A Texas Monthly Top 50 Barbecue Joint Opens New Location in Dallas

Hurtado Barbecue started as a side hustle business in Arlington, running pop-ups at a brewery in 2018. In less than seven years, it's grown to a staple in the North Texas smoke scene, with a popular restaurant not far from AT&T Stadium and another in Fort Worth. More notably, the locally owned spot has been named to the esteemed list of the Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints by Texas Monthly.

Until now, we haven't been able to get a tray of Hurtado in Dallas.

Hurtado's new space is a large stand-alone restaurant at the Dallas Farmers Market. After walking through heavy wooden front doors, a cattle run wraps around the dining room to corral long lines, of which there wasn't one on the day we visited with the windchill around 10 degrees. We considered ourselves lucky. It's counter service: place an order, take a number and they bring the food out.
From the counter, you can see into the kitchen, where many cooks are preparing sides and doing what they do. In the line-holding area is a window to the smokers where racks of briskets are lathered up, waiting for their turn in the smokers.

Guess what! There's a full bar to post up at. There's beer, whiskey and whatever else you may need for the day or hour.

The space is nicer than a typical barbecue joint, with smooth, clean golden wooden floors and tables, deep, comfortable booths and a shiny bar: it's like new denim and a starched white shirt. Service was friendly and doting — runners would swing by the table every five minutes or so.
The music is a touch loud in terms of volume and track picks. Admittedly, I have a personal distaste for modern country with lyrics like, "You can find you a girl on a Friday night / Dancing at the back of a bar / A Sunday morning hand up high / Singing in the front row in the choir." We actually had fun Shazaming songs and reading the lyrics.

A vegetarian came along with me. Silly, right? Nope. Her tray of three sides was a looker. A paper boat of Mexican Street Corn was bright little bursts of sunshine with spices and crema. Cheese potatoes were saucy on the outside with a perfectly light texture inside. The mac and cheese here is one of the best: creamy sauce in the Goldie Locks Belt of thickness (just right) speckled with hatch chiles imbuing a smokiness on the twirls of pasta.

I've been a longtime fan of Hurtado's simple tostada; it's a menu hack with a pile of shredded brisket atop beans, cilantro, diced onions, salsa verde and cotija. It's great if you're not into a tray of meat.

But they do have those, too. The Texas Trinity is $27.50 and includes one-third pound each of brisket, spare ribs and sausage, as well as one side.

Our meal, which included half a pound of brisket, a tostada, and three sides, cost just under $50. It's a lot of (good) food for what seems a reasonable price at a Top 50 barbecue spot.

Parking. Let's just go ahead and rip this Band-Aid off. The lot just in front of Hurtado is a paid lot. I had already parked at the Observer offices in a Metropolis-managed lot, which is an in-and-out situation. When I pulled into the parking lot at Hurtado, I got a text that told me, "Welcome to the Farmers Market Lot." Cameras must have picked up my license plate. The text told me I could click on the link to see the rates. I tried twice but couldn't figure that out. I said, "Welp, we'll see," and parked.

As I left the lot, I received another text message saying, "Thanks, come back soon." Some companies are using video technology to track cars. I don't know if this would happen if you hadn't, like me, already been on the clock at another Metropolis lot. QR codes are prominently displayed around the lot either way.

Parking for less than an hour cost $3.99. There are other lots, meters and even free street parking around the market.

We love having Hurtado less than a mile from the offices and envision a world where we're regulars. Maybe we'll even get some of their crunchy kale salad on occasion, but we see brisket and maybe a jalapeno glaze chicken ($13 for a half) more often.