20 July 11 - 17, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents a semi, pretty religious guy. I came here alone and I got married in, well, it’s been 32 years ago that I’ve been married. So be- tween my wife who is from West Memphis and I’m from Memphis, we are the only ones here making it happen. So I thought that maybe this was time to pack it up and get out, but everybody in the Cedars did not want me to leave. So this is the reason I’m still here.” Shortly after the fire, A GoFundMe was set up to support Cohens and his crew. Katherine Clapner of the Dallas based-con- fectionary Dude, Sweet Chocolate orga- nized it for the restaurant and views Cohens as a pillar in the neighborhood. “Clarence is one of the most positive men I have ever met,” Clapner says. “He and his team are a staple not just in the Cedars but the city. I am selfish, I just want some of his turkey legs, Shak beans and greens served with the in- fectious hospitality and smiles they have.” C ohens has been cooking his en- tire life. His mom was the oldest of 13 children: two girls and 11 boys. Cohens was one of four kids. Needless to say, on weekends growing up his mom needed help in the kitchen preparing food for family gatherings. Cohens’ family is from Tennessee. His grandfather worked a 500-acre farm there. In addition to cotton, soybeans and corn, they harvested vegetables for the family table. “So I spent a lot of time on the farm,” Co- hens says. “In the summertime, we didn’t go on trips. We’d go to the country. We did all of the vegetables: tomatoes, okra, purple hull peas and green beans. I learned to snap beans. I learned to process green beans. We slaughtered our own. I didn’t go to many cow slaughterings, but I attended many hog slaughterings and that’s where I learned my talent about mastering pork.” His mom would pick out a hog to butcher and take it back to their home in Memphis. “We had these big barbecues, so my job was to keep the fire from getting to the meat and make sure that it was turned at the proper time,” he says. Y ears later, Cohens made his way to Dallas and worked at the convention center. There, the most frequently asked question from visitors was, “Where can I find good bar- becue?” (The second-most-asked ques- tion, for the record, was where to buy western wear.) Cohens suggested spots, but sometimes people would come back and tell him he had failed them. Visitors weren’t always im- pressed with the barbecue options, which nagged at him enough that he felt the need to do something about it. “So my wife and I, we thought about that idea [of opening a restaurant],” he says. “I cooked very well in the backyard and got some positive reviews. I started cooking ribs in my home in Cedar Hill in the backyard. I did a little cooking for the Cedar Hill Fire Department. They thought my house was on fire, but I was really cooking in the backyard. So that was basi- cally my first client.” In 1995, he opened Baby Back Shak, serv- ing the food he grew up harvesting and cooking, with a Texas touch. The pork ribs are the star here but don’t skimp on the sides, which are all his mom’s recipes. “I wanted to do nothing but sell meats,” he says of opening his restaurant origi- nally. “I’m really a purveyor of smoked meat.” But his mom told him he had to have beans, green beans and corn, as well as po- tato salad, made from scratch because the “store-bought kind has no integrity.” Integrity comes in spades here, empha- sized by the fact that he’s been in business for just shy of 30 years, which is legend in the restaurant business. H is time at the convention cen- ter sparked more than rib- smoking mastery though. It also kindled inspiration from an unlikely source: makeup titan Mary Kay Ash. “I worked a lot of Mary Kay shows, about seven during my tenure at the con- vention center,” he recalls. “I was always inspired by her.” Cohens was in charge of protecting the furs, jewelry and high-end gifts Ash awarded her top consultants, which meant he was also privy to her pep talks for all the different sales groups called Diamonds, Emeralds, Rubies and Pearls. “Everyone got a different conversation,” he recalls, something he admired. He liked that Ash started her business in a garage — and went on to operate one of the top direct-selling brands in the world — and how she diversified her business. “I remember when she brought in Black products for the first time and developed those teams of minorities to be successful in selling makeup also,” he says. “She didn’t look at one picture and one race. She looked at the big pictures. So to me, barbecue is that