Big Al’s Smokehouse Has Been a Family Affair for 50 Years

Off Inwood Road, and just to the east of Love Field, lies a Dallas barbecue institution that has been quietly smoking meat for half a century. Big Al’s Smokehouse was opened by Al Plaskoff in 1974. These days, his daughter Lauren Weiner runs the place, along with pitmaster Pedro Garcia, who has been there since 1979 when he was 18 years old, and general manager Jonathan McZeal, who has stuck around for the last 16 years.

“For this year, we’re trying to celebrate Big Al and that we’re open 50 years later,” Weiner tells Eater Dallas. We’re not an investor group, we’re a woman-owned business.” Weiner says there “wasn’t a plan” for the business. She recalls always working on things for Big Al’s, even from afar, when she left Dallas, by building its website or handling its marketing. “Then, when he got sick, I was here all the time, and it evolved from there. Without selling or closing, this was always going to be a family business.”

Being the second-generation owner hasn’t always been easy. “A lot of these people worked for, respected, and knew my dad. He’s Big Al and I’m very small Laurie,” she says with a laugh, referring to her petite stature. “They knew me so well that they knew I was going to do everything I could to make it work.”

In honor of the milestone, Big Al’s has partnered with another local company celebrating its golden jubilee, J&R Manufacturing. The restaurant exclusively uses its Oyler smoker, a commercial-sized smoker that uses hardwood and offset to smoke its meats. Big Al’s has used hickory wood to smoke for five decades.

“My dad wasn’t a quick to change guy,” Weiner says, noting that when the restaurant was newer, her dad and the staff would joke about doing inventory by counting how many buns they sold. The restaurant’s biggest change under Big Al was adding sweet tea in the ‘90s, which Weiner says “was really hard for him.” Eventually the menu grew to be more family-style dishes and catering. “We didn’t switch to [using] the rubs and bark until the early 2010s. We were purists [who] smoked dark meat and trimmed it on the block.”

Under Weiner, the biggest change to the menu is fresh-cut, twice-fried french fries. “I don’t like frozen fries,” she says in complete seriousness. “So we hand cut all our fries.”

Weiner notes the restaurant is doing several events to give back to the community, mentioning Second Chance, a program from the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association that helps reintroduce incarcerated people trained in food service back into the work force. “Honestly, hiring and maintaining my staff is the biggest challenge I have,” Weiner says. “If somebody goes into the system and comes out with some training and a passion for food service, they’re somebody I’d like to meet. We’re very open to people who have made mistakes in the past and now want to do something different with their lives.”

Big Al’s will host deals and celebrations all year, leading up to something “big” that Weiner is planning for September — and that will include adding a Sunday brunch. It has added a Big Al’s margarita and spiked sweet tea to the menu and a happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. daily.