Jason Gonzalez left a career in the oil industry to focus on barbecue. After mastering Texas-style brisket and adding his own Louisiana twists, he started a pop-up. It later became his Luling restaurant Gonzo’s Smokehouse, which is open Thursdays and Fridays only. After years of attending Hogs for the Cause, he launched his own team in 2022. His Porkbelly Cartel will be at Hogs for the Cause this year, offering tacos filled with slow-cooked pork and beef. For information about Hogs for the Cause, visit hogsfest.org. For information about Gonzalez and Gonzo’s Smokehouse, see gonzosmokehouse.com.
Gambit: Why did you change careers to get into barbecue?
Jason Gonzalez: I grew up and went to school on the West Bank. I went into drafting and design straight out of high school. I was pursuing that for 16 plus years. I was working for Shell downtown, and then in 2014 the price of oil went to shit. They basically laid off the whole drafting and design department, downsized and moved to Houston.
So that’s around the time I started to ramp up on the barbecue. I started in the backyard, trying to nail down recipes. I got comfortable enough to start doing pop-ups in New Orleans. I always loved to cook. I got that from my grandma. She was an amazing cook in the kitchen. But barbecue, I have always been a fan. I took a trip out to Austin about the time I got laid off. I went to Franklin Barbecue and a couple of other spots. Really had my first experience with Texas barbecue and it blew my mind. I came back and we didn’t have any type of barbecue like that around here. So I wanted to recreate that and put my spin on it.
I took my severance check I got from Shell. Before I was using a little electric box smoker. I took my check and bought a really good pellet smoker. It was good that I started on that and nailed down recipes, because it’s not easy to do that and learn how to manage a fire at the same time. I worked with a pellet smoker for about two or three years and then got a stick burner. That’s when it took off and you can definitely taste the difference when you’re cooking with wood.
Gambit: What do you do at the restaurant?
Gonzalez: We’re a small family operation. It’s basically me trimming all the meats. We roll into boudin making on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we start prepping to cook all the big proteins. We get the smokers ready and do a cold smoke on the boudin for Wednesday. Thursday is when we start smoking all the meats. The briskets will go a good 12-14 hours depending on the weather and if the wood is wet and all those variables. The seasoning is very simple. It’s just salt, pepper, garlic. The big thing is to have patience with the smoking, because that’s where the magic happens.
I gravitated toward the Texas style. They keep it simple. They’re using offset smokers, they’re doing brisket and making their own sausage. But we put our own twist on everything. We do dirty rice and our own boudin. We do a smoked chicken and andouille gumbo in wintertime, with our own andouille.
The main proteins we have every Friday are brisket, pulled pork, pork belly burnt ends and we always have some kind of boudin. We usually have brisket boudin, but sometimes we’ll mix it up and do a Tex-Mex boudin or a beef cheek barbacoa boudin.
We’ve gone through a lot of vendors to get the cuts we want. We don’t like to just do your basic brisket, pulled pork, ribs. Our menu gets kind of crazy sometimes. I think that’s what keeps people interested. We started doing oxtails. We always have pork jowls. We do a pork jowl crackling. Once a month we do pig cheeks.
We’re just open Thursdays and Fridays. We do smashburgers and sandwiches on Thursdays. The last Thursday of every month we do tacos. Every Friday we do barbecue, sides and desserts. We’re going to keep it a small family operation and try to put out a good product every week.
Tung Nguyen told us about becoming interested in barbecue, his plans for Roch & Claude and what's coming up at Hogs for the Cause.
Gambit: How has your experience been with Hogs for the Cause?
Gonzalez: I have always been a fan of Hogs. We used to go when they started. I finally encouraged some family and friends to get involved. I was like, “Look, I think we will have a really good time, raise some money.”
In 2022 we entered our team, and it was a big-time learning experience. We’re Porkbelly Cartel. It was a team of like 10, and every year we get bigger. To think about where we are right now in terms of fundraising and our plot size and our equipment, it was a big learning curve.
We have an open fire table — a live fire table we set up in front of our booth — and we cook all our tacos to order. We keep our menu simple with two or three tacos. This year, we’re doing a smoked beef cheek barbacoa taco, a smoked pork belly boudin taco, and Saturday we’ll have a smoked whole hog taco.
Barbacoa is a Mexican style. We’re adding our own Mexican spices and putting it on a taco. We’re also going to have Smoothie King Mangonadas at the booth.
Hogs is a long weekend. We load in Thursday and light the fires Friday. It’s me and a bunch of guys that can tend the fire, getting ready for Saturday. We’ll have two offset smokers out there. It’s a really good time. I wish it came more than once a year.
Keep up with the latest events at calendar.gambitweekly.com.
