One of Dallas’ best barbecue spots, Terry Black’s, will be expanding to Fort Worth
Terry Black’s Barbecue, a Central Texas restaurant from a prominent barbecue family, is expected to relocate to Fort Worth. Terry Black’s comes from the descendants of the nearly 100-year-old Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart.
Twin brothers Mark and Mike Black and their sister Christina Black grew up in Lockhart, the small town that is one of the best places in Texas to eat barbecue. They broke away from the family barbecue business less than a decade ago to open Terry Black’s, named after their father, in 2014 in Austin. A second restaurant, in Deep Ellum in Dallas, followed in 2019. They expanded to Lockhart in 2022—a controversial move, perhaps, providing competition to the similarly named family business half a mile away.
Fort Worth will likely be the fourth Terry Black in Texas unless the Black siblings build another one sooner.
And they’ll build: “I’ve bought real estate all over the place, from Driftwood to Waco to Houston to San Antonio,” says Mark Black. He says they plan to open about 14 restaurants in the next three years.
Not all of them will be barbecue places. They are entering the hotel and hospitality business and plan to open wellness spa hotels with their own restaurant concepts installed in these properties. The first spa will be in Driftwood and will be called Friday Mountain.
Mark Black says they are creating business plans for an oyster bar and French steakhouse and are looking at side businesses such as coffee and chocolate.
But back to the barbecue and back to Fort Worth.
Terry Black’s will replace Wendy’s, which began as a Texaco station about 45 years ago on W. Seventh Street, according to Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The family plans to demolish the fast-food building and build an 8,000-square-foot restaurant.
Mark Black wants to open the barbecue joint “as soon as possible” but thinks the date will be sometime in 2024.
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The restaurant is famous for displaying its huge smokers. At the Dallas store, customers order sides and meat cut to order. (This is a smart setup for hungry barbecue fans: You order more than you need because it’s right there. And it looks good.)
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The Dallas barbecue joint opened just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which could have been a doomsday for a brand new spot. Not Terry Black: had an average 2020, but a big spike in business in 2021, says Black, which got even better in 2022. And in those few years, the Black brothers kept buying real estate in Texas with big plans for barbecue.
Mark Black sees the appeal of Fort Worth, a city we’ve named the best barbecue in Texas—even better than Lockhart—with restaurants like Goldee’s, Panther City, Dayne’s, Smoke-A-Holics and others serving up a serious following.
Mark Black says he just “want to[s] to go where barbecue is popular.’
“It’s kind of a natural fit to expand into Fort Worth,” says Mark Black. “Fort Worth is a unique city. I think it’s really cool; people there have a lot of pride.
Terry Black’s Barbecue is expected to open at 2926 W. Seventh St., Fort Worth, in 2024.