same representation.” Now, Cohens offers the city and the Ce- dars neighborhood barbecue he’s proud of, for almost three decades and counting. “I’m not the most expensive barbecue in the city. I’m blue-collar barbecue,” Co- hens says. “That’s the industry I came out of. So my prices are really for the working Joe. I feed city workers, DISD workers and people who work for the hospitals. Everybody that comes in here with a badge gets a 10% discount because they’re involved in helping me keep my business open.” A week before opening, Cohens had more pep than expected from someone in the restau- rant industry for 30 years. He bounced around in baby blue Air Jordans, showing off his restaurant’s fresh redo. He was proud of his new smoker, sports memora- bilia room and especially the tag from the city: the green light to open. Deliveries to the front door were constant, and he’d hol- ler back to each driver: “Hey, what’s up, big guy? Appreciate it. Opening up on July 1st. Come get some food.” Luckily Cohens is staying in Dallas, con- tinuing to be a part of a neighborhood that is thriving. Head down any day for a two- meat plate, which comes with two sides, for $18.50 — fantastic in this market. You can’t miss him; he’s the main character on the street. ▼ DISH BISCUITS AND GENIUS STEWART’S IN IRVING IS A BREAKFAST GEM. BY DANIELLE BELLER A long this particular stretch of Irving Boulevard between Westmoreland Road and Regal Row, there looks to be not much more than commercial truck- yards and car lots. If you found yourself hun- gry in the area, you might think finding a Jack in the Box or the like would be your only hope. With no shade to Jack in the Box’s mini churros and curly fries, we’re here to tell you it’s not. Stewart’s is a tiny, takeout-only breakfast spot sandwiched between two commercial truck lots on Apricot Lane (a most charming name for a street). If you blink, you might miss it. There’s one small crooked sign on the side of the road, but it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled for. And don’t let the exte- rior fool you: there are some gems inside, in- cluding one dish that’s particularly perfect for any Texan’s morning commute. The building that houses the restaurant seems to have been around quite a while, or at least long enough to make us wonder whether the antique stove in the entryway used to be part of the original kitchen. We love an antique trinket or tchotchke as much (or more) as the next person, and we en- joyed the sight of the old stove and the knick-knacks that sat on top of it. A small waiting area where you can sit while your order is being prepared has some old school desks that blend right in with the decor. The menu here is simple, the prices are great and we enjoyed everything we tried, but the dish we’ve been raving about as being ge- nius? That’d be the cup of biscuits and gravy. We tried one order with bacon (plus another without) and we have to know: Did Stewart’s invent biscuits and gravy in a to-go cup? Is this an established thing we’ve somehow been missing out on our entire lives? If it is, in fact, an established thing and if you’re late to the party like we were, look no further than Stewart’s. A liberal portion goes for only $5 with bacon or sausage and $4 with- out. When we say it’s perfect for any Texan’s morning commute, we mean that they gift you a spoon in your to-go bag. It’s kind of amazing, innovative and we can’t get over it. Now we want to put other typically messy foods in ma- son jars to eat with spoons in places and con- texts we previously thought we couldn’t. We couldn’t quite put our finger on just what makes the gravy here so good but it had such a nice, smoky flavor. Maybe it’s made with bacon grease. And because the portion is so generous you’ll have leftovers that turn into a sort of savory biscuit bread pudding that was just as good the next morning. On to the breakfast taco: the tortillas are warmed-tossed on the grill and kissed with just enough char before being topped with your choice of bacon or sausage, eggs, cheese, potatoes, beans and salsa. The bacon is served a touch on the not-so-crispy side, so if you’re more of a near-burnt bacon kind of person, you might opt for the sausage instead. It was a pretty solid breakfast taco, and the portion was as generous as the biscuit dish for only $3.50. We highly recommend getting the salsa. It added a ton of flavor without kicking us in the face with heat. Overall, if you can find Courtesy of Baby Back Shak The fire damage at Baby Back Shak. Nathan Hunsinger City of Ate from p19 Owner and pitmaster Clarence Cohens