In Texas, you can find barbecue smoking in unlikely places. Circling a high-rise apartment building in downtown Houston, I spotted a sign for Cherry Block inside the six-month-old Bravery Chef Hall. The weekend prior at Foodways Texas’s Camp Brisket, the restaurant’s chef, Jess DeSham Timmons, had assured me the Cherry Block staff was smoking meats for several items on the menu. Walking into the food hall, I saw the restaurant’s tiny open kitchen just behind the counter and thought they must be smoking off site. But then the door of a compact steel smoker opened in the corner of the kitchen, oak smoke perfumed the air, and one of the cooks retrieved a tray of smoked burger patties. The cook wasn’t just any old member…View Original PostThe post Cherry Block’s Smoke-Kissed Gumbo Reflects the Restaurant’s Barbecue Pedigree appeared first on Texas Monthly.