First it was his weekend hustle, a side job after pulling shifts as a corporate chef for Whole Foods. Then it snowballed: investment in a smoker, pop-up feasts and an Instagram following over 15,000 strong. After several years his weekend take was outpacing his weekday paycheck. So he quit the day job and now he’s living his barbecue dream.
Chef Daniel Castillo’s Heritage Barbecue will become a brick-and-mortar restaurant in downtown San Juan Capistrano at the 2,200 square-foot space that is now the Mission Grill. Even though his wife Brenda just got laid off from her job and they’re leaving their house in Garden Grove and looking for a tiny apartment in San Juan, he couldn’t be happier.
“I really needed her help and it’s kinda scary but it’s all happening at the right time. Our house is up for sale and I cashed in my 401 (k),” he said. “We’re all in. It’s 100 percent us.”
When this chef talks, you can smell the mesquite and the giddiness. Castillo’s fans storm his pop-ups for a treat rarely found in Orange County. He calls it “The Texas Trinity: brisket, ribs and sausage.” The brisket and pork butt is smoked for 14 hours. Then he starts on the ribs and house-made sausage in flavors that change once a month.
Right now he’s maxed out, working with a 500-gallon smoker. But he just received permission from the city to operate 1,000 gallon smokers. They cost about $20,000 each but he’s doubling down, says his wife Brenda. “I’m not a gambler and spender, but I told him let’s buy two,” Brenda said. “We can keep growing and learning.”
Castillo is a new breed of pit master. He didn’t grow up in Texas although he still has family in Fort Worth and Austin. He’s from Whittier and he attended Orange Coast College’s culinary program. But instead of honing his skills in fine dining kitchens, he staged at landmark restaurants in Austin and the Texas Hill Country, a meat mecca that’s home to Snow’s BBQ and other lauded smokehouses.
He brings that hands-on knowledge together with his California upbringing to create his own brand of cuisine. “It’s gonna be somewhat Old California meets Texas,” he says. “We’re gonna do handmade flour tortillas and salsa like Valentina’s (Tex Mex BBQ), have avocados and bring in seasonal stuff too.”
He’s not averse to whipping up specialties for the healthy lifestyle folks either. He’ll have chicken and turkey, and a pastrami rubbed Skuna Bay Salmon, a recent pop-up hit, will likely return. The menu will be a mix of down-home chuck wagon grub and savvy So Cal foodie fare with local farm-to-table ingredients.
But the service will be simple, just like it is in Texas. Customers will be handed a plastic tray lined with butcher paper and all meats are sold by the pound. Brisket is market price, typically $28 per pound, pork ribs are $24 a pound and sausage is sold by the piece at $6.
He’s made connections with local craft brewers, so expect to find beer and wine and a friendly atmosphere for locals.
“I want them to come and socialize, I’ll say, ‘Hey are you guys all together? This is meant to be eaten as a group. So, put a big platter together and we’ll give you extra plates and everyone can pick off what they want and enjoy it.’ It’s a community of sharing. An old school thing. That’s what it’s all about.”
Heritage Barbecue
Find it: 31721 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. Look for pop-up info on Instagram @heritagebarbecue.
Opens in November: 11 a.m. until they sell out, Wednesday-Sunday.
