A Guizhou Skewer Shop Opens in Plano With Grandma Yang in the Kitchen

Dallas-Fort Worth has no shortage of grilled meat on a stick. What opened in Plano in mid-June is a Guizhou family line landing in a suburban Asian marketplace, with the woman who started it standing in the kitchen.

Yang’s Smokehouse sits at 240 Legacy Drive, Suite 306, in Mitsuya Marketplace, the former Friendship BBQ space. Owner Candice Cao is the third generation. The recipes trace to Grandma Yang, who opened a charcoal stall in Guiyang in 1980 after being widowed at thirty, built a spice blend she kept close, and grew the business to six locations in China. Cao told CultureMap that Grandma flew in for the U.S. launch to coach the team over the live fire.

The stick list runs the usual night-market proteins and a few that still surprise in Texas: sliced beef, zesty lamb, pork belly, beef tongue, sausage, chicken wings, pork skin, duck gizzard, plus green beans, eggplant, cabbage, zucchini, and lotus. Spices are hand-crushed in the family style before the charcoal.

Beyond the grill, the menu leans into Guizhou snacks Dallas rarely sees, including crispy tofu balls: a fried shell of tofu skin around soft mashed tofu with radish and spice. Lunch through the summer adds an all-you-can-eat skewer deal, Monday through Friday, for $40.

Cao came to Dallas more than a decade ago for Dallas Baptist University. Her mother had already taken over the China business. The Plano room is the first American address for a brand that sells itself as forty years of Guiyang smoke, not a generic Chinese barbecue concept.

For diners hunting regional Chinese cooking in the suburbs, the news is concrete: Guizhou charcoal skewers and tofu balls are on Legacy Drive, and the grandmother whose name is on the door helped open the kitchen.