Vaqueros Bar-B-Q Has A New Home In Allen

Arnufulo "Trey" Sanchez had built a solid barbecue following with Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q in Grapevine. Not only did Sanchez turn out some truly stellar barbecue, but adding his Latin twists with takes on barbacoa and al pastor tacos earned him a faithful following. Sanchez's creations earned him a nod from Texas Monthly as one of the 50 best tacos in the state and a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef from the James Beard Awards in 2024.

Last month, a new brick-and-mortar location for Vaqueros opened for business. While the new location is 30 miles away in Allen, the food payoffs remain strong and are worthy of the drive. For Sanchez, the new location was an idea whose time was overdue.

"I had been over that trailer for a long time," Sanchez tells the Observer. "We had our run in that, and I was so eager to move into something bigger."

But it wasn't until Sanchez met Edgar Guevara, the CEO of M Restaurant Group (the parent company of Mi Cocina), that the plans for a brick-and-mortar restaurant took off.

"My culinary director told me I gotta come meet this guy and try his barbecue," Guevara recalls. "So I met him, he's awesome, and has the same values we have. So we're talking, and he says he's trying to go brick and mortar, and I said 'Why don't we do something together?' "

Guevara and his team knew the Allen space would be available, so he and Sanchez seized the opportunity and set about turning it into the ideal barbecue restaurant.

For Sanchez, that meant more space, more tables for guests and more room for smokers. The dining room features a long mural paying tribute to Sanchez's family and heritage. But Vaqueros' pit room is also a work of art, featuring a pair of airbrushed 500-gallon tank pits that flank the room and a rotisserie smoker tucked into one corner.  The location in Allen's Watters Creek is a mixed retail/residential area, so the pit room has a state-of-the-art exhaust system that prevents flooding their neighbors with pit smoke. Patrons can peek into the pit room thanks to a large window overlooking the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.

Guevara's experience with Mi Cocina drove home one of his big concerns about many barbecue restaurants—the wait.

"I hate waiting in line. Although, I'm more willing to wait if I can get a margarita," he says, only half-joking. So right at the entrance to Vaqueros is a small bar window, where a beer, frozen margarita or poloma awaits to make standing in line a little more tolerable.

That said, Vaqueros' food remains worth waiting for. We popped in during a media luncheon and tried the brisket, ribs and sausage, all of which stand among the area's best. But stepping away from the barbecue classics reveals some sublime menu creations.

Of course, there are tacos, and making a poor choice is difficult. Brisket birria, carnitas, or conchinita pibil (smoked pork) explode with flavor.  Don't sleep on Vaqueros' pork belly burnt ends, either. Instead of a sweeter pork nugget that's on nearly every barbecue restaurant's menu, Sanchez takes skin-on pork belly for a Filipino-inspired twist, with bite-sized chunks of pork belly cooked Lechon-style, then doused in a pineapple and red onion marinade. It's one of the most unique and delicious barbecue bites we've had in quite some time.

Brace yourself for more flavor bombs among the sides. There are well-executed classics like the trail beans or a three-cheese mac, but make room on your tray for bangers like the apple and gorgonzola slaw or a spicy cucumber salad that kicks up the cool cucumber crunch with snaps of heat. 

The beauty of Sanchez's relationship with his Mi Cocina partners is that they know their roles. Sanchez still gets to crank out stupendous barbecue with flavor profiles from around the world, while Guevara says he and his team handle things like staffing and administration, where their obvious experiences come to bear.

Sanchez believes the food he's producing in Allen is better than anything he did from the trailer in Grapevine. Guevara believes Vaqueros can easily be expanded when the time is right.

"I think I'm bullish on the concept, and I'm bullish on the food", Guevara says of more locations. "I love that I can eat a barbecue and also eat a little lighter.  I think there's a big appeal there."

For now, other locations remain a task for another day. Today, Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q has turned Allen into a barbecue destination that lovers of the craft must have on their list.

Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q, 965 Garden Park Drive, Allen. Tuesday - Thursday, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Friday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.