“This is a decision born out of a passion and a desire to share,” says Travis Taylor, Caldwell’s CEO.
The Peoria smokehouse is expected to open in early 2026 on Washington Street near 83rd Drive. The Caldwell team and the West Valley city broke ground on the 6,000-square-foot restaurant in April.
In Scottsdale, Caldwell County will set up an outpost near Scottsdale Road and Mayo Boulevard. That restaurant will open in April 2026.
The restaurant specializes in Texas-style brisket and turkey, as well as pulled pork and St. Louis-style ribs topped with housemade sauces. Those meats are piled onto a butcher paper-lined tray next to sides of corn casserole and lemon poppyseed coleslaw.
“It’s a labor of love,” Taylor says. “Being able to share that with more people is really the goal.”
At Caldwell County BBQ in Gilbert, walk past the giant smokers outside and find a seat in the welcoming dining room.
Tirion Boan
Caldwell County opened in Gilbert in 2018. Meats are smoked with mesquite in long, horizontal drums that have names like “Mr. Big” branded on the fire boxes. The team followed up the success of its first restaurant with a sibling fusion smokehouse, Caldwell County MexiQ, in 2021 and a second Caldwell location in Queen Creek in 2024. Caldwell County is among Phoenix New Times’ Best Barbecue in the Valley and our Top 100 Restaurants.
Though diners will find the standard meats across Caldwell’s restaurants, each pitmaster also smokes a unique cut. In Gilbert, that’s beef ribs. The Queen Creek crew is readying to roll out smoked pork belly.
“We haven’t decided on which special is going to be at Peoria or Scottsdale yet, but we’re excited to get in there, experiment and tinker and find out what their unique thing is going to be,” Taylor says.
The restaurants will each have their own Texas-inspired personality, too, Taylor says. Although Scottsdale is still in the design phase, the Peoria smokehouse takes inspiration from Lockhart, Texas, and its historic brick buildings. The small town is considered the barbecue capital of the Lone Star State thanks to an enduring group of famed smokehouses. It also is, notably, located in Caldwell County.
“We don’t see ourselves as a chain,” Taylor says. “We don’t want to be a cookie-cutter location.”
With this growth, Taylor says he and the team are focused on sticking to their roots of “craft barbecue.”
“These are big undertakings for us,” the restaurant head says. “We just want to focus on not only building the buildings the way we envision them but also ensuring that our quality is consistent and we keep growing and improving as pitmasters.”
