‘Best of both worlds’: A Pakistani pitmaster showcases his heritage with Texas barbecue

Our Uniquely Fort Worth stories celebrate what we love most about North Texas, its history & culture. Story suggestion? Editors@star-telegram.com.

As the first rays of dawn peak over the nearby Interstate 30 overpass, Zain Shafi is already hard at work in his humble barbecue trailer tucked in a parking lot along Fort Worth’s South Main Street.

The roar of early morning traffic and screech of freight trains is the daily soundtrack for Shafi as he tosses chopped logs of hickory into a scorching hot fire pit attached to his outdoor smoker.

By 6 a.m., the air on this corner of South Main and East Vickery Boulevard is thick with the rich, smoky aroma of brisket cooking the Central Texas way: Low and slow.

Inside his colorful trailer, a pot of nihari — a stew that is the national dish of Pakistan — is simmering with spices that swirl in a fragrant dance. Fennel, cumin and coriander permeate Shafi’s little kitchen, reminiscent of a Sunday morning at his parents’ house.

Traditional nihari uses shanks and bigger cuts of meat, but Shafi uses brisket burnt ends that meld the bold, peppery kick of Texan seasoning with the complex layers of the nihari’s spice blend — an unexpected yet harmonious marriage.

At Sabar BBQ, Shafi transforms barbecue into a canvas, painting a story that honors tradition while inviting adventure, where each bite is a testament to his parents’ journey from the streets of Punjab to the heart of Fort Worth.

“When you bring them together, it’s like the best of both worlds,” Shafi said of Texas barbecue and Pakistani food. “You’re giving the customer really good barbecue and really good Pakistani food, and it just works together. It’s not a forced idea.”

“Sabar” means “patience” in Urdu, the language in the region of Pakistan where Shafi’s parents grew up. The name goes hand-in-hand with the art of barbecue because it cannot be rushed.

Shafi’s parents, Manzufar and Taherah, immigrated to Texas from Pakistan in the 1980s for better opportunities. He grew up in a traditional Pakistani household with three younger siblings in Grand Prairie and Southlake.

His parents still spoke Urdu, cooked traditional Pakistani food, and even took the family to Pakistan every summer to ensure they always knew where they came from.

“(My parents) wanted us to know our language, know where we’re from, and not forget where they came from specifically, but also part of who we are,” Shafi said.

Shafi said he didn’t grow up eating barbecue — it was rare for his family to eat out at all. There was always concern about cross contamination with pork, which is forbidden for Muslims to eat.

His passion started in 2018 when he tried Zavala’s Barbecue in Grand Prairie. The owner, Joe Zavala, showed Shafi how they smoke their meats, and from there he “went down the rabbit hole.”

That led him to take a position at Goldee’s BBQ near Kennedale at the end of 2020. It was there where the owners took him under their wing and taught him the art of smoking meats.

Shafi said it was the simplicity of Texas barbecue that really attracted him to it.

“It’s mostly just salt, pepper, meat, wood and smoke, but at the end of it you get a really delicious product that makes it worthwhile (to cook for) 12 to 14 hours,” Shafi said.

After working at Goldee’s for around two and a half years, Shafi opened Sabar BBQ in 2023 with a mission to satisfy two audiences: Texas barbecue enthusiasts and the Pakistani/Muslim community.

Shafi believes Sabar is not a fusion restaurant. He wants each part of the menu to stand out on its own. That goes for the smoked meats such as brisket, lamb ribs, turkey breast and sausage, along with the traditional Pakistani side dishes such as the daal chawal (lentils over rice) and fruit chaat (a sweet and tangy fruit salad traditionally eaten after fasting during Ramadan).

“The barbecue is traditional Central Texas-style barbecue,” Shafi said. “Just because we change the spices on it doesn’t turn it into Pakistani barbecue or fusion barbecue. We still do all the preparation that you would do in Texas.”

Muslims in Texas are hesitant to try barbecue, Shafi said, because of the possibility of pork cross-contamination and the meat not being halal, which means the animal was humanely raised and slaughtered in a way that was swift and painless.

With that in consideration, Shafi said every meat other than the turkey is halal and there is no pork on the menu. This gives Muslims the opportunity to try a style of food that is a pillar of the Texas food scene.

Shafi said the same goes for native Texans who have never had Pakistani food or know little about the country. Despite Pakistan being the fifth most populous nation in the world, Shafi believes its culture is underrepresented in the Metroplex.

“I think food is the best thing that brings people together,” Shafi said. “I feel like if food is good, it’s good. There’s not really a whole lot of objection to it. If somebody eats Pakistani food for the first time and they enjoy it, that might make them want to learn more about it. So it’s like our stepping stone into people learning more about our culture and what it has to offer.”

Shafi uses his food to showcase his heritage, but he also finds it important to help people in Pakistan as well.

Occasionally, Shafi uses the profits from Sabar to donate to causes and nonprofits benefiting Pakistani people. One of the causes is the Paani Project , a nonprofit that delivers clean water to areas in Pakistan in need.

“Things like water, electricity, plumbing, all those things here are like a basic necessity, but in Pakistan, it is a developing country, so those are borderline luxury items over there,” Shafi said.

Shafi said paying it forward was a goal when he started Sabar.

“That’s kind of the payoff,” Shafi said. “When you see pictures of people seeing water from a village where they were walking a mile or two miles in the dead of heat for a bucket of water … that might not even be clean. But then they have running water in the village that they (live in) and the smiles on their faces. It all just makes it worthwhile.”

One of the reasons Shafi chose to operate Sabar BBQ in a small trailer at this corner of South Main Street was because there is a built-in seating area next to where it is parked.

This gives Shafi the opportunity to interact with his customers and develop a relationship with them so they can spread the word about Sabar and the food.

“When they come back and spend money with you and then they bring their family or their friends, that’s when you know they genuinely enjoyed it,” Shafi said. “That’s why we do this. We’re not trying to get rich off of it or do anything fancy.

“It’s just about sharing our culture and what it means to be both a Texan and also what it means to be a Pakistani.”

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