Union Barbecue Brings Tex-Mex Flavors to Traditional BBQ – Charlotte Magazine

Union Barbecue owner Holden Sasser grew up in kitchens around Charlotte. His father, Tom Sasser, owns Burke Hospitality Group, which includes Mimosa Grill, Taco Molino, and Harper’s, the longtime Charlotte restaurant that closed in July. “My dad always warned me against the restaurant business,” Sasser laughs. “His advice was, ‘Unless you really want to do this, don’t.’ So I went to college and did investment banking for a while, but I knew I wanted to get back to the food space.”

Most weekends, you can find Sasser’s food truck parked outside breweries in and around Charlotte, where he serves Barbacoa Sandwiches, Brisket Chorizo, and Adobo Spareribs with salsa, onion, and lime. Sides include Smokey Sweet Potatoes and Elote Salad, and desserts rotate between Banana Pudding and The Big Deborah (more on that later).

“I always loved Latin flavors growing up and spent some time in Mexico City,” Sasser says. “Tex-Mex and barbecue is nothing new, but I wanted to take it even further and focus on Mexican flavors with barbecue. I’m putting smoke on different items and trying to incorporate those ingredients and flavors in a perfect union. In Spanish and English, “union” is a very similar word, so Union Barbecue seemed like the right name.” 

Sasser, 30, says he was bussing tables at Harper’s “as soon as I could get a job legally” and held various back-of-house positions, like dishwasher and food prepper, throughout high school. As a business major at UNC Chapel Hill, he’d host barbecue fundraisers for No Kid Hungry NC and cook whole hogs alongside seasoned pitmasters. 

After graduation, Sasser worked in investment banking and for several food-tech companies. In 2020, a job with The Every Company took him to San Francisco. “It was interesting and engaging work, but my role was to pitch people on new technologies to replace their egg supply, so it got to a point where it was highly complex, dealing with regulatory bodies and market challenges,” he says. “I just wanted to get back to the basics of food.” 

He spent his weekends serving Tex-Mex barbecue at dinner parties and private events. Then a friend connected him to a local bar with a kitchen that didn’t operate on Sundays. Sasser used the space to develop a menu and organized a series of pop-ups to see how his food would land. Union Barbecue consistently sold out, so in 2023, he decided to move back to Charlotte and try the concept at home.

In the few years he’d been away, another local joint, Jon G’s Barbecue, had surged in popularity. “People called it the best barbecue in Charlotte, and it’s in Peachland—nowhere near Charlotte,” he says. “North Carolina is known for barbecue, but it seems like there’s still a need for more here, and there’s room for that. I hear it all the time, people will say, ‘Charlotte doesn’t have enough good barbecue.’ I thought, There’s got to be a good local market for this if I can make it work.” 

Sasser hosted his first pop-ups in Charlotte last summer. Customers found him, and word spread. He enlisted friend Chase Young to help in the kitchen, and they continue to experiment with new rubs and roll out specials to see what sells. It’s rare to see the same menu twice, but you can always count on Brisket and Smokey Sweet Potatoes. “From there, we mix it up,” Sasser says. “We’ll run spareribs, turkey, carnitas, beef barbacoa … we just rolled out chorizo links. Chase will come up with a bar snack; his White Bean Dip has done incredibly well for us.” 

For dessert, Sasser makes a classic Banana Pudding, and Chase has created a new spin on an old favorite. “He had this idea for a really big Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie,” Sasser says. “We just called it what it was—an oatmeal cream pie. Then someone said, ‘This is Debbie all grown up.’ We loved that idea, so now it’s The Big Deborah. It’s the size of my head.”

Sasser hasn’t ruled out a brick-and-mortar location, but he’s in no rush to scale. “We’re in a growth phase, which is great, but as you add things, you want to have the same great guest experience every week.” For now, he says, he wants to perfect his brisket and ribs. “I’m thinking about barbecue as a cooking technique versus just pulled pork. It’s a way to deliver flavor on beef, chicken, pork, even cauliflower. That’s something Charlotte hasn’t seen enough of. Let’s use smoke in cool ways to make cool experiences for people.” 

TAYLOR BOWLER is the lifestyle editor.