Hoodoo Brown BBQ Introduces Tex-Mex Tuesdays

Every now and then Hoodoo Brown BBQ goes off their standard menu for special smoked meat theme days. Occasional Whole Hog Sundays, Prime Rib Thursdays (and French Dip Fridays if there are leftovers), and Taco Tuesdays are just some of the drool-inducing days the Hoodoo Crew has come up with over the years. From Taco Tuesday, though, something else was born…Tex-Mex Tuesday.

“We did Taco Tuesday for three months with one special taco on the menu to get our creativity flowing,” says Hoodoo general manager Chris Sexton. “It felt like an afterthought because people would get one or two tacos, and we’d maybe sell 10-15 the whole night, but we know that we do things better when we do them bigger.”

A week from today, Tex Mex Tuesday Returns! Start your 2020 in style with our Tex Mex specials, here is the whole enchilada, from last month. Get ready. #hoodoobrown #bbq #texmextuesday

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So, once per month, specifically on the first Tuesday of each month, they decided to roll out Tex-Mex Tuesday with a separate menu of Texas BBQ fused with bold Mexican flavors. To prepare, the staff grabbed a bunch of cookbooks from chefs they admire for inspiration. Wesley Avila’s Guerilla Tacos, Ford Fry’s Tex-Mex, and Alex Stupak and Jordana Rothman’s Tacos: Recipes and Provocations: A Cookbook are some notables they used for research. “The idea was to look into those flavor profiles, take what they do, and what we do, and blend those recipes together,” Sexton says. “The guys [Nick, Tyler, Lucas, and Bobby] had so much fun creating something new that they came in on their days off for R&D.”

The result of the research and development is an array of specials including a trio of tacos, some type of BBQ enchilada, an empanada, a few sides, dessert, and even a dessert.

So far, some of the Tex-Mex Tuesday tacos—all served on hand-pounded, made fresh to order bacon fat tortillas—have included pork carnitas, spicy adobo chicken, tequila-lime shrimp, and shredded beef cheek barbacoa.

Slow-smoked beef cheek taco. Just the perfect amount of tender fat and flavorful meat. Hopefully this is will be a usual suspect at every Tex-Mex Tuesday.

Month-to-month, the menu will switch up, but some other stars have been a buffalo chicken empanada, brisket enchiladas, spicy-cheesy hominy, Mexican street corn salad, borracho beans with pork (cooked down with a lager from New England Brewing Co.), and queso with chunks of brisket on the bottom and a dollop of fresh guac on top. The queso, according to Sexton and owner Cody Sperry, may make the menu permanently, and the hominy side has popped up a few times as well.

Drinks are also a part of the night! Micheladas, palomas, and margaritas will help you wash it all down.

If you go, you have a choice of ordering up à la carte or you can snag “The Whole Enchilada” platter for $60. “We can’t not do that,” Sexton says of the platter. “That’s our brand, that’s the life; we do it bigger, badder, and put it on a platter. We like it when people share because after you take your pic, you put your phone down and it forces you into a conversation about food, who likes what and so on.”

Buñuelos, aka Mexican fritters, have been the dessert at the last few TMTs. It’s basically a bunch of deep-fried cinnamon-sugar dusted tortillas, served with a big scoop of ice cream, of course.

The next trio of Tex-Mex Tuesdays are February 4, March 3, April 7, and you can figure out the rest.

There’s no telling what you may see on the menu at an upcoming Tex-Mex Tuesday, but it will constantly evolve according to Sexton. “It gives us a chance to take our style, what we do well, and mix it with another cuisine,” he says. “We’re coming up on our five-year anniversary, so we’ve got to reinvent while staying true to who we are.”

967 Ethan Allen Highway; Ridgefield
(203) 438-6033; http://hoodoobrownbbq.com/