After a decades-long culinary career, David Welch launched Fire Craft BBQ as a catering company in 2015 and food truck in 2017. Since then, the restaurant opened a brick-and-mortar location in Kingwood in 2023 and recently doubled its square footage by adding a dining room.

“It used to just be me, my dad and my brother on the food truck, and now I have ... 17 employees,” said Savannah Welch, Fire Craft BBQ co-owner and David Welch’s daughter.

Unlike most restaurants, Fire Craft BBQ closes at a different time each day depending on when the food sells out.

“Our business model is to sell out every day,” Savannah Welch said. “That way, we have the least amount of waste, and the guests have the freshest possible product.”

Fire Craft BBQ opened its physical location in a space formerly occupied by a bread bakery. For two-and-a-half years, it operated out of the 2,000-square-foot space with just a few high-top tables, Savannah Welch said. When the business next to it moved, restaurant officials jumped at the opportunity to add a dining room and additional equipment, such as another barbecue pit and a walk-in cooler.


“We wanted people to be able to come in, sit down, eat with their family and host bigger groups of people,” Savannah Welch said. “We kind of just didn’t have enough space for everybody. It would literally be so packed in here.”

While Fire Craft BBQ is typically open from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the latest, the restaurant recently added dinner hours from 5-8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays with the hopes of expanding to more days in the future.

What they offer

Fire Craft BBQ offers a variety of meats, including prime brisket, pork spare ribs, smoked chicken, turkey breast, sausage and pulled pork. It took two years for the restaurant to perfect its sauce recipe, which uses a mustard base, Savannah Welch said. However, she said she encourages people to try the meat without the sauce first.


“Real barbecue doesn’t need sauce,” Savannah Welch said. “We pride ourselves in that everything’s very, very flavorful on its own, and the sauce is just kind of like a whole [other] level of flavor, because it’s very sweet, it’s a little spicy, compared to the dark, umami, typical brisket.”

Customers can also choose from sides such as mac and cheese, baked beans, Brussels sprouts and squash casserole. Savannah Welch said Fire Craft BBQ’s most popular item is its jalapeno corn spoonbread, which is moister than typical cornbread. The restaurant also offers tacos and quesadillas as well as fresh-baked cobblers for dessert.

In addition to its regular menu items, Fire Craft BBQ offers a variety of appetizers exclusively for catering, including deviled egg platters; smoked brie with fruit and nut chutney; and a dip with roasted jalapenos, cream cheese, brisket and candied bacon. Catering is still a large part of the restaurant’s business, Savannah Welch said.

“I’ve catered anywhere from little backyard picnics to massive corporate rodeos,” she said. “We have done anything and everything that you can think of.”


What’s next

Savannah Welch said Fire Craft BBQ hopes to expand its dinner hours to more days of the week going forward.

“For right now, we’re going to stick with Fridays and Saturdays to ... get it really down with the logistics of how the shifts are going to work,” she said. “Once we have that really in place and fail-proof, then we’ll start opening for Thursday, and we’ll add on Wednesday, then we’ll add on Tuesday.”