There is smoke in the air at Fire Craft BBQ, but Chef David Welch’s story begins before the first brisket hits the pit.
It begins with family.
Welch spent his earliest years in Alabama surrounded by farmers, gardens, and generations of Southern cooks. His grandmother owned a restaurant in the 1950s, and family gatherings were filled with food. As a child, he learned where flavor came from before he ever learned the terminology for it. He remembers fishing with his grandmother, watching his mother tenderize steak with the edge of a saucer, and growing up around people who worked hard, made do, and built things for themselves.
That entrepreneurial spirit followed him to Texas, but his culinary path took him farther away.
Welch trained in France, graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 1996 after studying both cuisine and pastry. He worked in acclaimed French kitchens and immersed himself in technique, discipline, and the development of his palate. Back in Houston, he continued building his restaurant experience with Pappas Restaurants and alongside Kingwood restaurateur Tony Raffa.
Then came a small smoker.
Welch began experimenting with smoke while still cooking fine-dining dishes, adding it to everything from braises to frog legs. The curiosity became an obsession, leading to competitions, catering, and eventually the decision to leave restaurant management and build something of his own.
Fire Craft BBQ began as a catering company in 2015, followed by a food truck in 2017 and, after years of setbacks and persistence, a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Kingwood in 2023.
Yet calling Fire Craft BBQ simply “Texas barbecue” misses the point.
Welch respects the traditions of slow-smoked meats, fire management, and patient technique, but his food carries the fingerprints of his culinary life. French training shows up in his attention to procedure, balance, and sauces. His Southern childhood lives in the sides and desserts.
Even the barbecue sauce tells that story. Rather than leaning heavily on ketchup, Welch builds layers with mustard, toasted chiles, charred onions, spices, and other ingredients that create something familiar without being predictable. The same philosophy carries through proprietary rubs, house-made specialties, creative sides, and desserts that receive the same attention as the meat.
At Fire Craft BBQ, barbecue is not an excuse to abandon fine-dining standards. It is another craft worthy of them.
Family remains woven into the restaurant, too. All three of Welch’s children have worked in the business. Daughter Savannah helped lead the restaurant during its early brick-and-mortar years, while sons Austin and Sawyer continue working alongside their father today. Austin has grown into a sous-chef role, learning not only recipes but also the less glamorous lessons of leadership and restaurant life.
And through every exhausting season, Welch says his wife, Teresa, has been the person reminding him of something important: that this business is what he prayed for.
That reminder matters because Fire Craft BBQ was never easy to build. Road construction delayed an early restaurant plan. Financing was difficult. Permits dragged on. The family worked from a food truck, catered massive events, and pivoted whenever the original plan changed.
Through it all, Kingwood kept showing up.
Early supporters invested in Welch’s dream through his “Friends of Fire Craft” concept. Customers followed the truck, stood in long farmers market lines, and eventually filled the restaurant. That loyalty is something Welch does not take lightly.
For a chef with French credentials, competition awards, and national barbecue attention, his goal remains simple: stay thankful, stay humble, and serve the community that believed in him from day one.
At Fire Craft BBQ, the smoke may be in Texas, but the story behind it stretches from Alabama farms to French kitchens and ends fittingly at a family table in Kingwood.