After 66 years, Mac’s Bar-B-Que is closing in Dallas

Billy McDonald has threatened to close his family’s 66-year-old barbeque place in Dallas, Mac’s Bar-B-Que, a couple of times in the past decade.

At the end of July 2021, he will finally do it.

After Mac’s Bar-B-Que owner Billy McDonald took some time off – “sleeping in” is the top priority – he wants to continue working in his side business, an electronics repair company that works on high frequency amplifiers.(Ben Torres / special article)

McDonald might miss the company that his father Bill Hubert McDonald founded in 1955 – a place that served straight smoked meat decades before craft barbecue was cool.

But instead of getting nostalgic, McDonald seems relieved to rent the restaurant space to someone else. A decade or two ago, most Mac workers left the Deep Ellum area and were replaced by younger tenants who lived in high-rise buildings.

“You have to understand, you have everyone wanting to tell you how great your brisket that you cooked over the weekend was,” says McDonald. He seems tired of defending a style of barbecue that he knows has been good for six decades or more.

Mac’s Bar-B-Que’s original owner, Bill McDonald, second from left, opened the restaurant at 3600 Main Street in 1955, about 0.2 miles from its final location at 3933 Main Street.(Ben Torres / special article)

“I say if you really think you are that good, why don’t you open a restaurant?”

McDonald’s invested the time: he’s been full-time at Mac’s Bar-B-Que since 1978 or 1979 when he gave up looking for a job in engineering and decided to work at the family restaurant against his will. For the next 40 years, McDonald’s mixed hot coals in the restaurant until 1 a.m. when the briskets were ready. Then he’s back early the next day.

He’s seen three or four generations of families grow up at Mac. But now he’s tired. He leased the building to a company called Tortas Revolución, and they’ll get the keys on August 15, when McDonald becomes a landlord instead of a miner.

“This is the first day I don’t have to worry about this place,” he says.

Macs last days

Mac’s Bar-B-Que will remain open until at least July 26, 2021, says McDonald.

Owner Billy McDonald, left, serves up a meal order for longtime customer Herschel Wilonsky at Mac’s Bar-B-Que in Dallas on one of the last business days.(Ben Torres / special article)

When you’ve got enough meat, smoke it and serve it on July 27th. And depending on what’s left on July 27th, they might sell the rest on July 28th.

On his final days, McDonald will be in the dining room chatting to regulars like Herschel Wilonsky from Dallas, who has been eating Mac’s barbecue since he learned to drive in the late 1950s.

“I probably ate everything he has,” says Wilonsky. He visited every location of the restaurant – 3600 Main Street from 1955 to 1967; at 408 Exposition Avenue from 1967 to 1982; and at its present location at 3933 Main St. – all on or near the edge of Deep Ellum.

Wilonsky’s earliest memories at Mac’s are having a lunch break with his father when they both worked in the auto parts business. Wilonsky liked Mac’s so much that he hired the McDonald family to host his two sons’ bar mitzvahs. Wilonsky still makes Mac’s a regular lunch break with his wife Margaret.

“Billy was the guy who could slice the barbecue sandwich so it looked good and tasted good,” says Wilonsky. It was that simple.

Yesterday’s barbecue

Mac’s closure was inevitable: McDonald ran a shop on the outskirts of Deep Ellum where its customers no longer lived, serving old-school barbecues.

“I have people coming in here who really want to try the meat,” he says of his East Texas-style grill that isn’t heavily salted.

Though Mac’s Brisket is served by the pound, the more popular are the minced beef sandwiches with a side of freshly cut fries.

The restaurant ran out of beef on July 22, 2021 at 1 p.m. Ribs are another menu option.(Ben Torres / special article)

For the briskets, McDonald lights its fire at around 300 degrees – hotter than most New Age Pitmasters like Austin chef and celebrity chef Aaron Franklin. The result is that Mac’s Beef is cooked more by fire than smoke, which means it doesn’t resemble the pliable, moist, salty brisket platters that have become so popular over the past two decades.

McDonald doesn’t think it should be done that way. “I’ve been in this business all my life,” he says. “Some people don’t like what I do. I’ve received criticism from the internet. They think that my meat is not smoked enough. “

But what he serves has become a dying species – a style of barbecue that we won’t see much of when six-decade-old barbecues like Macs stay closed.

“I’m not trying to present smoked meat,” he says. “I’m trying to present barbecue.”

The $ 1.85 million restaurant

McDonald remains the owner of the building while a new tenant moves in, but he still plans to sell the building. It’s been on sale for more than four years.

Long-time customers Andrea Houghton, center, and Laurie Shaver, right, joke with employee Debra Schultz before paying for their order at Mac’s Bar-B-Que in Dallas.(Ben Torres / special article)

The last listing was valued at $ 1.85 million for a 1,584 square foot building built in 1982.

“Everyone says it’s a lot of money,” he says.

But he points to the “big change” that is coming to this part of Dallas. He believes the edge of Deep Ellum, near Exposition Park and Fair Park, will one day “look like Lower Greenville Avenue.”

McDonald knew its business would be changing as early as 1992 or 1993 when McDonald said Deep Ellum was attracting investors from all over the United States. Soon the manufacturing companies moved from the neighborhood and took away McDonald’s customers.

Client Pat Bywaters helps clear tables after lunch at Mac’s Bar-B-Que in Dallas. “Not many places do it these days [barbecue] like he does. He does it the traditional way, “says Bywaters.(Ben Torres / special article)

Mac has been concerned about the future of his restaurant since the 2000s. And when the coronavirus pandemic landed in the spring of 2020, he laid off all of his employees and ran the barbecue business alone.

The end of Mac’s feels like an event that McDonald’s has been thinking about for decades.

“This is a business that has been in business for six decades,” he says. “How many people can say they still do business like this?”

Mac’s Bar-B-Que is located at 3933 Main St., Dallas. It will stay open until July 26th, 27th or 28th, 2021.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter @sblaskovich.

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