I just found out yesterday that Pizzitola's won second place in the Great Taste of the Heights audience vote. Barbecue is a controversial subject, especially in Houston. For some reason we have a very small number of quality barbecue joints. I was glad that Pizzitola's was at the event; the fact they were recognized is just a bonus.
Pizzitola’s is rightly proud of their pork spareribs. Seasoned with a liberal dousing of black pepper and smoked with east Texas hickory, the undersized ribs have an ideal balance of tenderness and chew. While other establishments buy and smoke the larger and more common racks, Pizzitola’s consistently serves the more tender and harder to procure smaller sized ribs. This attention to detail is barbecue jackpot.
I've been consistently underwhelmed by pork ribs in Texas, probably because I always smoke my pork ribs Memphis style with hickory, a dry rub, and a mustard mop sauce. I think Pizzitola's is about the closest I'm going to get to my ideal ribs in Texas as I think hickory compliments pork so well.
One last item to mention: the lunch crowd can be overwhelming, but the sliced to order meat is worth the wait. During dinner, I've been the only patron and the meat was obviously sitting around.
