2fifty BBQ

Introduction

If you visit the  FAQ  page on 2fifty BBQ's  website , you'll find the following question: "Why are your sides so different?" The fact that this question is asked so often reflects the bigger issues around authenticity and authority to create Texas-style barbecue that the owners have dealt with since opening in 2020. Originally from El Salvador, Debby Portillo and Fernando González started 2fifty to prepare and sell the Texas-style barbecue they fell in love with, while also paying homage to their Latin American roots. This is why you'll find two sets of sides on their menu: "Traditional" and "Heritage." The Heritage sides include things like esquites (corn salad), fried plantains, and mango salad. During our visit to 2fifty in October 2023, Debby explained the decision by stating proudly: "I am Salvadorian so I'm going to cook Salvadorian cuisine." They did not set out to copy "your grandmother's place where she took you when you were little." Instead, they have charted their own path in the barbecue scene. Like with any innovation, however, success did not come easy.

Debby told us that "it took almost a whole year for people to understand" what she and Fernando were trying to do with 2fifty. Fernando seconded this frustration, stating "it's been extremely challenging for us as immigrants to be able to prepare our heritage into everything we do. Because you simultaneously are taking care of a business." In other words, if sticking to your cultural roots and personal values puts your business in jeopardy, it can make you question whether it's worth going against the grain. Fortunately, with time, their new approach took hold and the community around them in Riverdale Park, Maryland and the broader DC area took interest in their fresh take on barbecue. They've been recognized as one the best barbecue restaurants in the DC area by the  Washington Post  ( twice ), but their road to success has not been easy. Along the way, one of their primary challenges has been convincing people of their right to be barbecue pitmasters.  

Who Can Be a "Pitmaster?"

The question of what makes a dish "authentic" is nearly impossible to answer. Some will place importance on the ingredients and their origins. Others will emphasize the cultural history of a particular food and claim that only people who "belong" to that culture can prepare such food. There is no consensus here, which can make it frustrating for folks like Debby and Fernando when they try to explain their right to make Texas-style barbecue, despite not being Texans themselves. In an interview with the website  Texas Monthly , Fernando describes visiting Austin in 2016 and falling in love with Texas barbecue and the hospitality he received while in the state. This experience was so impactful that Debby and Fernando began their journey of learning how to prepare Texas-style barbecue and, later, made the move to the US to pursue their dream of operating a full-service restaurant that exhibited their love of barbecue and Salvadoran staples. 

2fifty's fusion of Texas and Salvadoran culinary traditions is an embodiment of something immigration scholars call "transnational identities" (Passidomo and Wood, 2020; Grieshop, 2006). When a person immigrates to a new place, they may adjust and adapt to the new context but still maintain a connection to their birth country. Such transnational identities entail a degree of hybridity where people can mix and merge these different aspects of themselves; their old and new homes. For Debby and Fernando, this means adherence to the fundamentals of brisket smoking, the inclusion of Salvadoran sides, and challenging ideas of the quintessential "pitmaster."

"I think, probably, not long ago, five years ago, there was this huge strong stereotype about who was a pitmaster. You needed to be a Caucasian . . . bearded, 200 pounds plus guy," Fernando explained. Now, however, he said that many of the published lists of best barbecue restaurants highlight the fact that many of "the pitmasters working there, day-in and day-out, are immigrants." The demographics of any restaurant's staff, regardless of its cultural legacy, is something that Fernando and Debby feel should be acknowledged and respected. The "back of house" staff that do the bulk of the work to prepare food and wash dishes can come from a wide variety of backgrounds. 

A New Culinary Landscape

Thus, Debby and Fernando feel a need to change the narrative. Fernando highlighted people like Chef Christina Martinez who gave her acceptance speech for the James Beard Foundation award in Spanish and said "thanks to the dishwashers and the bus boys and the sous chefs who are not on the cover of a magazine but who make things possible in restaurants." Acts like this show that gatekeeping can come at the cost of not paying respect to the people who make restaurant success possible. When thinking about authenticity, then, one must ask how authentic any dish is if it's constantly prepared by line cooks and prep staff from all over the world. Debby and Fernando put their identity as Salvadoran immigrants with a love of Texas barbecue front and center in their business, and their current reception and success shows that authenticity is more about being authentic to who you are than to some textbook definition of a cultural insider. As Debby said: "We're very proud of being who we are. Extremely proud of being who we are. We don't want to hide that." 

2Fifty BBQ has continued to build on the momentum of their success and recently opened another location in DC's  Mount Vernon Triangle  to provide easier access for their customers in the district. 

References

Grieshop, J. I. (2006) The Envios of San Pablo Huixtepec, Oaxaca: Food, Home and Transnationalism. Human Organization, 65(4), 400-406.

Passidomo, C., & Wood, S. (2020). “Here, We Are All Equal”: Narratives of Food and Immigration from the Nuevo American South. In J. Agyeman & S. Giacalone (Eds.),The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America (pp. 245-260). The MIT Press.