It’s a little easier to eat at one of Houston’s best barbecue restaurants. Truth Barbeque has quietly launched dinner service.

Available Thursday through Saturday from 5-9 pm (or sold out), the current menu consists of Truth’s familiar menu of barbecue meats, sides, and desserts. That includes smoked brisket, three kinds of house made sausage, pork ribs, tater tot casserole, corn pudding, and the Mama Truth’s sky high layer cakes.

Truth pitmaster-owner Leonard Botello IV tells CultureMap that he added evening hours after visiting restaurants such as Hometown Bar-B-Que in Brooklyn and Lewis Barbecue in Charleston that have thriving dinner services. Locally, restaurants such as Pinkerton’s Barbecue and Feges BBQ have drawn diners for dinner. He also realized not everyone can visit his restaurants for lunch.

“You start to realize, where do I eat for lunch? I don’t go anywhere. I’m a dinner person, because I don’t have time enduring the day,” Botello says.

“You’re really taking this experience away from people. People have kids, they’re older and don’t want to stand in line. It’s having more of an open mind about how we can keep the quality and reach more guests.”

Maintaining Truth’s reputation for quality is important. After all, Texas Monthly ranked the restaurant as the state’s third best barbecue joint in 2021. In order to achieve that goal, Botello says the restaurant will cook its dinner meats separately to ensure they’re just as hot and fresh tasting as those cooked for the lunch crowd.

In addition, he plans to introduce bar bites such as smoked fried oysters, smoked fish dip, and collard green and hot guts egg rolls. They’ll serve as an alternative for those who want something smaller and give the restaurant something to offer as the evening meats sell out.

Dinner will also provide Truth with an opportunity to feature its new bar and cocktail menu. Developed by veteran bartender Matt Tanner, proprietor of the eagerly anticipated EZ’s Liquor Lounge, the cocktails include classics like the Old Fashioned, paloma, and ranch water. Other offerings nod to Botello’s friends in the barbecue world, such as a glass of champagne named for Billy Durney and a peach mule named for Atlanta pitmaster Bryan Furman.

“I like whiskey. We have a lot of friends in the barbecue community who like whiskey,” Botello says about the decision to replace Truth’s private dining room with a bar. Adding cocktails has another benefit as well. “With private events, so many people want cocktails. We really had a lot of people asking. We leaned into it.”

Botello does see one other benefit to being open at night. ”When we dim the lights, it’s very pretty in here.”