When Texas Roots & California Dreams collide...

In October of 2021, some dear friends of Chris and Holly’s were sitting down for dinner and the natural flow of the evening led to a conversation about starting a BBQ business and going bigger than what our backyard cooks had become. It was that evening that the idea and name of Oakhouse BBQ was born. Then, a few months later while playing golf with another group of friends, further discussion was had about starting a BBQ business that was the tipping point for Chris to start his rather compulsive quest for learning everything he could about how to run a BBQ business at the level of the best in TX. For the next 6 months, Chris and Holly went to work on elevating recipes, dialing in cooking methods, partnering with meat and produce providers, buying equipment, and planning for what would be Oakhouse BBQ’s first Pop-Up in their driveway later in 2022. Having no clue what to expect or how many people would show up, they cooked more food than they ever had before and completely ran out of what was prepared in just over 2 hours, serving over 125 people.

As Oakhouse BBQ continued to grow and become more well known locally, Chris had no shame in reaching out to everyone he could to ask questions and continue learning and educating himself on how to make the very best BBQ that this area had ever had. From well known pitmasters in Texas to local Sacramento and Bay Area chefs, Chris and Holly continued to learn and improve their abilities to create a product and experience second to none. During the Summer of 2023, Chris was asked to participate with top local chefs at the Sacramento Tower Bridge Dinner; an event put on by Visit Sacramento as part of the Sacramento Farm to Fork Festival. It was there that he met Matt Masera, Tyler Florence’s culinary director, and was asked to cook along with Tyler at an event later that year. Fast forward a year from that meeting and Chris is now Tyler’s pitmaster and an ongoing part of his BBQ team cooking for events across the county.

Today, Oakhouse BBQ is laser focused on providing the most authentic Central TX BBQ experience possible at each Wedding, Corporate Event, Public Pop-Up or Food Festival they attend. Sourcing only the best products and ingredients available from local and nationally recognized farms, Oakhouse BBQ uses the same cooking techniques and methods as the very best in Texas, smoking meats using local oak wood in large offset smokers with no gas or electric assists, absolutely no reheating of any kind, with sides and desserts made completely from scratch.

See y’all at the next event – Texas Raised, California Made!