Flatland BBQ just recently showcased their brand new trailer in Pampa, an impressive step up from their humble beginnings, yet still maintaining that meaty servitude and mission they’re best known for.
Originally started in October of 2023 by Rogelio “Mutt” Villarreal, Flatland BBQ was not only meant to give the community another option for Texas-style BBQ, but their core mission was simply to feed whoever was hungry and to serve those in need. In fact, Flatland BBQ was supposed to have their grand re-opening a couple of weeks ago, but instead headed to Wheeler for disaster relief after a tornado ripped through the town leaving thousands without electricity.
This isn’t the first time Mutt and his crew has jumped in and helped out when they were needed. During the wildfires that ravaged the panhandle, instead of sleeping peacefully in bed, Mutt knew there were others still out in the blaze doing what they could to stop the spread.
“I was ready to go to bed, and God just kept telling me that they (the firefighters) hadn’t eaten all day and you know they’re hungry,” Mutt said. “So at 11 o’clock at night, I grabbed a handful of people from church together, we all loaded up, made 250 sandwiches and we delivered them out all night long.”
When a tornado ripped through Perryton a couple of years back, Mutt and his crew headed out armed with hundreds of pulled pork sandwiches, and upon their arrival, they were met with a woman whose three words still hit him to this day.
“When we got there, there was a woman who saw us and she started crying. I said ‘it’s just pork sandwiches, that’s all it is.’ She said, ‘you don’t understand, there’s no food.’ When she said, ‘there’s no food,’ that’s what really got me. And it was the same thing with Wheeler, there was no food. The town didn’t have electricity.”
During the holidays, Flatland fires up their big smokers and smokes turkeys donated by Trinity Fellowship to be given out to 100 people in need in the community, and that is the only time they utilize those smokers. Mutt gathers up his family and friends, and they all donate their time and resources to provide those people with a hot Thanksgiving meal. According to Mutt, it’s not about the business, it’s about the people.
“Flatland is a really cool business or hobby, but at the end of the day, we’re really community-driven. We want to help people. We have a thing on our menu called the Taco Tab, where if there’s someone who can’t afford something to eat or there’s a kid who has never been able to eat from a taco truck, we just give it to them. People that come to our truck donate to the Taco Tab and all they have to do is just buy a taco. I don’t care if someone needs a whole meal-if someone comes by and they’re just passing through and don’t have any food and barely have any money for gas, we’ll feed them. At the end of the day, we have way more than we asked for, so we will always give back.”
And he’ll never ask someone their situation and he’ll never judge.
“We never question it. If someone is brave enough to come up and ask for a meal, they can have it. I don’t care what they’re driving or what they dress like, they can have it if they ask.”
The hobby actually began several years ago when Mutt worked for an oilfield company who asked him if he was willing to learn how to smoke meats. He admits that it took him nearly 12 years to get where he is now, and he still doesn’t believe he has the best BBQ in town.
“I think there are backyard cooks in this town who have phenomenal BBQ. I think I have consistency and it took me 12 years to get here. The company I worked for said, ‘just do it, we don’t care,’ and the first couple of briskets I made were like boots,” he laughed. “The only way people would eat them is if they were covered in BBQ sauce. Even then, they said it was the best, and I always said, ‘no it isn’t.’ So back then it was just feeding people in the oilfield and that’s where it all started.”
Mutt still maintains a full-time job in the oilfield, so Flatland BBQ is more of a side hobby/hustle that he enjoys doing, and even more so an opportunity for him to give back.
“I grew up really poor in Lubbock, and there were programs where you met at the park and they had so many sandwiches per day and you had to get there early or you didn’t eat. If one of our friends didn’t get there early enough, we cut our sandwich in half and shared it. That’s my number one main goal. I want to be able to help during those times when other places can’t. If we make some money, that’s cool, but I just really want to give back what’s been given to me.”
When Flatland BBQ was first established, Mutt had the intention for his menu to consist of the traditional Texas-style BBQ with potato salad, coleslaw, and beans and selling meats by the pound. But his very first customer made a request that wasn’t on his menu, and the customer after him also made a custom request, prompting Mutt to completely rethink his menu.
“People wanted something different, so I pulled back for about a month and said we were going to redo this whole thing. We were going to do tacos, and it has hit every single time since. We don’t always sell out, but we don’t look to sell out. We want to feed people and have a good time doing it.”
According to Mutt, the most popular menu items right now are between the Brisket Biscuit: a ciabatta bun topped with brisket, a fried egg, and sliced cheese, and the Sunrise Taco: a 6 inch flour tortilla with refried beans, yellow shredded cheese, brisket, a fried egg, pico, cojita cheese and sour cream. His personal favorite is the Brisketladas: three brisket enchiladas stuffed with meat and shredded cheese, and he insists on having a fried egg thrown on top for a fulfilling meal. There are plenty of items on the menu to choose from, and there’s plenty of room to get creative and customize your order.
Mutt recently purchased a brand new trailer just a month ago, and parked the old, beloved truck he had first operated out of that helped get the Flatland BBQ name out there.
“For two years, for two seasons, we made that truck work. We had engine issues, and there was one time when we were doing flag football, we got right there on Russell and Harvester and the truck just stopped. Just one more block! But it said no and we had to get towed the rest of the way. There was one time we got called by Tripp’s Harley Davidson for a food truck war and we couldn’t make it there. But if feeding kids in the park and feeding people in the community and doing stuff like that is my end goal, then we were going to need to step up everything, and that’s what we did. Now if we are needed, we can just go.”
Flatland BBQ does not keep a regular rotating schedule, but they are active on social media, so be sure to follow their Facebook page to see when and where they will be next. You can catch them this Saturday at Benchmark Functional Fitness located at 8681 County Road 9 in Pampa by the Country Club for a competition to benefit Lexi Maul’s mission trip to Spain. Flatland will be there from 8 AM until sold out.
It’s clear that everything Flatland BBQ has done from the time their wheels first hit the pavement to now has been about serving the people in a community they love, and it’s something they will continue to do in style.
“I grew up in Lubbock, but I’ve been in Pampa for the last 25 years, so if anyone asks where I’m from, I tell them Pampa. This is my community.”
