“I was never gonna jump into something unless it felt like the right situation and especially the right people,” says Holden Fulco about Parish Barbecue, his new food truck in the backyard at Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches.
The Shreveport-Bossier-area native has worked at multiple notable Texas barbecue spots, including Franklin and InterStellar here in Austin and Pinkerton’s in San Antonio and Houston. Dealing with the hype and traffic at InterStellar after Texas Monthly named it the second best barbecue restaurant in the state taught him a lot about scaling and running a business.
“When you’re opening your own business, you better be able to do more than just cook. That’s the thing that a lot of people don’t get in restaurants and I think it’s a part of the reason so many restaurants fail,” he says. “They just have people that know how to cook good food, but there’s so much more to it than that. Obviously, if you don’t know how to manage your finances or if you make poor decisions, it’s not gonna work. A lot of it is how you treat people. It doesn’t matter how good your food is [a lot of times].”
When given the green light to try out a pop-up at Batch, on 3220 Manor Rd., Fulco opted to combine the Louisiana culture of his upbringing with the Central Texas barbecue style he’d steeped himself in. “Growing up around all that Cajun food, it just made sense to marry what I grew up with and what I’m passionate about,” he says. “Nobody’s really ever done that as their full focus. We’re doing Texas barbecue, but everything is gonna have Cajun or Louisiana influence.”
Fulco immediately names Parish’s pulled duck as one of his personal favorites on the menu. “Growing up, duck hunting was a big thing in my family,” he shares. “I always wanted to put some game meats on the menu and do something that was different from what everybody else was doing. We aren’t doing pulled pork – at least not until we have more space. So I was like, ‘Alright, what can I do that’s a pulled meat that’s sort of like our version of pulled pork?’
“That recipe was a lot of work and trial and error,” Fulco continues. “It’s a difficult recipe to execute and it’s expensive as heck, but people seem to love it. We’ve sold out of duck pretty much every day. It’s just a really awesome dish, and it’s got a lot of flavor.”
He shouts out the ribs and smoked ham as some under-the-radar gems as well. “We cure [the ham] for seven days,” the owner says. “We do all that homemade, and we make a Creole mustard glaze. … It’s a labor of love, but I really do think people are gonna love it.”
Parish also boasts some unconventional sides. “The most popular thing [here] is the mac and cheese because mac and cheese is the most popular thing everywhere,” Fulco quips. “But the heavy hitter has really got to be the crawfish dressing. It’s basically my grandmother’s cornbread dressing recipe that we would eat at holidays and it’s got some cheese and crawfish and other spices in it.”
Manor and Airport is starting to become a hub for breweries with fusion craft barbecue concepts – Oddwood Brewing, home to the Egyptian-influenced KG BBQ, is less than a five minute walk away from Parish.
Fulco aims to expand Parish from a trailer to a brick and mortar in the future, especially as he plans to introduce specials like red beans and rice, roast beef debris po’boys, smoked gumbo, and a dessert menu on the horizon. Until then, the industry veteran offers some more business advice:
“It’s about making people feel good and happy. That’s why we do what we do,” he says. “Hospitality is about people. It’s a people business. It’s not just about food.”
This article appears in May 23 • 2025.
