Butter’s BBQ, a barbecue restaurant in Sinton, has removed brisket from its everyday menu as rising beef prices make the cut too costly to reliably stock, according to owner Andrew Soto.
Sinton sits about a 30-minute drive from Corpus Christi in Nueces County.
Soto told Fox News Digital that the restaurant has struggled with beef and brisket price increases for roughly five years, with costs fluctuating but generally worsening. Over the past eight months to a year, he said, prices climbed sharply and became unsustainable.
“We’ve been dealing with the price hikes, specifically in beef and briskets, for the better part of, I would say, five years,” Soto said.
The restaurant had already tried raising prices and cooking smaller quantities of brisket, but those changes hurt foot traffic and sales, Soto said.
He said the final straw came last week when a food supplier told him brisket prices had risen again, this time by nearly $1 per pound.
“I guess the straw that broke the camel’s back was last week. I was talking to one of my food reps, and he informed me that brisket had once again gone up in price,” Soto said.
He noted that a $1-per-pound increase adds up quickly when the restaurant is buying hundreds of pounds at a time, and that demand in a small town like Sinton can be hard to predict.
Federal data backs up the pressure restaurants like Butter’s are facing. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, beef and veal prices were 5.9% higher in August 2026 than in August 2025, with overall 2026 prices expected to rise 9.4%, within a forecast range of 7.4% to 11.6%.
Soto said buying and holding brisket had become too much of a financial gamble.
“It was a hard one, but I made the decision to pull our brisket from the menu completely,” Soto said.
What’s replacing brisket
Butter’s BBQ is now testing beef cheek as an alternative and pushing pork options like ribs and sausage. Soto said the restaurant will still offer brisket, but only through an online pre-order system that requires advance payment, rather than as a standard menu item.
“We’re in Texas. It’s a big deal,” Soto said of brisket’s cultural weight in the state.
In a Facebook post announcing the change, Butter’s BBQ told its customers: “We apologize tremendously, we’ve done all we can to combat the constant price hikes, but we can no longer sustain our current business model with brisket eating up over 70% of our total grocery costs.”
The announcement drew mixed reactions online. Some commenters argued the restaurant should simply raise prices instead. “In my opinion, not selling brisket will hurt your business,” one wrote. “Best move is to raise your prices to match the rising cost of beef. If your brisket is good then people will pay whatever price you set.” Another commenter noted they’d already seen brisket sandwich prices climb from $10 to as high as $20.
Others were more supportive of the pivot toward pork, with one writing, “Bring on the pork!!!” and another suggesting the restaurant add smoked pork steaks as an affordable option.
Soto said the decision wasn’t personal, but about keeping the business afloat.
“We’re just trying to protect our business and our livelihood,” he said. “Please come and support us. We still have some really good barbecue, despite not having the brisket on our menu.”
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