A Lubbock institution since 1952, Tom & Bingo’s Hickory Pit Bar-B-Q marked its 75th year of business this week by serving customers staples like brisket, pulled pork and homemade sausage.
Neither of the restaurant’s founders, cousins Tom Clanton and Gaston Ray “Bingo” Mills, could have foreseen that their barbeque joint would be honored with a Texas Treasure Business Award from the state historical commission. Current owners Kristi and Ian Timmons are continuing the proud tradition of smoking meats and happily serving customers in the business’s only brick-and-mortar location at 3006 34th St. It’s the longest-operating restaurant in Lubbock.
First founded in Amarillo in 1946, the restaurant has twice been handed down to a generation of dedicated owners and operators. Kristi’s parents, Dwayne and Liz Clanton, ran the business after they inherited it from its namesake leadership in 1980.
Despite a hasty transition into becoming Tom & Bingo’s latest owners in 2017, the Timmons’ have handled the pressure of operating a legacy business well. Now the third generation to helm the pits, Ian Timmons said the significance is not lost on them.
“It definitely feels good that we get to stick around for so long and to gather up all this momentum and energy over the years,” he said. “But I don't think any of the owners or pitmasters have really focused on that — they've just always been fairly tunnel visioned on what they're doing. That's definitely my case.”
The menu that gave Tom & Bingo’s a foothold in the community over the years was a product of its time, he said. Brisket was once some of the cheapest cuts of meat available, so smoking and selling it was more of an economic formality than a trendsetting culinary endeavor.
As Kristi tells it, the price of beef in the early 1950s was a contributing factor to her grandfather’s start in the industry. After leaving his home and a job in Tyler, Texas, Tom Clanton purchased a steer that he went door-to-door trying to sell for a profit.
When no buyers were interested, Clanton and Mills decided to butcher and barbecue the animal themselves and sell that instead. This decision set in motion the establishment of Tom & Bingo’s at its present location, where it has been for over 70 years.
Kristi still describes her grandfather as a hard worker and consummate risk-taker. Tom Clanton’s contemporaries apparently thought it was a poor decision to open a business on 34th Street when little else stood immediately nearby.
“Everybody thought he was crazy because he was going so far south of everything,” she said. “There was nothing out here. It was just fields whenever he opened, so everybody thought he was crazy for opening something on 34th — which is so funny now.”
Today, patrons can find Tom & Bingo’s all over the city through its food truck service. The truck frequents the Lubbock Downtown Farmer’s Market located behind the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts at 511 Ave. K on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., as well as locations like Good Line Beer Co. at 2611 Boston Ave. and Two Docs Brewing Co. at 502 Texas Ave.
The Timmons’ vision for their business draws parallels to the menu itself — a deliberate balance of traditional and modern elements that sets the food apart while still maintaining a classic appeal. Even as Ian Timmons garnered some blowback early on from the public for adding items like scratch-made potato salad and coleslaw, he said he took the criticism in stride as feedback from a hungry community that has a deep-rooted love for their establishment.
“I got flack for just about everything starting off,” he said. “But yeah, it was all worth it. They eventually came around... It was all well-intentioned. It wasn't malicious or anything like that. They were just sad, because they thought it was going to change. But I didn't change it — I just kind of evolved it, it’s still the same.”
In fact, he said, each generation of pitmaster can be denoted by their own unique style. Ian Timmons smokes his distinctly seasoned brisket, ground smoked beef sausage and pork spareribs on the same brick pits that have been used for decades.
The couples’ pragmaticism as owners became apparent in 2020 when they made the decision to close their dining space and move exclusively to curbside service before any mandate or ordinance compelled them to do so. By getting a jumpstart on the logistical demands of the service industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ian Timmons said they avoided some of the growing pains other restaurants experienced during that time.
They have since resumed traditional indoor dining services, meaning customers are back enjoying their meals at the business’s classic school desk–style dining tables. Whether it happens to be a plate of spareribs or a Bingo Burger, patrons are welcome to taste a slice of Lubbock history that aims to withstand the test of time.
“It’s super personalized. You know customers by name,” Kristi Timmons said. “People have memories tied to this place, too. They can remember coming here 20 years ago with their parents, as a kid or whatever it may be, and I think that it goes a long way.”