Mouse over for captions, or click for full-size image. See ya next year (or tomorrow at your favorite joint)!

Tagged: austin, barbecue, bbq, beef, brisket, franklin bbq, pork, ribs, sausage, Stanley's, taylor, texas, Texas BBQ, Texas Monthly BBQ, Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, Wayne Mueller

The second annual Texas Monthly BBQ Festival was held Sunday, October 30, at the outdoor terrace of Long Center in Austin. Some 3,000 people attended to sample barbecue from 22 vendors (all of whom had been named to our Top 50 Barbecue Joints in Texas in 2008), listen to music (Jimmie Vaughan and Asleep at the Wheel), and vote for the people’s choice in four categories. The prizes were won this year by Franklin Barbecue of Austin (best brisket), Louie Mueller Barbecue of Taylor (best beef ribs and best sausage), and Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q of Tyler (best pork ribs). Last  year’s best brisket winner was Snow’s BBQ of Lexington. Here are some random observations from an assortment of well-fed attendees.

It’s kind of like drinking from a fire hydrant. There is so much here!—Seth Dockery

This is Texas, so the temperature could have been 40, it could have been 95. But today was perfect.—Jen Pencis, Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q, Tyler

Cooking’s easy. The hardest part is figuring out the amount of meat. –Todd Ashmore, Opie’s Barbecue, Spicewood

This event is definitely off the ground. Yesterday I was telling people I was in town for the barbecue festival and everybody knew what I was talking about. Last year they had no idea.—Daniel Vaughn, Full Custom Gospel BBQ blog (more…)

Tagged: Foodways Texas, Franklin Barbecue, Kerry Bexley, louie mueller barbecue, Snow's, Stacy Franklin, Stanley's, Texas A&M University, Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, Tootsie Tomananz

Editor’s Note: The Texas Monthly BBQ Festival is almost here! Each day until then, we’ll be talking to one of the featured pitmasters, with questions from TM staffers, esteemed BBQ experts, Twitter followers and you, the readers of this blog.

Today we bring you Nick Pencis of Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q in Tyler. For more info, visit their page on TMBBQ.com.

Photo courtesy Daniel Vaughn.

What is your heat source?

We use pecan. It’s just kind of a preference thing. Stanley’s actually sits on a pecan grove. I was smelling the pecan smoke, and I thought ‘no one around here smokes with pecan. Everyone’s hickory, hickory, hickory. Or mesquite or oak, and it’s like, I’m gonna be a different guy.’ It’s my personal preference, and I just decided I’m gonna be straight pecan guy.

Who did you learn your craft from?

I came to work here in 2005, and I bought it in 2006. That’s the crazy thing, I had never in my life barbecued before. But I just have always been a huge, huge fan of barbecue. I’m 100 percent self taught.

What’s your signature meat?

I’m really happy with our sausage. I don’t know if I would call it our signature meat, but I’m happy with the philosophy. I don’t like MSG or weird chemical things. The sausage is just pork and spice in a natural case.

Do you make your own sausage?

You know, there is a meat market a block from here that’s been here since the 1950’s and I take my recipe and they make our sausage. It’s fresh. I’m not able to actually do it here, but they do it for me there. They bring me sausage every other day or so. The first batch we ever made was for the Texas Monthly BBQ festival last year. And people liked it! So I was like, alright, let’s figure it out. (more…)

Tagged: 23 pitmasters, Nick Pencis, pecan, sauce, smoked meats, Stanley's, Texas BBQ, Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, Tyler