Austin’s best barbecue truck, LeRoy and Lewis, opening a restaurant in South Austin

Austin’s best barbecue truck is getting a restaurant to call its own.

LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue will open in deep South Austin at 5621 Emerald Forest Drive later this year, expanding on the owners’ new school approach to old school barbecue.

Evan LeRoy first came to the attention of Austin barbecue lovers working in a restaurant, campus-area Freedmens, and the pitmaster says he’s been thinking about a restaurant since before he and partner Sawyer Lewis opened their food truck at Cosmic Coffee & Beer off South Congress Avenue in 2017.

The first generation restaurant space is in the same neighborhood where the Austin native and St. Michael’s Catholic Academy graduate grew up and where he and his family live.

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“We couldn’t pass up this specific space. It was just so good, and in the neighborhood we want,” said LeRoy, who has been working with his partners for years on plans for a brewpub that they've shelved in the near term to focus on the new project.

LeRoy says that he's always been confined with his output, both at the limited kitchen of Freedmens and in the small space provided by the food truck, which relies on output from the operation’s commissary kitchen.

“The thing that I’m most excited about is having all the equipment I’ve never had before. I’m really proud of what we’ve done so far,” LeRoy said of the food truck that landed the second spot in the American-Statesman's most recent barbecue rankings. “But we can’t fully express what we want to.”

With a spacious restaurant that has enough room for smokers, a fryer, a wood grill and a mixer for breads, LeRoy is excited to take his barbecue operation to the next level.

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“You can expect the same ideas we’ve always held true to: local sourcing, whole animal butchery and really expanding on the ideas that we’ve established at the food truck,” LeRoy said.

The menu will include beef cheeks and brisket, just like the truck, but not all the time (just like the truck), an expanded roster of burgers, citra hop sausage, and scratch-made sides. The restaurant, which will open with lunch and dinner service daily, will also serve beer and wine and include a retail operation selling LeRoy and Lewis’s barbecue sauce, rubs, merchandise and more.

The counter-service restaurant, which is being designed by OPA Design Studio, Helms Workshop, and McCray & Co.and, will “aim to pay homage to a nostalgic old school barbecue experience of a barbecue line service style with the team’s new school brand of hospitality in a fun, relaxed atmosphere,” according to the owners.

Fans of the truck need not worry about losing their favorite outdoor barbecue spot. The LeRoy and Lewis truck is adding a new trailer and has no intention of leaving its home at Cosmic.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to correct details about days of operation and alcohol that will be available for sale.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Top barbecue truck, LeRoy and Lewis, opening South Austin restaurant