Heim Barbecue — The Original Home of Bacon Burnt Ends, Where Travis and Emma Heim Turned a Backyard Obsession into Fort Worth’s Most Influential Barbecue Story on White Settlement Road
There is a short list of Fort Worth restaurants that have genuinely changed the culinary landscape of Texas — and Heim Barbecue is firmly on it. The story begins in 2013, when Travis Heim drove to Marshall, Texas, in a U-Haul to retrieve a hand-built smoker from his late uncle Roger, dragged it back to Fort Worth full of wasp nests, and started hosting underground backyard BBQ parties with his wife Emma under the name T&E MEATclub. A Kickstarter campaign raised $15,000 in 30 days when they launched their food trailer in 2015 — and that same year, Travis posted the first photo of his bacon burnt ends on Instagram, an invention that has since traveled the world. Today pitmasters in Oslo, Prague, Sydney, and New Zealand are serving their own versions, and when Kroger launched a packaged pork belly product, the inspiration was unmistakable. Texas Monthly credited Heim as the originator, and the label “Original Home of Bacon Burnt Ends” is now the restaurant’s official calling card — rightfully earned and impossible to dispute. After the food trailer lines stretched two to three hours daily, Travis and Emma opened their first brick-and-mortar on Magnolia Ave. in August 2016, then expanded to the current Fort Worth flagship in 2019.
The Fort Worth River location at 5333 White Settlement Rd. is a 7,500-square-foot renovated VFW hall with a covered patio, outdoor beer garden, large deck overlooking the river, and a full bar serving 24 draft beers, craft cocktails, rotating frozen drinks, and an extensive wine list. The menu is a farm-to-smoker celebration of low-and-slow post oak fire cooking: hand-cut brisket (lean or fatty), pork ribs, beef short ribs, jalapeño cheddar sausage, pulled pork, turkey breast, and the legendary bacon burnt ends — sweet, smoky, caramelized cubes of smoked pork belly that reviewers routinely call the best thing they’ve ever eaten. Sides are entirely scratch-made, with the green chile mac and cheese, potato salad, and banana pudding earning nearly as many fans as the meats themselves. The HEIMburger menu, onion rings, and homemade seasonal cobblers and hand pies round out an experience that feels as complete as any full-service restaurant, delivered with the casual efficiency of a classic Texas barbecue counter.
Heim Barbecue on the River is located at 5333 White Settlement Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76114, and is open seven days a week, Sunday through Thursday from 11am to 9pm and Friday and Saturday from 11am to 10pm. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 2 to 6pm. Full bar, catering, private dining, and nationwide shipping via Goldbelly are all available. With a Dallas location on Mockingbird Lane and a new Weatherford outpost now open, Heim’s reach continues to grow — but Fort Worth will always be where it started. Discover more of the city’s most essential dining at the Fort Worth restaurant guide on Selling the Fort.
