Inside, Coco Gauff was on TV making quick work of an opponent at Wimbledon, while Sheila E. sang about "The Glamorous Life." City of Dallas employees and blue-collar workers quietly sat at tables diving into styrofoam containers of ribs, beans and turkey legs. Almost every customer who walked in said — to either the cashier, the room at large or the raincloud outside — "Finally, y'all are open again."
Baby Back Shak sits at the corner of Akard and Beaumont streets like an exclamation point. The neighborhood is old, a lot of blues and grays with touches of new. Modern apartments saddle up next to aging houses with large wraparound porches.
The building where Baby Back Shak lives is slathered in matador red from top to bottom with its name painted no less than 10 feet high on one side. There's no question who the main character is on this street.
Baby Back is living its second life right now. On the morning of February 23, part of the ventilation apparatus on the smoker in the back caught fire, setting the kitchen ablaze. Owner and pitmaster Clarence Cohens got his crew out and had time to shut the electricity off before escaping the restaurant.
"I'm right down the road from the [fire station] No. 4," Cohens says of that day. "They were there in no time. So that was a good effort."
A good effort, indeed. Though severe, the fire was mostly contained to the kitchen. The next day Cohens could see sky through the ceiling. Initially, he thought he might have to rebuild from the ground up. Amazingly, in less than five months the kitchen was rebuilt, the smoke damage gone and the smoker replaced (with a bigger version). He even got the all-important tag from city inspectors, clearing the path to reopen on July 1, just in time to fulfill 4th of July orders.
Cohens is 69, and many in his position might have seen the fire as a smooth exit to retirement.
"I had my doubts at first," Cohens says about reopening after the fire. "I'm a semi, pretty religious guy. I came here alone and I got married in, well, it's been 32 years ago that I've been married. So between my wife who is from West Memphis and I'm from Memphis, we are the only ones here making it happen. So I thought that maybe this was time to pack it up and get out, but everybody in the Cedars did not want me to leave. So this is the reason I'm still here."
Shortly after the fire, A GoFundMe was set up to support Cohens and his crew. Katherine Clapner of the Dallas-based confectionary Dude, Sweet Chocolate, organized it for the restaurant and views Cohens as a pillar in the neighborhood.
"Clarence is one of the most positive men I have ever met," Clapner says. "He and his team are a staple not just in the Cedars but the city. I am selfish. I just want some of his turkey legs, Shak beans and greens served with the infectious hospitality and smiles they have."
Cohens has been cooking his entire life. His mom was the oldest of 13 children: two girls and 11 boys. Cohens was one of four kids. Needless to say, on weekends growing up his mom needed help in the kitchen preparing food for family gatherings.
Cohens' family is from Tennessee. His grandfather worked a 500-acre farm there. In addition to cotton, soybeans and corn, they harvested vegetables for the family table.
"So I spent a lot of time on the farm," Cohens says. "In the summertime, we didn't go on trips. We'd go to the country. We did all of the vegetables: tomatoes, okra, purple hull peas and green beans. I learned to snap beans. I learned to process green beans. We slaughtered our own. I didn't go to many cow slaughterings, but I attended many hog slaughterings and that's where I learned my talent about mastering pork."
His mom would pick out a hog to butcher and take it back to their home in Memphis. "We had these big barbecues, so my job was to keep the fire from getting to the meat and make sure that it was turned at the proper time," he says.
Years later, Cohens made his way to Dallas and worked at the convention center. There, the most frequently asked question from visitors was, "Where can I find good barbecue?" (The second-most-asked question, for the record, was where to buy Western wear.)
Cohens suggested spots, but sometimes people would come back and tell him he had failed them. Visitors weren't always impressed with the barbecue options, which nagged at him enough that he felt the need to do something about it.
"So my wife and I, we thought about that idea [of opening a restaurant]," he says. "I cooked very well in the backyard and got some positive reviews. I started cooking ribs in my home in Cedar Hill in the backyard. I did a little cooking for the Cedar Hill Fire Department. They thought my house was on fire, but I was really cooking in the backyard. So that was basically my first client."
In 1995, he opened Baby Back Shak, serving the food he grew up harvesting and cooking, with a Texas touch. The pork ribs are the star here but don't skimp on the sides, which are all his mom's recipes.
"I wanted to do nothing but sell meats," he says of opening his restaurant originally. "I'm really a purveyor of smoked meat."
But his mom told him he had to have beans, green beans and corn, as well as potato salad, made from scratch because the "store-bought kind has no integrity."
Integrity comes in spades here, emphasized by the fact that he's been in business for just shy of 30 years, which is legend in the restaurant business.
His time at the convention center sparked more than rib-smoking mastery though. It also kindled inspiration from an unlikely source: makeup titan Mary Kay Ash.
"I worked a lot of Mary Kay shows, about seven during my tenure at the convention center," he recalls. "I was always inspired by her."
Cohens was in charge of protecting the furs, jewelry and high-end gifts Ash awarded her top consultants, which meant he was also privy to her pep talks for all the different sales groups called Diamonds, Emeralds, Rubies and Pearls.
"Everyone got a different conversation," he recalls, something he admired.
He liked that Ash started her business in a garage — it eventually became one of the top direct-selling brands in the world — and how she diversified her business.
"I remember when she brought in Black products for the first time and developed those teams of minorities to be successful in selling makeup also," he says. "She didn't look at one picture and one race. She looked at the big pictures. So to me, barbecue is that same representation."
Now, Cohens offers the city and the Cedars neighborhood barbecue he's proud of, for almost three decades and counting.
Cohens describes his fare as "blue-collar barbecue." Lunch patrons likely wouldn't argue.
Nathan Hunsinger
A week before opening, Cohens had more pep than expected from someone in the restaurant industry for 30 years. He bounced around in baby blue Air Jordans, showing off his restaurant's fresh redo. He was proud of his new smoker, sports memorabilia room and especially the red tag from the city: the green light to open. Deliveries to the front door were constant, and he'd holler back to each driver: "Hey, what's up, big guy? Appreciate it. Opening up on July 1st. Come get some food."
Luckily Cohens is staying in Dallas, continuing to be a part of a neighborhood that is thriving. Head down any day for a two-meat plate, which comes with two sides, for $18.50 — fantastic in this market. You can't miss him; he's the main character on the street.
