Starting as Just a Food Truck Opens Door For Major Expansion

SAN ANGELO, TX -- The idea of pairing peanut butter and jelly with some of the tastiest barbecue in West Texas has put The Pit BBQ at 2330 Sherwood Way in San Angelo in a league of its own. For owners Jesse Sanchez and DJ Ridenour the food truck barbecue concept was a very solid idea and it has allowed the two to stay in business for almost four years now. 

If you've driven down Sherwood Way as of late to stop in for some of savory barbecue, you've likely noticed some new construction alongside the Pit BBQ's trailer. 

"We started about a month and a half ago," says co-owner and executive chef of The Pit BBQ DJ Ridenour. "We've got our plans approved by the City and they've started working on the new addition to the building which will be the pit room."

Sanchez and Ridenour have taken what used to be a convenient store on Sherwood Way and with it have started a project to revamp the building into a full service barbecue restaurant. 

"It's always been our dream of making it a restaurant," says Sanchez. "I'm more of a visual person so the more we sit down and talk about it the idea comes up."

For some around town, operating a food truck is their version of a restaurant. For Sanchez and Ridenour, The Pit BBQ has always been destined to be more than a mobile hotspot for their popular barbecue. 

"We kinda defeated a lot of the idea of a food truck," says Sanchez. Since we don't go mobile we don't have to go chasing locations. We actually stayed at one location. The idea was to stay at one place where we were at and our hours."

As far as completion of the new building the owners don't have a date of completion in mind just yet.

"We've had the building almost two years," says Sanchez. "People used to ask us how soon until you get the building up?' We'd say about six months. Now it's two years later so we've given up giving out the date. Everybody will know about a week before we decide to open the doors."

Until the new building is open, patrons can enjoy the barbecue from the trailer set-up in the parking lot.