Fire Couldn’t Stop This Dallas Barbecue Boss. Baby Back Shak Is Back.

Published in Eater Dallas | March 5, 2025

From ashes to smoke, this Cedars barbecue joint recovered from a catastrophic fire one year ago.

Brock DuPont | Eater Dallas

When Baby Back Shak caught fire in February 2024, it was nearly catastrophic. In the Cedars, the neighborhood where it resides, the smell of smoking meats often wafts through in a white plume, but that day, something was different.

All the employees were still inside the restaurant when owner Clarence Cohens noticed the smoke was dark. “I thought my neighbor was on fire,” he says. “But when I came outside to look at his building, I could see that the smoke was coming off my building.”

Cohens ran back inside to evacuate his employees. More than 60 firefighters responded to extinguish the fire that day. Cohens credits their quick response with saving his business, but when the fire died, Cohens’s kitchen was “open to the sky.” The smoker’s 25-year-old vent hood had what he calls a “heart attack.” Only the roof burned, but the smoke damaged furniture and priceless collectibles.

Brock DuPont | Eater Dallas

It took four months for Cohens to rebuild. “When minority businesses burn down, it’s hard to get back,” he says. “No matter how much insurance you have, it’s still a challenge to get back in compliance and play the game again.”

The local Cedars community, which Baby Back Shak has served for decades, did not want Cohen or his barbecue to leave. For years, Cohens has fed the firefighters down the street at Station 4. He has fed people all across the city of Dallas and dished out plates to former Dallas Cowboy players, including football Hall of Famer Charles Haley. And so when the fire devastated Baby Back Shak, the city rallied behind Cohens, donating new furniture to replace the items that had been damaged and rendered unusable from the fires. Chef Katherine Clapner, co-owner of Dude, Sweet Chocolate, started a fundraiser to support Baby Back Shak’s reopening. “I was deeply moved,” Cohens says.

Today, Baby Back Shak is refreshed and repainted. “Good things happen to those who wait, pray, and stay faithful to their dreams,” Cohen says.

Brock DuPont | Eater Dallas

Cohens’s journey to becoming a pitmaster started years ago when he was a child in Memphis. His job as a kid was to help his mother, the family’s first pitmaster, keep the fire and the flies off the meat. “None of the guys were cooking in my family until my mom hooked me up. That’s where I got my knowledge of smoking meats,” he says. He grew up during the 1960s when leaders of the Civil Rights Movement would visit Memphis churches, and members of the community, including Cohens’s mother, would cook for them. Cohens said her example inspired him to be disciplined and to think positively about his future.

Eventually, Cohens developed a dream of becoming Dallas’s Memphis-style barbecue king. For him, barbecue beca​​me a sport, which is evident today in Baby Back Shak. The restaurant’s “trophy” room is filled with sports memorabilia — framed posters, jerseys, and autographs from former Dallas Mavericks basketball player Dirk Nowitzki and retired NFL stars Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, and Warren Moon. “I believe in winning, too, at my game,” he says. “It’s not [playing] basketball or football or golf — it’s about feeding people. Every day, I have customers coming in as fans. This is my arena.”

Cohens, who recently celebrated his 70th birthday, has built a reputation in Dallas for his Memphis-style meats. In this version of barbecue, “I rise above everybody,” he says with his trademark swagger. “I am one of those veterans — an OG of the pit. A real gangster who doesn’t cut any corners.” He marinates his fall-off-the-bone ribs, a highlight at Baby Back Shak, overnight before smoking them over pecan wood. When he first opened, he only wanted to sell ribs and meat, but his mom and family encouraged him to go a little further by adding sides to the mix. Cohens listened, and today, the menu features tangy potato salad, buttered corn, loaded baked potatoes, barbecue chili-style beans, and his one-of-a-kind Shak beans. Served ranch-style, the beans are mixed with red bell pepper, yellow onion, barbecue sauce, ketchup, and five pounds of ground chuck.

Brock DuPont | Eater Dallas

Surprisingly, brisket is one of Baby Back Shak’s newer items. Being from Tennessee, Cohens says he was unfamiliar with Texas-style barbecue. “We didn’t kill cows like people do here in Texas, so I didn’t have the knowledge of the brisket,” he says. That changed in 2014 when Cohens appeared on the premiere of Jon Taffer’s show Hungry Investors in the “Brisket Beatdown” episode. “I didn’t want to be no brisket guy, but this Jon Taffer wanted me to be the king of barbecue, and he wanted me to ‘beat the brisket,’” Cohen says. After a few televised arguments, Cohens beat out his competitor to make the show’s best brisket.

I am one of those veterans — an OG of the pit. A real gangster who doesn’t cut any corners.

Cohens says people still recognize him from Hungry Investors. Filming the episode inspired his passion for brisket, which requires a lengthy preparation process. Cohens washes each brisket slab and bathes them in Worcestershire sauce before marinating the beef at room temperature for eight hours. Then, he coats it in his all-purpose trademarked Shak Rub — a proprietary blend influenced by his mother’s barbecue — and cooks the hunk of beef at a low temperature through the night until early morning. The brisket cuts like butter. “It won’t have a touch of hardness, no char on it, but it will be tender and moist all the way through,” he says.

Brock DuPont | Eater Dallas

When he first bought the building that now houses Baby Back Shak, the roof was on the floor. The neighborhood, now known as the Cedars, was not densely populated. In 30 years, he’s watched the community transform from a collection of many empty buildings to a place being slowly developed into a neighborhood that has artist lofts; the infamous dive bar Lee Harvey’s, named after JFK’s assassin; and the flagship Alamo Drafthouse in the city. “It’s good to see that I was able to pick a spot and survive,” he says.

Every year, even after the fire, Baby Back Shak continues to grow. The neighborhood still smells sweet and heady like barbecue, and the restaurant is never empty. For Baby Back Shak’s 30th anniversary, which falls in October this year, Cohens hopes to give back to his biggest supporters. “I’ve got 30 years of customers,” he says. “You can’t beat referrals — people saying they’ve been here before, that it was good and to check them out.”

Inside his restaurant, newspaper clippings line the wall. “It’s everything that’s ever been printed about me,” he says. Thirty years of stories, referrals, and reviews sing the barbecue joint’s praises. If there was a barbecue hall of fame, Cohens says he would probably be in it. “I do believe I have a place in this business,” he says. He supports his local competitors, and they support him. “It feels good to be respected among the great ones.”

In this corner of the world, where he’s a local barbecue king, Cohens still manages to be a dreamer. “Baby Back Shak is my laboratory,” he says. “It’s where I seek my inspiration — where I seek my joy.” He wants to see his restaurant in cities across the country, even the world. “I do believe that Black barbecue can be global,” he says.

Until then, he doesn’t plan to slow down. He’ll be up early, smoking meats for a community that loves him. “I wanted a barbecue restaurant that all could enjoy,” he says. “When we all sit in a room together, we’re not fighting; we’re enjoying food.” ~