CorkScrew BBQ On The Move

One of Houston's best barbecue joints has found a permanent home in Old Town Spring

CorkScrew BBQ is having a good week. Being named as one of the top 23 barbecue restaurants in the country by the editors of Time Out New York would be enough cause for celebration. But now its Houston-area fans have something even more important to look forward to.

On Wednesday, owners Will and Nichole Buckman announced that they've purchased a property in Old Town Spring as a permanent home for the barbecue joint that's grown from a simple trailer in a Spring parking lot into a consensus top three Houston-area barbecue destination.

"We didn’t want to move again. We are doing this so we can be permanent," Nichole Buckman tells CultureMap "This is ours. Bought by us in our name, and we will make this our home."

CorkScrew's last day in its current location that consists of a couple of trailers with a seating area of picnic tables covered by a canopy will be August 1. Work will then begin to transform the former Hyde's Cafe into CorkScrew's new location. For Nichole, the biggest benefit of the move is that it put an end to CorkScrew's tenuous lease situation and the prospect that the property it sits on could have been sold to developers at any time. When the Spring natives heard that Hyde's, which is only three-and-a-half miles from their current location, was available, they jumped on it.

Lots of changes

Buckman says the couple plans to make some fairly extensive changes to the space, such as adding garage doors to keep the patio feeling of the current location, but she acknowledges inside seating will be more comfortable for people "when it is 40 degrees or 110."

The new location will bring a host of other, positive changes. First, CorkScrew will add a beer and wine license. Other improvements include increased capacity, which will allow for more advance, bulk orders, dinner service on Friday and Saturday and lunch on Sundays.

"We have to grow sometime. We’re stuffed in there like a sausage. We could have (work for) 10 employees but we only have (room for) six," Buckman says. "It’s like LA Barbecue or Franklin. You get to that point where a trailer just doesn’t suffice . . . We don’t have the prep space. I work out of the pit room as my office."

While the vast majority of CorkScrew patrons have reacted favorably to the news since the Chronicle published it on Wednesday, enough of a minority have expressed concerns about it being too far from The Woodlands that widely read blogger Albert Nurick addressed the issue in his Woodlands Area Foodies Facebook group. "I think Corkscrew has enough of a following that they'll have plenty of business," Nurick writes. "For a less notable restaurant, a move like this would be ill-advised . . . My gut tells me that Corkscrew's reputation will keep them busy. I hope I'm right."

Buckman says she understands those concerns but notes that CorkScrew has always drawn from The Woodlands, Spring and points farther south. The location will be more convenient for a significant percentage of their customers. In addition, finding a stand alone location in The Woodlands that was affordable proved impossible. "We can’t have a strip center business. No one is going to lease to us with two wood-burning pits connected to a building. It’s just not who we are," she notes.

Remain the same

For all the changes coming to CorkScrew, Buckman makes clear that one thing will remain the same. "Will will be tending the pits. We are still going to be 100-percent into the business just like we are now. Us being at the restaurant will be focusing on making everything perfect and not so much on being in the kitchen. He will be the pitmaster and he will be cooking the meat day in and day out."

The Buckmans have spent four years establishing themselves as one of Houston's top barbecue destinations. With a new, bigger, permanent home, they're setting themselves up for decades of success. Hopefully, Woodlanders will find enough reasons to drive a little farther down I-45. If not, the line will be a little shorter for everyone else.

Nichole and Will Buckman, center, will relocate CorkScrew BBQ to Old Town Spring.

17 Texas Monthly BBQ Festival September 2014 Will Buckman Nichole Buckman Wayne Kammerl

Photo by Eric Sandler

Nichole and Will Buckman, center, will relocate CorkScrew BBQ to Old Town Spring.

unspecified

NYT best dishes

Houston Mediterranean restaurant makes NY Times' best desserts list

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen is the only Houston restaurant on either list.

The New York Times included four Texas restaurants among its favorite dishes of 2025. Divided into two lists — The 23 Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 and The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 — the dishes are:

Bad Honey Bunny at Mercado Sin Nombre (Austin)
Ketan Hitam at Yeni’s Fusion (Austin)
Konafa Naama at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen (Houston)
Picadillo Macaroni and Cheese at 2M Smokehouse (San Antonio)

Times food writer Priya Krishna, who authors the entries for all four Texas dishes, traveled to far west Houston to visit Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen. “The konafa, a signature here, arrives with a molten layer of cheese under a sticky-sweet layer of golden, nutty semolina. The craft is evident, the konafa gone in a few bites,” she writes.

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen Konafa Naama Don't skip dessert at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen.KSayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

In Austin, Krishna praises the rice pudding at Yeni’s Fusion. “This barely sweet version, lush with coconut milk, aromatic with pandan and as soothing as warm porridge, is the gentlest way to end a meal,” she states.

Already hailed as one of America’s best breakfast spots by Bon Appetit, Krishna singles out a honeybun at Mercado Sin Nombre. “The coiled honey bun at this semi-clandestine cafe looks almost cartoonishly perfect, and the heady scent of cardamom and honey hits you before you even take a bite. Somehow, it tastes every bit as plush and elegant as it appears,” she writes.

The picadillo mac and cheese at 2M Smokehouse showcases how the San Antonio restaurant incorporates Mexican flavors into traditional Texas barbecue. “Imagine Hamburger Helper, but spicier, punchier and even more luxuriously creamy. It’s not easy to one-up the singular, thickly spiced brisket here, but the picadillo mac and cheese — which runs as an occasional special — holds its own and then some,” Krishna writes.

The New York Times regularly shines its spotlight on Texas restaurants, In September, it named four establishments — ChòpnBlọk (Houston), Isidore (San Antonio), Lao’d Bar (Austin), and P Thai’s Khao Man Gai & Noodles (Austin) — to its list of America’s 50 Best Restaurants.

news-you-can-eat media lists desserts