Sebastien Quintanilla left a nearly two-decade career in healthcare, moved back to his hometown, and is now on a mission to make Corpus Christi a barbecue destination —one plate at a time.
Quintanilla, who grew up in Corpus Christi before moving to Austin about 17 years ago, launched his barbecue business, Barbecue Fiends, with pop-ups in Austin in 2021. What started as a passion project during COVID quickly grew into a food truck, then a permanent location, and eventually earned him a spot on Texas Monthly's Top-100BBQ list.
Now he's back home.
"I always wanted to open up a barbecue joint in Corpus," Quintanilla said.
The inspiration behind Barbecue Fiends traces back to his grandmother Rosa, who helped raise him in Corpus Christi.
"She practically raised me down here, you know what I mean? She was a huge part of my life. Uh, my parents were working, she would take me to school, pick me up," Quintanilla said.
When Rosa passed away, Quintanilla found himself without her recipes — and without the person who made them.
"Whenever she passed away, unfortunately, I was not able to get a lot of her recipes and things like that. And so over the years, I started craving the things that she would make," Quintanilla said.
That craving became a mission to recreate her dishes from memory and recapture the love she put into them.
"You know, now I'm just trying to kind of chase, chase that feeling again and, and chase what, what she did and then how she cooked and the love that she put into her dishes and things like that," Quintanilla said.
The food he creates is a direct reflection of his Corpus Christi roots — homemade tortillas, rice, beans, and enchiladas reimagined through the lens of craft barbecue.
"We are a Tex-Mex craft and barbecue joint, right? So you're gonna see a lot of influences of, uh, you know, that type of style of cooking, brisket, Carne asada, uh,salsas... street corn, all, all types of that type of influence, right? We wanna really showcase, you know, our roots here in Corpus," Quintanilla said.
Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn first reviewed Barbecue Fiends shortly after Quintanilla left his healthcare job in September 2024. The coverage doubled his business almost overnight. Vaughn featured the Barbecue Fiends platter on the cover of his Best Barbecue Bites of 2024 article later that December. Then came the biggest recognition — a spot on Texas Monthly's Top-100 BBQ list, which is only published every 4 years.
"It just felt, it felt like special, you know what I mean?" Quintanilla said.
Barbecue Fiends will remain on the Top-100 list for the next 3 years, with the next list publishing in 2029.
Quintanilla chose Pauly's Beer Garden as his Corpus Christi home base because of a relationship built over years of pop-ups there.
"We love working with people that love working with us, you know what I mean?" Quintanilla said.
He wants the space to be a welcoming environment for families, with live music on Saturdays, drinks, and food made with the same care his grandmother put into hers.
"I want them to just taste the love, truly," Quintanilla said. "We don't cook for awards or accolades or anything like that. We, we cook because we love it."
His goals extend well beyond his own business. Quintanilla wants to help build a barbecue community in Corpus Christi — one that could eventually support a barbecue festival and draw visitors from across the country.
"It's not about the competition with the other restaurants or anything like that, you know, it's all, it's all good, it's all love for everybody, and I just want everybody to succeed, and I want Corpus to just be, you know, a destination for just good food in general, you know what I mean?" Quintanilla said.
He is also looking to hire from within the Corpus Christi community as Barbecue Fiends grows.
"I wanna not only provide great food and great service to the community, but I also want to hopefully, you know, have people come in and, and support Corpus Christi from all over, you know what I mean?" Quintanilla said.
Quintanilla will set up every Saturday at Pauly's Beer Garden in Corpus Christi,beginning August 15. He expects long lines and says he is preparing enough food to stay open through the end of the day.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
