Living Room

Barbecue Month 2023

Celebrate grilling season with the E&J Brandy spotlight of Baby Back Shak barbecue restaurant in Dallas.

May 24, 2023

Dallas, TX—While working in Dallas, Clarence Cohens kept getting asked the same question over and over again by tourists: “Where’s the best barbecue at?”

While he’d offer recommendations to great local joints, Cohens knew in his heart the answer he wanted to say: the best barbecue was in his hometown of Memphis.

Cohens now owns Baby Back Shak, and serves as the ambassador of his beloved Memphis-style barbecue to hungry Texans. Each piece of meat is marinated in the Baby Back Shak proprietary rub recipe, cooked to perfection, and served alongside Cohens’ signature welcoming manner.

It’s these three factors that keep hungry fans coming back for more and allow Cohens to spread the gospel of Memphis-style cooking. In October, the restaurant will celebrate 28 years in business.

This National Barbecue Month, we raise a glass to Clarence Cohens—and to the long and rich history of Black innovation in barbecue.

Tell us about your style as a pitmaster.
I like to say that Memphis style barbecue gives me an identity in the city of Dallas. Everything is featured around Western, and smoked brisket is pretty much the identity of Texas. But Tennessee is known for a little bit of flavor, a nice salt, and a very great presentation of pork. That was basically my aim. I think you’ve got to have that palate to have a Southern taste in different areas, and you go forward with it. Basically I was trained by my mom, just as a hobby. Just cooking on the side, helping her with her chores. She was a caterer from our home in Memphis. It was something that is secondary that I learned to cook as a bachelor. When I’m into great restaurants, and I meet a lot of great chefs here in Dallas, I feel a great feeling about being respected. I don’t walk around saying I’m a chef, I’m more a backyard hack, but what I can bring from the backyard into the facility is impressive. That’s what drives my passion every day, is having a brand that can’t be duplicated.

What does it mean to you to run a successful Black-owned business?
It means a lot to me to be respected as a minority owned restaurant that competes with some of the best ones in the city. When you sit around talking about where you’ve eaten and you mention Shak, sometimes I’m afraid because I’m just a little small minority owned restaurant and I don’t put a lot on my staff. I’m open for the people that want to taste a good piece of meat and get away from the brisket Western atmosphere. So, yeah, I feel great. When I get in a smoking room and I’m around some raw meat, I’m so passionate, it’s like getting into a Lamborghini or a Corvette, you just want to drive it real good, you want to make sure that car has your identity when you bring it out against the other guys that are driving your vehicle. I love being a Black-owned business. I love showing my people and all races that I can compete with the best of them. That’s my energy.

What is the must-try item on the Baby Back Shak menu?
There’s a new product in my restaurant that I didn’t go and buy, I created it. It’s called Shak Rub. It’s a running back against pork, it’s a tight-end against chicken, it’s a quarterback against seafood. It plays all the positions and it’s not afraid of any meat. Shak is clean, it’s pure, it’s tasty and it works.

How are barbecue and Black culture intertwined?
Barbecue was created technically in the slavery environment. Basically we have been cooking for the man that had the money and the land and us. If the meat was burned and you couldn’t repair it, barbecue sauce was created. We’ve been feeding the world since our beginning in America. I think that barbecue is a Black thing and a minority thing and that’s where I see it from a historical point. If you’re good in your backyard, if you can mix charcoal and pieces of wood and not beat on your meat and your meat is succulent, it’s flavorful, it has moisture and it’s done, you should easily think about trying to feed more people than yourself. I think food brings people together.

What should we expect when we visit Baby Back Shak?
I bring good music in. I’m from Memphis! I put on good music, I put on a good atmosphere, I put on a pleasant attitude. I’m not afraid of complaints, I build on them. We try to bring a good atmosphere of what my community brings and hopefully it will be accepted and make me successful. There are not many barbecue minority owned businesses that made it 28 years in America.

What’s next for you? For the business?
My goal for this year is to get my baby, Shak Rub, into stores. I have a dream that there may be a possible franchise opportunity for Baby Back Shak if I continue to stay focused, stay positive, stay creative, and keep it growing forward. I plan to have Shak Rub here and this restaurant here long after I’ve gone. My focus is on something entirely different: to hang around and have the Baby Back Shak brand as long as America is eating barbecue. I should be around long after, like George Washington Carver created peanut butter—it's still here.

Check out Baby Back Shak online and on Instagram. Did you love the spotlight? Do you have a question for Clarence Cohens? Do you think your city’s barbecue is king? Let us know in the comments.