In 2001, Rick & Michelle Martin started Texas Star Foods, performing sales and marketing for products sold to Grocery stores. Texas Star Foods marketed and sold products such Eckrich, Butterball, Badia Spices, Healthy Choice, locally made smoked sausage, and other meat products and even started importing products to satisfy the growing population of hispanics coming to Texas from Latin American countries.

However, fate had more in store for them. In 2007, during a family gathering in Portland, Oregon, the Martins stumbled upon a game-changing discovery—the Traeger Wood Pellet Grill. The wood pellet concept added amazing smoked flavor to meats. Rick thought, "This is going to be huge". We purchased a truckload of Traeger Grills and now had to figure out how to sell this product.

As time went on we eventually became the Distributor of Traeger Grills for Houston and eventually Texas. We added hardware stores and did events to help them sell this product. We found that when we were at the events we could sell lots of grills but when we left the sales were quite soft. The Traeger products needed more evangelism to sell the product. We decided to open a Traeger retail store and worked with Traeger to do ads on sports talk to drive customers to the store. This led our first brick-and-mortar store, Texas Star Pellet Grill Company, located at 2045 Southwest Freeway.

The early days were not without hurdles. Introducing the concept of wood pellet grills proved perplexing to some customers, and a crushing blow came in the form of a soul-shattering 1-star Yelp review. In the face of adversity, they made the tough decision to close the shop and return to their warehouse in southwest Houston.

Undeterred, the Martins persevered, slowly but steadily building a loyal customer base. Word-of-mouth began to spread, and profits followed suit. With renewed confidence, they reclaimed their retail store at 2045, marking a pivotal moment in their journey, this time calling it Texas Star Grill Shop. The expansion continued as they introduced renowned brands like Kamado Joes, Saber Grills, and Weber.

Years of hard work and dedication have transformed their humble beginnings into a thriving business. Today, Texas Star Grill Shop flourishes with four locations and a bustling online store, serving passionate grill enthusiasts far and wide.

The Martin Family's remarkable journey exemplifies their unwavering commitment to quality, customer satisfaction, and the pursuit of culinary excellence in the world of grilling.