BBQ NEWS
Hard Eight BBQ chain to open first location outside of North Texas
Hard Eight BBQ is opening its first San Antonio joint.
Popular chain Hard Eight BBQ is exporting its smoked meats and sandwiches to San Antonio, marking the restaurant's first location outside of North Texas.
Hard Eight BBQ is set to open at The Rim retail development, at 17907 IH-10 W. in San Antonio, later this year.
Hard Eight, H8 for short, is based in Stephenville and has four additional locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth: in Coppell, The Colony, Roanoke, and Burleson. It’s the type of neighborhood restaurant locals take out-of-towners to, with a large cafeteria-style line. It reportedly doesn’t cook everything according to time-honored techniques, but it does give a taste of Texana.
The owners have been teasing the joint in a series of social media videos, but have kept quiet on the timeline. Now, new Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) filings say the 17,300-square-foot restaurant aims to finish construction by November.
H8 sells all the Texas barbecue classics including brisket, sausage, and ribs, but the smoked meats menu goes well beyond with shrimp poppers, sirloin, ham, pork chops, and even thick-sliced bologna available by the pound and in sandwiches.
The restaurant brings the same range to the sides. Although smoke shack favorites like macaroni ‘n’ cheese, slaw, potato salad, and pinto beans are on the slate, the barbecue joint also dishes out more newfangled dishes like jalapeño cream corn and sweet potato fries. There’s not much in the way of green vegetables, but diners can order a garden salad if they insist.
Cofounder Chad Decker, with wife Carie and in-laws Vicki and Phillip Nivens, first opened Hard Eight in 2003 in a former Stephenville filling station. His approach to barbecue was formed during his childhood in Llano, he says, where he was exposed to Hill Country methods and traditional German pits.
Although the quartet had zero experience in running restaurants, they slowly built the concept into a mini-empire through trial and error.
So far, H8 hasn’t shared an opening timeline, but its most recent Reel suggests some construction is already taking place. A request for more accurate timeline information was not immediately returned.
