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Shrimp and catfish plate with gumbo at Texas 202 Barbeque

Sausage, pork ribs, brisket and chicken at Texas 202 Barbeque

Left to right: Ethel Mae Thomas (Felicia’s mother), Rev Ward and Felicia Ward at Texas 202 Barbeque

Shrimp and catfish plate at Texas 202 Barbeque

Sausage, pork ribs, brisket and chicken at Texas 202 Barbeque

Pork ribs at Texas 202 Barbeque

Though born and raised in Houston, Rev Ward visited Huntsville many times as a child to go hunting in the piney woods with his dad. The Ward family had deep connections in the area. Rev’s aunt and uncle — Annie Mae and Douglas Collins “D.C.” Ward — lived there and were active members of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Rev would eventually become an ordained Baptist minister, thus the name “Rev,” short for Reverend.

Annie Mae was known for her cooking, and especially barbecue, that she prepared for family and parishioners at the church. Rev remembers her cooking barbecue on a 55-gallon metal drum that was cut in half, topped with wire mesh and filled with coals. Annie Mae’s barbecue became so famous that by the mid-1970s she and D.C. started selling barbecue to support the church.

In time, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church BBQ — known as “Church BBQ” — became one of the most legendary barbecue joints in Texas.

Rev continued to visit while in high school, helping out on weekends and learning recipes from his aunt. She continued to run the restaurant until retiring in 2003 after which new church members took over.

After high school, Rev joined the Army, serving in the 1st Infantry Division from 1980 to 1984. He specialized in foodservice, managing commissaries and officer’s clubs in West Germany.

27120 Fulshear Bend Drive, No. 400, Fulshear; 346-707-834

In 1985 he returned to Texas and became a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Corrections, based in Beeville. As part of his job, he made frequent trips to Huntsville and continued to visit Church BBQ and learn recipes and techniques from his aunt and uncle.

In 1992, his fellow corrections officers lamented the lack of good barbecue in Beeville. Rev decided to open his own place in a small building off Highway 202 with his wife Felicia. They called it Texas 202 Barbeque and ran it until 2005.

That year, Rev decided he wanted to go back to school for his master’s degree in Human Resource Management. He and Felicia moved to Maryland so he could attend the University of Maryland, where many ex-military members attend college. After graduating, he continued to work in the foodservice department at the university.

By 2016, Ward got the barbecue itch again. He and Felicia opened a new Texas 202 Barbeque in the city of Brandywine, Maryland. The restaurant was well-received — Washington Post food writer Tim Carman named it one of the top barbecue joints in the Washington, D.C. area in 2017 and 2018.

In 2019, Rev and Felicia sold the restaurant in Maryland and moved back to Houston to be near his elderly mother. They started looking for a place to open a new barbecue joint. They found a small space that had previously been a barbecue joint in an H-E-B-anchored shopping center in a bustling area of Fulshear. Fortunately, most of the equipment was still in the space, so Rev and Felicia only needed to do some basic maintenance and upgrades to get the restaurant ready. They opened their latest edition of Texas 202 Barbeque Sept. 8.

The Wards have hit the ground running with a full menu that combines both contemporary Central Texas-style barbecue with influences from the East Texas-style his aunt and uncle were known for.

There’s the classic Texas Trinity of brisket, ribs and sausage. They embellish that with a classic East Texas menu of fried shrimp, catfish and gumbo. There is a full menu of chicken wings and associated sauces.

Though they have only been open a couple of weeks — the sign is not even up above the door — the quality of the food is excellent. The Wards continue to honor the memory of their ground-breaking relatives Annie Mae and D.C. Ward of Church BBQ in Huntsville.

A native of Beaumont, J.C. Reid graduated from the University of Southern California after studying architecture and spent his early career as an architect in New York City. He returned to Texas in 1995, retiring from architecture but creating his own Internet business in Houston. As his business became self-sustaining, he began traveling Houston and the world to pursue his passion: eating barbecue.

He began blogging about food and barbecue for the Houston Chronicle in 2010 and founded the Houston Barbecue Project in 2011 to document barbecue eateries throughout the area. Just last year, Reid and others founded the Houston Barbecue Festival to showcase mom-and-pop barbecue joints in the city. The 2014 event drew 2,000 guests to sample meats from 20 restaurants.

You can view more of J.C.'s work at jcreidtx.com.

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