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Central Texas Style BBQ Designated a Texas Treasure Historic Business

Central Texas Style BBQ has served the Pearland Community, and beyond, since 1969 and continues to offer delicious barbecue and hometown hospitality to this day. The restaurant has been serving up traditional Texas barbecue with a Cuban flair for four generations, with two giant barbecue pits full of tender brisket, smoky sausage, juicy chicken and turkey, and much more running day and night.

Acclaimed for their enticing side dishes, the Central Texas Style BBQ menu highlights Cuban-inspired items like congri in addition to barbecue favorites like potato salad and beans.

“We feel very happy and proud of all the hard work we’ve put in for the last 54 years,” said Ruth LeClere, co-owner of Central Texas Style BBQ. “We’ve loved the community and we’re just happy to be a part of it.”

LeClere’s family, including her mother and restaurant-founder, Diana, immigrated from Cuba and poured their hearts into both the menu and the interior theming; lining the walls of each dining room with family photos, celebrity headshots, Betty Boop figurines, a vintage AstroWorld park map, and more. LeClere now runs the business with her son, Devon Nixon, and their family can be found both in front and behind the kitchen counter on any given day.

“The food has to be good, but the most important thing is being good to your customers, “LeClere told the Pearland Convention and Visitors Bureau in a business spotlight interview. “It’s the one thing that my mom taught me from the very beginning.”

The Texas Treasure Business Award (TTBA) program is an initiative of the Community Heritage Division of the Texas Historical Commission. Created in 2005 by Senate Bill 920, authored by Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio and sponsored by Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson of Waco, the program pays tribute to the state’s well-established businesses and their exceptional historical contributions to communities across Texas.