Hundreds lined up and waited for hours in 92-degree heat to get a plate of the famous candy apple red oxtails by The Oxtail King. Many walked away with eight to 10 plates.
The Observer, like many others, waited hours in the line but we were unable to snag a coveted plate. Lucky for DFW, Rhodes told the Observer he plans to open an “oxtail shack” in Dallas as early as the end of the year.
“All the money that we use comes out of my pocket,” Rhodes says. “We have no sponsors, nothing like that. I'm doing these pop-ups to raise money, so I can open up a store here in Dallas”
The overwhelming line wrapped around the venue and flowed onto the sidewalk, something Rhodes expected after popping up at former Dallas Cowboy Dez Bryant's inaugural Big Dallas Tailgate party.
“When I came to do Dez Bryant’s tailgate party, I seen the love and people wanted to get them plates,” Rhodes says. “I said, ‘I gotta go back. I got to bring the trailer and give them to them how they see them, straight off the pit.’”
Rhodes’ roots, just like his barbecue, are “Texas in every way.” The pitmaster hails from Victoria and relocated to Utah after Hurricane Harvey devastated his Southeast Texas hometown. He took to the pit to anchor him to home. Rhodes began a side gig selling barbecue sandwiches and was met with overwhelming demand. With the help of oxtails and social media, Les BBQ Sandwiches became a national sensation.
Les BBQ Sandwiches has amassed a following of 246,000 Instagram followers, 429,700 TikTok followers and 234,000 Facebook followers. Dallas is his second-largest market for sales on his website, where he sells meats and seasonings. Online, $169.99 gets you a “soul-warming experience” in the form of 3 pounds of oxtails that ship within five to 10 business days.
At the pop-up, hungry Les BBQ Sandwiches fanatics lined up for $35 plates of oxtails. That included oxtails, macaroni and cheese and baked beans. The first customer in line arrived at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning for the 1:30 p.m. serving time.
Danielle Hightower, a long-time follower of Les BBQ Sandwiches, was third in line. She said the perfect oxtail should be "tender, very tender, if they aren’t cooked properly, they are very tough.”
The candy red coloring of the oxtails comes from the smoking process. Rhodes smokes his oxtails “slow and low” and then braises them.
“In order to get them tender, you have to braise them,” Rhodes says on YouTube. A fork should go through them with no resistance.
If you missed out on this pop-up, no worries. The Oxtail King has big plans for Dallas.
Desiree Gutierrez
“Smoke, you taste the smoke,” he says. “The flavor is amazing. It is unlike anything.”
About 100 people showed up at the venue Friday for a chance to meet The Oxtail King.
Lisa MccLoud drove 90 minutes to simply support Rhodes.
“He’s a Black man that’s trying to make it and he put his stuff out there and he's an entrepreneur and I respect that,” MccLoud says, "I respect that because we need to be more and do more and he did it from scratch and I admire that. I never met him, but I am going to support him.”
