Introduction to the Reaves Brothers
In April, Brent Reaves woke in the middle of the night with a thought he couldn’t shake. “Tacos dorados,” he muttered to himself. “Tacos dorados.” He waited until a reasonable hour the next morning to call his older brother, Juan Reaves. “I keep thinking about tacos,” Brent told him. “OK,” said Juan, “let’s do it.” The Reaves brothers — who own and run their family’s longtime Dallas barbecue restaurant Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que and Home Cooking — had one month to submit their entry for the Big Tex Choice Awards for the 2025 State Fair of Texas.
The Big Tex Choice Awards
They still hadn’t come up with an entry, but with a steady track record as finalists in the annual awards, there was pressure to create something great. Earlier that week, one of their employees threw out the idea of tacos dorados, fried tacos typically filled with beef and potato. Brent jotted fried tacos down on their running list of fair food ideas last year, but the thought didn’t go anywhere. This time, though, the wheels started turning.
Brent (left) and Juan Reaves have had nine dishes place as finalists in the annual Big Tex Choice Awards over the years.
The Reaves brothers have had nine dishes place as finalists in the annual Big Tex Choice Awards over the years.
The Creation of the Deep Fried Deli Tacos
First, Brent and Juan tried making a deep fried taco with their smoked brisket. It wasn’t quite right. “I was like, ‘Dude, mashed potatoes and some kind of meat could be great,’” said Brent. “So then we tried the pastrami.” What the brothers came up with, and what landed them a spot in this year’s top 10 Big Tex Choice Award finalists, is a dish that’s part Jewish deli and part taqueria, with a little Texas barbecue mixed in.
Hickory-smoked pastrami is the star of the show in the Smokey John’s Deep Fried Deli Tacos.
The Deep Fried Deli Tacos
The Deep Fried Deli Tacos, as they’re officially called, are filled with cubes of smoked pastrami, butter-laden mashed potatoes, a shredded semi-soft cow’s milk cheese and green onions. The filling is scooped onto corn tortillas and spread to their edges so that when the tacos hit the fry oil, they are sealed by crisp, fried cheese. Inside the crispy taco is a complete textural contrast. Due to the quantity of cheese in the taco filling and the amount of butter in the mashed potatoes, the potatoes nearly transform into a cream sauce during the frying process. The result is a decadent pocket of meat and cheese where the smoked pastrami takes center stage.
The Pastrami
The Reaves’ pastrami found popularity when they debuted it exclusively at the fair last year after they spent time studying pastrami at Jewish delis around New York City. Smokey John’s pastrami is trimmed and brined for seven days with the peppery seasoning blend used on the restaurant’s briskets. Once brined, the beef is then deeply smoked over hickory wood for 16 hours. The next step, or rather the absence of it, is what sets this pastrami apart. Unlike the New York pastrami found at the likes of Katz’s Deli, this pastrami doesn’t undergo a steaming process, aside from the bit of steaming that happens during reheating. This allows the meat to retain its smokiness and char, which makes it feel distinctly Texan, Brent said.
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