Beloved eatery decays into eyesore

By Andy Morgan

At the former Barbec’s restaurant, I once ate scrambled eggs with a parrot at the table next to me. I did not share. 

Like thousands of other East Dallas residents, I was not going to be deterred from Barbec’s by the unexpected. For many, Barbec’s was not just a diner with eggs, beer biscuits, two-for-one hamburgers and chicken-fried steaks. 

“It was a little neighborhood place, you know, just a place exclusive to our neighborhood,” said Terri, who asked that her last name not be printed. “There’s so many chains we could go into … but, it’s just the feeling that this is our neighborhood hangout, our place to go.”

These days, a decaying building at 8949 Garland Road is all that remains of Barbec’s. The brown paint is faded and chipped. The porch overhang now leans to one side. A smear of gray paint hides graffiti on the stone façade. Weathered plywood sheets hide the front door and windows.

In 1965, that same building was brand new and made its debut as a Howard Johnson’s restaurant. 

Barry and Becky Brown first opened Barbec’s in 1978. The name is an amalgamation of the owners’ first names. 

Gary Spence was there for breakfast year after year. A retired electric utility employee, Spence was “one of the regulars” who showed up every weekday morning.

“I sat with a bunch of guys,” Spence said. “A lot of them have passed, but we sat in the corner in the bar back there to the right. I can get a couple eggs anywhere, but Barbec’s had a good breakfast, and they had a good lunch menu.”

Most of all, Spence liked the company. “I met a lot of nice people there,” he said. “And even a lot of the people that worked there were real nice.”

Megan McGowan and her husband, Jerry Porter, dined at Barbec’s almost every Friday night. She would order her usual, a chicken breast topped with Monterrey Jack cheese and chili peppers. Her husband had a steak.

“It was just the feeling of … this is our neighborhood hangout, your place to go,” McGowan said. “And, you know, we could always get a comforting meal. You weren’t going someplace that was trying to put on airs. You knew the waitresses and the staff, and they knew you by name.”

In the 1990s, McGowan recalled, Barbec’s served a special Christmas breakfast where waitresses poured eggnog in souvenir Christmas mugs. “I think we still have those mugs somewhere around here,” she said. 

“The food was really good,” said Jillian Brooks, who lives just behind the Barbec’s building. “It was kind of like the perfect post-drinking spot. Hardy food and good for the weekend. The biscuits were amazing, the beer biscuits. It was just kind of a fun vibe.

“It wasn’t pretentious, which is what a lot of places in Dallas can be,” she said. “It kind of felt like an old school diner, which there aren’t like a ton of those in this area of Dallas. Right. It felt a little gritty and it was cozy. It just felt a little different in a good way.”

I was only an occasional customer, despite living just a short walk away. You could smell the baking beer biscuits every morning from our patio. The restaurant was a good place to take visiting friends or family for a quick breakfast.

One morning, we were there with my cousin and his two young sons. The kids could hardly eat their pancakes they were so enthralled with the sizable, green bird perched on the man’s shoulder at the table next to us. The bird hopped off his owner’s shoulder and parked next to the man’s plate.

“Can we pet it?” one of the boys whispered. 

“Let’s wait a minute,” my cousin said, which, I thought, was a good response when talking about touching a parrot with a beak that could slice through a young child’s finger.

Barbec’s had a well-worn feel. Booth seats were cracked. The tables chipped. Sometimes, the eggs were overcooked and the meat too dry. I can’t remember ever eating there without having a fork or spoon that still carried a piece of crud that survived the dishwasher. Like the parrot, however, a dirty fork couldn’t keep away devoted customers. Only a fire could do that.

In October 2020, a fire started in Barbec’s kitchen, damaging both the interior and exterior of the building. Barbec’s never reopened. 

A man in a pink tutu lived on the front walk for several months. Today, a valet service now uses the surrounding lot to park cars from another restaurant.

Since 2023, the owners have tried to lease the property. County tax records show the Popeye’s restaurant chain applied for two construction permits, each for $550,000 of work. There are no visible signs of construction.

Today, the commercial real estate firm Engvest is trying to lease the property. The firm did not reply to calls, emails or texts.

Whatever the Barbec’s building eventually becomes, it will probably not be a neighborhood gathering place, a dependable source of eggs, bacon, chicken fried steaks, fried catfish and more. 

It will probably not provide a place for older residents to talk and drink a single cup of coffee for hours, a high-calorie culinary reward for the spandex-clad cyclists just spinning off White Rock Lake, or a welcoming spot for families and kids needing a pile of warm pancakes.

It might not even allow the occasional parrot to crash the party.

And that is our loss. 

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