Founder-owner of the oldest BBQ restaurant in Fort Worth dies

Jim Riscky

The owner of the oldest BBQ restaurant in Fort Worth has passed away.

Jim Riscky, the owner of the 92-year-old restaurant, died on Sunday, Feb 9 at the age of 77.

His grandparents founded the original Riscky’s Grocery & Market on Azle Avenue in Fort Worth in 1927. He joined the family business and worked as a “bottle boy.”

He would move the returned empty soft drink bottles to cases in the back of the store for soft drink companies to re-use. He once said, “it was our version of recycling.”

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In the late 1970s, Jim built his first wood-fired steel pit, the model for the same pits used to smoke all of Riscky’s barbeque today.

Later, Riscky and his wife Norma transformed the grocery store into Riscky’s Barbeque restaurant.

Riscky opened several other restaurants in Sundance Square and the Fort Worth Stockyards over the years. The Riscky’s in Sundance Square is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in that area, and the Riscky’s Steakhouse location in the Stockyards is one of the oldest restaurants in Fort Worth.

Riscky’s is still a family-operated business with six different locations, from burger joint to steakhouse, in the Fort Worth area.