Killen’s Barbecue Makes a Monster Move at NRG Stadium: The Barbecue Guy is Redefining Sports Stadium Food as Texans’ New VIP Club Sells Out

The Houston Texans coaches are not the only ones who camp out at NRG Stadium. While the NFL coaching profession is notorious for its unforgiving, relentless hours, it turns out that these bleary-eyed play callers have nothing on the barbecue guy.

For Sunday homes games — like today’s matchup vs the New York Giants — one of Ronnie Killen’s barbecue gurus arrives at NRG Stadium before 10 pm on Saturday night. Yes, a good 14 hours before kickoff.

Hey, somebody has to get started on the meats.

“We’ll have a guy there overnight, getting everything going,” Killen tells PaperCity.

Killen is planning to take his barbecue meats to a new level this season. There are a number of new food items at NRG Stadium in this home opener, but none is bigger (literally and figuratively) than Killen Barbecue’s two pound beef ribs.

These hulking chunks of barbecue power cost $40, making them the most expensive single food item in stadium history. The two pound beef ribs are attention getters, but Ronnie Killen is emphatic that they won’t just be a gimmick. He insists that they love up to Killen’s standard of excellence.

“No other stadium is doing ribs like this,” Killen says. “But we woudn’t do, if we couldn’t do it right.”

When Texans president Jamey Rootes revealed the new stadium foods during the week of a preseason game (hey, even two pound ribs can use a practice run), he focused on the sheer strength of the NFL, swatting away any of that waning popularity talk.

“If you look at the television ratings of both the American League Championship Series and the (NBA’s) Western Conference Finals, they’re comparable to our preseason games,” Rootes says. “Football’s big in Texas. Football’s huge in the city of Houston.”

Barbecue’s big, too. Killen’s Barbecue will be available to every fan in the stadium now (this year, besides its two concession stands on the main concourse — in Sections 109 and 129 — Killen’s can also be ordered in the suites and club level) for good reason. It is killing it.

“We accounted for 38 percent of the entire sales in our main concourse sections,” Ronnie Killen says. “It’s been bigger than I thought.”

Killen jokes that now customers only look at him as the barbecue guy.

“There are a lot of people who don’t even know I have the steakhouse,” he says. “They think began with the barbecue.”

People tend to lose the details when you put a two pound rib in front of them.

Flaming Hot Tacos

Barbecue may be king, but it’s not the only new food at NRG. There’s also a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos taco in Sections 103 and 123. Why? Because that’s what you do with stadium food these days. It’s all about the next wild thing.

“It sounds interesting,” says Aramark district manager Joel Nash. “It’s weird.”

For the more refined palate, there is a roast beef sandwich from Chris Shepherd’s new restaurant Georgia James and Original Ninfa’s on Navigation legendary fajitas and fajita tacos on the Club Level. Another Houston institution (Antone’s) is new on the main concourses (Sections 129, 109, 546 and 520.)

Yes, even the 500 Level gets po’boys.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Texans’ new Champions Club — a VIP-type lounge with special food and drink options (and drop ins from club personnel) — is already sold out for the season on its 275 person per game capacity.

There’s always a hunger for something exclusive.

And barbecue. There can never be enough barbecue. A walk around the stadium before the Giants-Texans kickoff found plenty of folks munching on Killen’s. If this is the new face of sports stadium food, we’ve come a long way.

Just 10 years ago, the idea of an independent foodie-loved restaurant having multiple stands in a major professional sports stadium would have been unimaginable.

“I never thought I’d be cooking in the Texans stadium overnight,” Killen laughs.

Now, it’s just part of the regular gameday eve routine.