- This place is amazing!
- It's the best barbecue around.
- It's the best barbecue spot in Dallas.
- Hey guys, I'm Medha, and we're here
at Cattleack Barbeque in Dallas, Texas.
We hear it's the best barbecue.
Cattleack Barbeque is a unique operation
serving all things Texas barbecue-style,
which often requires its dedicated workers
to work around the clock.
- Hey, y'all, it's 2 o'clock.
I just got to Cattleack.
I'm gonna cook some ribs.
As you guys can see,
there's not a whole lot going on right now.
It's pretty quiet, so it should be a good day.
I'll see you guys in just a little bit
after I get the fires going.
My name's Andrew Castelan.
I'm pretty obsessed with cooking barbecue,
so I came in at 2 o'clock this morning.
I don't get a whole lot of sleep,
but it's a whole lot of fun, and it's pretty rewarding
just getting up and cooking some of the best barbecue
in the world.
- [Medha] Andrew Castelan is one of nine people
that makes Cattleack Barbeque come to life.
- Everybody that is involved in what we produce
wants to produce the very best they can
and never stop learning and working
at how to do that even more.
- [Medha] That's Todd David.
He founded the backyard-themed restaurant in 2010
after working in the disaster cleanup business for 30 years.
Ranked best barbecue by D Magazine in 2018
and number three by Texas Monthly in 2017,
Cattleack Barbeque offers its loyal flock of customers
a variety of sausages, ribs, brisket, and sides,
which are all homemade.
- If you're obsessed with the flavor of barbecue,
this is as good as it gets
'cause it has all that smoked flavor.
It only has salt and pepper on it for seasoning,
so you get to taste that great beef, and it just melts.
It's like eating a piece of butter that tastes like meat.
- It's so good.
- [Medha] To ensure their barbecue
maintains its high quality,
Cattleack is only open twice a week,
on Thursdays and Fridays
and the first Saturday of every month.
- I only do this to the public two days a week,
and so we work our tails off the whole rest of the week,
sometimes seven days a week, making it as perfect as we can,
and I try to serve every single customer
that comes through the door.
- [Medha] To serve the hundreds of customers
that pass through Cattleack Barbeque's doors,
Todd and his team smoke about 50 briskets a day
and a thousand pounds of meat.
Even with that much meat, Todd says they sell out
around 1:30 p.m. every day they're open.
- Last time I came, it took me an hour
to get through the line,
and all they had was brisket and pulled pork.
So I'm anxious to try a little bit of everything this time.
- Every time I come, I've gotta get here around 9:30
to get out of here by 11:30 because the line is so long.
- The last couple times we came here,
we either couldn't park or the line was so long,
and because we're coming on lunch from work,
that we ended up having to give up and leave.
- [Medha] To see what all the hype was about,
we decided to try the food ourselves.
- Who's ready for our pit?
- This is amazing.
We're gonna wait in line so that we can get our brisket
and all the different types of meat and sides
and super excited.
Hopefully, it doesn't run out.
All right, can we get the Holy Trinity
and a separate brisket as well?
I am so excited.
Everyone in the lines have been talking
about the baked beans, the mac 'n' cheese,
and they say great things about the sides
just as much as they say about all the meat
that they serve here.
Lots of people are ordering the Holy Trinity,
which is all the meats, three meats combined.
We're here at Cattleack Barbeque in Dallas, Texas,
and we're about to try some barbecue,
lots of meat, lots of sides, we're excited.
Jake the cameraman's gonna join me later
to try all the meats.
But we've got brisket.
We've got pork ribs.
We got sausage, more brisket, and finally, a beef rib
that literally is the size of my face.
Look at this, it's amazing.
We talked to a lot of people in line
about what their favorite meats were.
A lot of people are excited
for the pork ribs and the brisket,
but tons of people were talking about the baked beans
and all the sides too, which surprised me
because they weren't just coming for the meat.
They were coming for the entire experience,
so barbecue and the sides.
OK, here's the mac 'n' cheese.
That's wonderful.
I'm gonna eat this whole thing.
I'm so hungry.
All right, Jake, welcome.
Join me. - Oh, yes!
Oh, look at that, oh yeah.
- We saw this being smoked in the pits outside, so...
- It smells smoky. - Mm-hm.
- Oh, it smells good. Here I go. I'm going for it.
- OK, how is it?
Amazing? - It's another win.
I'm just a glutton for that.
Look at that!
Can you see that?
Look at that.
OK, ready?
- How is it?
- Mm.
- And Todd said that the brisket cooks for 14 to 16 hours.
That's a long time, so you know you're getting
a slow and well-cooked meal.
- All right, I'm probably just gonna attack it.
- The pulled pork is off the hook.
It is phenomenal.
I cannot be happier.
- This is absolutely the best craft barbecue
that we've had.
- Cheers! - Cheers, Medha.
To Texas, to Dallas, and to Cattleack Barbeque.
This place is amazing. - To Cattleack Barbeque.
It's so good.
- Barbecue's both a noun and a verb,
so not only is it something you eat,
but it's something you attend.
Going to backyard barbecues and the fun that you have
and that being such a thing
that so many people do and enjoy here
that I wanna continue that.
- Here I go.
I'm giggling 'cause it's actually so good.
I could eat this all day.