ABOUT

Texas Monthly BBQ is a multi-platform community of people all over the world who love barbecue. If you’ve ever traveled hours in search of a famous pit, if the sight of a neon B-B-Q sign has caused you to pull off the highway “just for a taste,” or if you’re just curious to know what all the fuss is about, this is the place for you. Texas Monthly BBQ not only helps you find great BBQ joints in Texas and around the world, it gives you a forum to talk about your favorite—and least favorite—spots, and hear what others have to say too.

Since the 1970’s, Texas Monthly has been covering the pitmasters of the Lone Star State, and here you’ll find everything we’ve ever written on the subject. Most importantly, you’ll find our reviews of the top 50 joints in Texas, plus honorable mentions and hundreds more from Texas Monthly staffers and our exclusive content partner, Full Custom Gospel BBQ. You can share these reviews via social media and e-mail and comment on all of them, and if you find a place that’s not included, you can add it. Plus, via our Buzz feature, you can peer inside the BBQ hive mind (hive stomach?) to see where everyone else is eating and what they’re saying about it.

Best of all, when you download our new free BBQ Finder smartphone app, you can carry all these same features around on your phone. The mobile app helps you find BBQ anywhere in the world (though we can’t vouch for the stuff it’ll turn up outside Texas), and lets you “check-in” too. Checking in helps you keep track of your BBQ trips, attain higher and higher levels of expertise (from “casual enthusiast” to “serious enthusiast” to “pit pundit” and more), and compete with others to get to the top of the “Leaderboard,” which ranks users according to how many check-ins they have. The app is free and available now in the iTunes store and the Android Market.

Have a great photo of a chopped-beef sandwich or a rack of ribs? Send it to us so we can feature it as the Daily Special. Discover a joint that’s missing from our database? Add it. Want to know where to eat barbecue in Dallas, or San Antonio, or New York City? Post a question in the Buzz feed. Texas Monthly BBQ is all about connecting people who love great ‘cue.

Still have questions? See if this FAQ helps.

Is the BBQ Finder smartphone app available on Android?

Yes! Visit the Android Market to download it.

I know it’s free, but do I have to register or anything like that in order to use it?

Only if you want to post a comment, in which case you do have to create an account with a username. It’s fast and easy and it will enable you to use the app to keep a record of your BBQ trips, plus partake of the Buzz and Leaderboard features. But if all you want to do is read, you won’t need to register.

Does it really work all over the world?

Yes indeed. Our philosophy is that you should always try to eat great barbecue, but that sometimes, decent barbecue is better than no barbecue. So the mobile version of the app will geolocate everything that’s around you, no matter where you are. In Texas, it will supply more thorough information, often including a review of the joint in question, plus app user comments and Foursquare user comments; elsewhere in the country (and around the world, although to be honest, we haven’t tested it overseas yet) it will supply basic details and Foursquare user comments.

How are the Leaderboard scores computed?

You get five points each time you check in at a new joint and one point for every subsequent check-in. The formula is weighted this way to reward trying new places.

Who is the BBQ Snob? I see reviews from him in the app.

BBQ Snob is Daniel Vaughn, the man behind Full Custom Gospel BBQ, the most comprehensive barbecue blog in Texas, and maybe the country. His passion for ’cue has been celebrated by CNN, roadfood.com, and the Tyler Telegraph, among others. He lives in Dallas and he once ate at ten BBQ joints in a single day. Actually, he’s done that more than once. Daniel is a maniacally devoted BBQ hunter, a keen judge of quality, a very good critic, and, despite what his handle implies, an omnivorous eater who will consume BBQ at anyplace that advertises it. He has discovered many diamonds in the rough this way. His reviews and photos appear on Texas Monthly BBQ as part of a content partnership, and he will be writing a regular column for texasmonthly.com.

Speaking of photos, there aren’t any photos in the mobile version of the app. Why’s that?

There will be. That’s the first thing on our list for version 2.0. In the meantime, enjoy all the great photos in the web-based version.

Is the Buzz feed moderated?

Texas Monthly reserves the right to delete comments that are judged to be offensive, libelous, or inappropriate to the forum. Graphic sexual imagery and language will be deleted. If you would like to report an offending comment, or if you feel a comment has been deleted in error, please let us know by writing to foodeditor@texasmonthly.com.

I work at one of the restaurants that’s reviewed in here and some of the information is wrong. Who do I contact to correct that?

Write to foodeditor@texasmonthly.com.

If you have a question that wasn’t answered here, please send it to foodeditor@texasmonthly.com, and we’ll try to answer as promptly as we can. And let us know if you have feedback. We’d love to hear what else you would like to see in future versions of the app.