Head Pitmaster · Founder
Dale Merritt
Built the original 500-gallon offset smoker in his Crowley backyard in 2014. KCBS Master Pitmaster. 30 years of low-and-slow before Blind Dog ever lit a log.
EST. 2014 · CROWLEY, TEXAS
Cooked blind to the bone.
A backyard stick-burner, three pitmasters, and a promise not to touch a thermometer for fourteen hours. This is how Blind Dog Smokin' started — and how we still cook every weekend.
THE PITMASTER CREW
Same three cooks. Every weekend. Nine years running.
Family-owned since 2014. The same three pitmasters have answered every weekend service since the Crowley backyard — and they still pull the sticks on every catering event we book.
Pitmaster · Brisket Lead
Lupe Coronado
Trims every brisket that leaves the trailer. Joined the crew in 2015, has cooked 2,100+ catering events. Runs the 14-hour overnight fire on Saturdays.
Pitmaster · Sausage & Ribs
Waylon Briggs
Hand-stuffs every link of jalapeño cheddar and pork sausage. Family recipe since the second year. Cuts the competition ribs at every Saturday service.
14h
avg. cook per brisket
THE METHOD
No thermometers. No pellets. No gas.
We cook blind to the bone. The pitmasters read the bark by look, by flex, by the way a probe slides in under the second knuckle of a thumb. We do not poke, we do not probe, and we do not trust a digital number over a thirty-year hand.
Every fire is split Texas post oak and pecan — never hickory pellets, never gas, never electric. The wood comes from a family sawmill in East Texas and is split and stacked by the crew every Tuesday. That commitment is why our brisket bark tastes like 2014, not like a conveyor belt.
- FUEL100% Texas oak & pecan, split by hand
- TIMINGBy look & flex — never a thermometer
- RUBCoarse black pepper, kosher salt, paprika
- RESTMinimum 1 hour in a hold cabinet, unwrapped
CREDENTIALS · VERIFIABLE
The paperwork behind the pit.
Corporate procurement and food media can quote these directly. Every line below is on file, dated, and reproducible.
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01
Kansas City Barbeque Society — Certified Master Pitmaster
One of 12 pit crews in Texas with a KCBS Master Pitmaster on full-time staff. Certification renewed annually; certified cook judge since 2017.
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02
Texas Monthly — Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas (2022 Shortlist)
Named to the 2022 shortlist of Texas Monthly's "Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas." The only catering-only outfit on the list that year.
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03
Texas BBQ Hall of Fame — Pitmaster Category (2024)
Inducted into the Texas BBQ Hall of Fame in the Pitmaster category in 2024. Recognized for service to low-and-slow craft BBQ across DFW.
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04
Same-Crew Tenure — 9 Years, Every Weekend
The same three pitmasters (Dale, Lupe, Waylon) have cooked every weekend service since 2016. 14 full-time staff today, but the fire starters have not changed.
A NOTE FROM THE PIT
We started this thing in a backyard in Crowley, Texas, in the summer of 2014 — Dale, a rusted offset stick-burner he bought off a man in Burleson, and a wedding to feed for a cousin who couldn't find anyone else crazy enough to try.
Eleven years later, we are still cooking on offset pits. Still feeding weddings and corporate parties and the occasional backyard blowout. Still splitting our own wood on Tuesdays and still pulling sticks on Saturdays by feel, not by a thermometer. We have cooked 4,800-some events since that first cousin's wedding. We have fed 3,200 plates at the 2023 Cotton Bowl hospitality village and not had a single complaint come back. We have been put on a Texas Monthly list and a Hall of Fame wall, which is humbling and strange to write out loud.
What has not changed is the rule we set on day one: we cook blind to the bone. The bark tells you. The flex tells you. The smoke ring tells you. You do not need a number to know when a brisket is right, and we are not going to start trusting one now. If you hire us to feed your event, you are hiring the same three hands that have done this every weekend for nine years — and we will feed your people like they are ours.
— Dale, Lupe & Waylon
Blind Dog Smokin', since 2014
THE CHRONICLE
2014 → 2024. Ten years of sticks and smoke.
From a single backyard offset smoker in Crowley to the largest single BBQ catering crew in DFW. The trajectory is earned, not bought.
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2014
The Crowley Stick-Burner
Dale fires the first offset smoker behind his grandmother's house in Crowley, TX. The first cook is a cousin's rehearsal dinner for 80 guests. The bark sells itself. Same smoker is still in the rotation today.
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2016
Lupe & Waylon Join the Crew
The three-pitmaster lineup locks in: Dale on fire, Lupe on brisket trim, Waylon on sausage and ribs. Blind Dog Smokin' becomes the official name. First paid catering event: a 200-guest wedding in Cleburne.
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2019
KCBS Master Pitmaster Certification
Dale earns the Kansas City Barbeque Society Master Pitmaster credential. The crew begins competing regionally while continuing the catering calendar — 380 events served that year alone.
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2022
Texas Monthly Top 50 Shortlist
Named to the Texas Monthly "Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas" shortlist — the only catering-only outfit on the list that year. Catering volume crosses 1,000 events/year.
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2023
The Cotton Bowl — 3,200 Plates
Largest single event in company history: the 2023 NCAA Cotton Bowl rehearsal hospitality village, 3,200 plates across two pits, zero complaints logged. Whole-hog and Texas Wagyu brisket service added to the menu with 48-hour notice.
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2024
Texas BBQ Hall of Fame
Inducted into the Texas BBQ Hall of Fame in the Pitmaster category. Crew grows to 14 full-time staff. Signature rubs and small-batch sauces now ship to 41 U.S. states.