There is a moment, somewhere between your first bite of brisket and your second cold beer, when Addison stops feeling like a suburb and starts feeling like exactly where you are supposed to be. That moment, for me, happens every single time I pull up a chair at Ten50 BBQ on Beltline Road.
Ten50 BBQ sits in that sweet spot between casual and craft — the kind of place where the pitmaster takes the smoke seriously but nobody takes themselves too seriously. The dining room has a warm, industrial-rustic personality: exposed brick, reclaimed wood accents, and the kind of lighting that makes a plate of ribs look like it belongs in a magazine. The patio out front is shaded just enough that you can linger through a Texas afternoon without melting, which in the Dallas area is genuinely an engineering achievement worth appreciating.
The menu reads like a love letter to Central Texas barbecue tradition, but Ten50 adds its own voice to the conversation. The brisket — and you should absolutely start here — comes out with a bark that crackles under the knife and a smoke ring so pronounced it practically glows. The fat cap renders down to something almost silky, and the seasoning is salt-and-pepper confident, nothing more, nothing less. It does not need sauce, though the house-made varieties lined up on the table are worth exploring just for fun.
If ribs are your religion, the beef ribs will convert you completely. These are the dinosaur-sized slabs that photograph well and eat even better. Order one and share it, or do not share it and feel no guilt whatsoever. The pulled pork is tender and smoky without crossing into mushy territory, and the sausage links have a satisfying snap that tells you they were made with actual care rather than just assembled for the menu’s sake.
The sides are not an afterthought here. The jalapeño cheese grits deserve their own paragraph but I will restrain myself and simply say: order them. The coleslaw is creamy without being heavy, and the baked beans have that slow-cooked depth that reminds you someone actually thought about this stuff before it landed on your tray.
Ten50 is located right in the heart of Addison’s restaurant corridor, which means it is genuinely easy to get to from anywhere in the northern Dallas area. Parking is straightforward, the staff is genuinely friendly rather than performatively so, and the price-to-portion ratio is the kind of math that leaves you feeling like you made a smart decision with your afternoon.
Addison has a remarkable density of great restaurants for a city its size, and Ten50 BBQ earns its place among the best of them by doing something deceptively simple: cooking exceptional barbecue and letting it speak for itself. Go hungry, plan to stay longer than you intended, and bring someone worth sharing ribs with.
