Garland barbecue staple Meshack’s recovering from burst pipes, theft during winter storms

Meshack’s Bar-Be-Que Shack in Garland has weathered plenty of storms in its 40 years, including a closure in the late 1990s.

But burst pipes and a desperate act in late month’s below-freezing temperatures put the roadside shack on Avenue B in jeopardy.

Owner Travis Mayes said the plumbing issues damaged the building’s walls, but the most harmful fallout from the storms was the theft of almost all of the wood from its barbecue pit.Mayes said he was angry before he thought about why the wood was stolen.

“I realized that saved somebody’s life,“ he said. “It kept them from freezing to death.”

Meshack’s uses pecan wood to smoke its cuts of meat. Since the storm, Mayes said he’s working with larger pieces of wood, which take longer to burn.

”We’re operating now, but it’s kind of slow,” he said.

In an effort to soften the blow of repair costs, Travis’s wife, Donna Mayes, who works alongside him, created a GoFundMe page to cover the cost of wood and plumbing services.

“We understand it was freezing cold and people were simply trying to survive,” Donna Mayes wrote on the page. “So in a way, we think of it as us helping the community.

“Now, we’re asking for the community to help us in return.”

As of Friday, the campaign was nearing the halfway mark of its $3,000 goal.