Chef Ara Malekian takes a puff from his cigar, the smoke swirling around his black flat-brimmed cowboy hat. He wears silver bracelets on his wrists and a turquoise ring on his right hand. The ends of his gray mustache are twisted and dangle on either side of his mouth as he describes how he aged the bourbon we’re about to taste. The bottle (not for purchase) is branded with a sticker (available for purchase) that features a line drawing of his face. Sitting in the back room of his restaurant, Harlem Road Texas BBQ, in the Houston suburb of Richmond, we alternate sips of the liquor with freshly brewed Armenian coffee, a nod to his ancestral homeland, though he was born in Iran. Malekian doesn’t…
The post This Stylish Pitmaster Goes Way Beyond Salt and Pepper For His Smoked Meat appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Read: Read More