describes Bar-A-BBQ as a faith-oriented business.
“You walk out of the back door, and you just see friends and families all over the place breaking bread together and having actual conversations,” he said. “We get so far away from that sometimes, and it’s really cool that we can offer that to our local community, friends, and family. It’s very humbling.”
From a backyard hobby to a successful business, there’s a story behind the barbecue, and it’s evident that each pitmaster shares a love for their community. There’s no better place to try some of the best food with the best stories than Troubadour Fest in Aggieland!
