Heim Barbecue opened its Frisco location on Preston Road in 2022, and it solved a problem a lot of north Collin County residents didn’t know how to name: good Texas barbecue that you can actually get to on a weeknight without an hour of highway driving.
The original Heim is a Fort Worth institution, famous for bacon burnt ends — a cut Travis Heim is widely credited with popularizing on the competition circuit before it became a menu staple everywhere. If you’ve never had them, order a half-pound on your first visit and stop overthinking it. They arrive caramelized and slightly sticky, somewhere between candy and meat, and they disappear fast. You’ll be annoyed you only got half a pound.
The Frisco location sits in a strip center off Preston near Eldorado Parkway, which is the kind of address that sets expectations low. Don’t let it. Walk in on a Thursday evening around 6:30 and the line moves steadily. The room is loud in the good way — families at long tables, a few solo diners at the counter, kids negotiating with parents over whether cobbler counts as dinner. It smells like a real pit operation from the parking lot, which is the first sign you’re in the right place.
The brisket here is consistent in a way that matters. You want the fatty cut. It should come out with a dark crust and enough marbling that each slice glistens. If the bark is thin or the meat looks gray, that’s a bad day — it happens occasionally at any barbecue spot — but most nights the quality holds. The turkey breast is quietly excellent and often overlooked; lean, smoky, sliced thick. A lot of people sleep on it because brisket is the obvious play.
Sides are better than average for the genre. The jalapeño cheese grits show up on the menu periodically and are worth building a visit around when they’re available. The mac and cheese is properly cheesy and doesn’t taste like it came from a powder mix. Coleslaw is vinegar-forward and cuts through the richness of the meat in exactly the way it should.
Plan for $18 to $22 per person before drinks if you’re building a real plate — a couple of meats, two sides, maybe a slice of pie. They have a short bar program with Texas beers and cocktails that skew sweet, which fits the crowd. The cobbler, when it’s peach, is the right dessert.
Weekend afternoons bring the longest lines, usually stretching out the door by noon on Saturday. If you’re bringing a group, a rainy Tuesday is your best-case scenario: shorter wait, more relaxed atmosphere, same food. They post hours and any specials on their Instagram, which is worth checking before a special trip.
Heim isn’t trying to reinvent anything. It’s operating at a high level within a well-defined tradition, and the Frisco outpost has found its footing in a suburb that has no shortage of mediocre barbecue options. The bacon burnt ends alone make it a different conversation.
