Hurtado Barbecue buys Mansfield restaurant; south Tarrant County is getting ‘Mexicue’

Hurtado Barbecue, the “Mexicue” restaurant that gained fame for its World Series beef shin and for serving beef from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan’s 6666 Ranch, will open its third location early next year in Mansfield, Brandon Hurtado said Monday.

Hurtado said he bought Big D Barbecue, a nine-year-old local commercial barbecue restaurant at 226 N. Walnut Creek Drive, one mile south of U.S. 287 along the primary route to downtown.

“It’s a way to serve our customers in Mansfield, Burleson, Midlothian — all the folks who come from south of Arlington,” Hurtado said.

South Tarrant County is a “barbecue Mecca.” It’s the scene of organized tours to Texas’ top-ranked Goldee’s Barbecue near Kennedale, pitmaker landmark Jambo’s BBQ Shack in Rendon, nationally famed Tex-Ethiopian Smoke’N Ash BBQ in south Arlington and legacy old-timers Hickory Stick in Everman and Cousin’s in Fort Worth.

Hurtado actually helped Del Toro, a Twisted Root spinoff, get started in downtown Mansfield.

The Walnut Creek Drive location is a half-hour away from the Hurtado locations in downtown Arlington and Fort Worth, he said.

“It might seem like a weird location for us,” he said, “but it’s in the middle of everything.”

Hurtado’s fame only grew with national World Series TV coverage of the half-hour lines for his Globe Life Field concession stand and particularly for his giant (Jonah) “Heim Hammer,” a huge beef shin with sweet habanero barbecue sauce that served six people for $99.

It sold out quickly every game.

Hurtado also drew crowds for a pico-and-queso poblano sausage “Oaxaca Dawg” that will come to restaurants soon, he said.

He’s been selling 6,000 pounds of brisket each week, he said, at the current restaurants, 205 E. Front St., Arlington, and 1116 Eighth Ave., Fort Worth.

That’s all beef from Sheridan’s 6666 Ranch in northwest Texas.

Hurtado said his restaurants are the only barbecue shops serving Four Sixes Ranch Brand beef, which Sheridan also now promotes at business partners’ Cattlemen’s Steak House in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

He’ll also be serving barbecue at the new Bosque Ranch, Sheridan’s events center for cutting horse competition, horse shows, reining events, TV shows, concerts and more. It’s at 100 Arena Run in rural Parker County off Farm Road 51 south of Weatherford near the Hood County line.

Hurtado said both current restaurants are still taking advance orders online for smoked turkeys for Thanksgiving with the restauranrt’s cumin-chile powder barbecue rub.

Both locations will be open the weekend after Thanksgiving and throughout December except for Christmas Day, he said; hurtadobbq.com.