In the late 1990s, two brothers from Sealy began cooking and selling barbecue, based on their family's recipes, from a trailer in College Station. Since then, Ric and Kevin Kiersh have expanded Red River Barbeque and Grill to include two restaurant locations and a full-service catering and event planning operation.
The first Red River Barbeque and Grill opened in League City in 2002. In 2011, the second location opened on South Mason Road in Katy. Ric said he and his brother chose Katy for their second location because it is near their hometown.
As their presence has grown, so has their menu. In addition to barbecue, Red River now serves steak, shrimp, fried catfish and fried chicken. However, traditional barbecue favorites like brisket and ribs remain.
"We first started, it was just barbecue, then we kept adding stuff to our menu and that's where we got the 'and grill,'" Kiersh said.
Some menu additions, such as pulled pork, were the result of popular demand. Kiersh said they pay attention to feedback from their customers.
"We were having a lot of people ask for pulled pork. That's primarily more popular in the east, but we had a lot of people ask for it and now it's one of our best sellers," Kiersh said.
While Red River's menu has evolved and expanded over time, the techniques remain traditional. All of the meats are prepared using wood smokers, rather than the electric or gas smokers preferred by some barbecue restaurants.
"Our smokers are all wood, there's no electric or gas. It's just all old-fashioned wood heat," Kiersh said.
The brothers also favor handmade sides prepared in-house over pre-made sides shipped in.
"All our sides and everything are homemade, we don't buy anything pre-made here," Kiersh said. "All the fried items are fresh and hand-battered."
In addition to their two restaurant locations, Red River offers an event catering service.
Catering packages include heavy appetizers, fajitas, barbecue, steak and shrimp.
Red River averages of four to five catering deliveries to companies in the Energy Corridor each day, Kiersh said.
They also provide more involved event planning and catering, supplying everything from waitstaff and bartenders to music, tents and dcor. Red River has catered everything from small lunches to large weddings.
"We'll deliver a 10 person party pack to a company for lunch and we've also done several thousand people," Kiersh said.
Daily specials
Specials come with two sides
Monday - 8 oz. ribeye with grilled shrimp, $13.99
Tuesday - All you can eat ribs, $14.99
Wednesday - Fried shrimp special, $14.99
Thursday - Half rack of baby back ribs, $12.99
Friday - Steak dinner special (8 or 16 oz), $11.99 (8oz), $18.99 (16oz)
Meats by the pound
Brisket
Pork Ribs
Pulled Pork
Pork Tenderloin
Sausage or Spicy Sausage
Smoked Turkey Breast
Chicken
Services
Dine-in
Pick-up orders
Delivery orders (48 hours notice)
Full service catering ($500 minimum for full service staff. )
Red River
1711 S. Mason Road
Katy 281-578-3800
www.redriverbbq.com
Hours: Sun.–Thu.: 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Fri.–Sat.: 11 a.m.–10 p.m.
