{"id":7079698,"date":"2026-10-08T04:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698"},"modified":"2026-10-08T04:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:12:14","slug":"a-new-joint-in-houston-is-already-one-of-my-top-bbq-destinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698","title":{"rendered":"A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.texasmonthly.com\/2026\/10\/willows-smokehouse-and-tavern-1.jpg?auto=compress&amp;crop=faces&amp;fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=640&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.1&amp;q=45&amp;w=1024&amp;wpsize=large\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"overhead photo of food tray\" \/>Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas&nbsp;Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Willow Villarreal and Jasmine Barela have opened a Houston barbecue gem. Writing that gives me d&eacute;j&agrave; vu. I felt the same way in 2018, when Willow&rsquo;s Texas BBQ shone brightly before shutting down thirteen months later, when it ran out of money after paying for an expensive health-department permit. In 2021 the couple resurrected their barbecue careers in glorious fashion at J-Bar-M Barbecue, where Villarreal was pitmaster and Barela was executive chef. In April of the following year, a month after my favorable review, they left the restaurant after a disagreement with the ownership. Thus began a years-long journey to open their own place.Willow&rsquo;s Smokehouse &amp;&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\/bbq\/willows-smokehouse-and-tavern-houston\/\">A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\">Texas Monthly<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas&nbsp;Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Willow Villarreal and Jasmine Barela have opened a Houston barbecue gem. Writing that gives me d&eacute;j&agrave; vu. I felt the same way in 2018, when Willow&rsquo;s Texas BBQ shone brightly before shutting down thirteen months later, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7079699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[2872,5699,12872,7599,213],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7079698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barbecue","tag-bbq","tag-destinations","tag-houston","tag-joint","tag-top"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas&nbsp;Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Willow Villarreal and Jasmine Barela have opened a Houston barbecue gem. Writing that gives me d&eacute;j&agrave; vu. I felt the same way in 2018, when Willow&rsquo;s Texas BBQ shone brightly before shutting down thirteen months later, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-08T04:12:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/img.texasmonthly.com\/2026\/10\/willows-smokehouse-and-tavern-1.jpg?auto=compress&amp;crop=faces&amp;fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=640&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.1&amp;q=45&amp;w=1024&amp;wpsize=large\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-08T04:12:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698\"},\"wordCount\":169,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/willows-smokehouse-and-tavern-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"BBQ\",\"destinations\",\"Houston\",\"Joint\",\"Top\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Barbecue\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698\",\"name\":\"A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations - 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Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas&nbsp;Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Willow Villarreal and Jasmine Barela have opened a Houston barbecue gem. Writing that gives me d&eacute;j&agrave; vu. I felt the same way in 2018, when Willow&rsquo;s Texas BBQ shone brightly before shutting down thirteen months later, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2026-10-08T04:12:14+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/img.texasmonthly.com\/2026\/10\/willows-smokehouse-and-tavern-1.jpg?auto=compress&amp;crop=faces&amp;fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=640&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.1&amp;q=45&amp;w=1024&amp;wpsize=large","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations","datePublished":"2026-10-08T04:12:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698"},"wordCount":169,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/willows-smokehouse-and-tavern-1.jpg","keywords":["BBQ","destinations","Houston","Joint","Top"],"articleSection":["Barbecue"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7079698","name":"A New Joint in Houston Is Already One of My Top BBQ Destinations - 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