Letter from editor Evan Smith regarding the June issue of TEXAS MONTHLY.

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JUNE 2008
Letter from Evan Smith

To the Good People of Snow’s BBQ, in Lexington:

Congratulations on being named the best barbecue joint in Texas! It may shock you to learn that you’ve been awarded this high honor in our June 2008 issue, beating out the formidable likes of Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market, in Lockhart; Louie Mueller Barbeque, in Taylor; and City Market, in Luling. It certainly shocked us. When our crack team of eaters — some eighteen writers, editors, and associated members of the extended TEXAS MONTHLY family — set out to compile what our egghead senior editor Jake Silverstein describes as our quinquennial (that is, once every five years) list of the top 50 joints in Texas, we knew we’d be writing about places we hadn’t heard of before. In the years between the reporting of such a story, we collect suggestions from far and wide. That’s how we happened upon your august establishment: A reader told us about you after the publication of our last top 50 list, in May 2003. We always check these things out (this year the members of Team BBQ drove or flew nearly 15,000 miles and ate at 341 joints big and small), so we dutifully sent senior editor Katy Vine to sample your wares. The resulting chain of events, described in detail here, brought more and more people into the exercise of kicking your tires, gustatorily speaking, and led to our conclusion that you’re the best of the best. Let’s hope the attention doesn’t send so many customers your way that you’re cursing us all the way to the bank. Although we should all have such problems.

Sincerely,

Also in this issue

Executive editor Mimi Swartz on the (literal) danger that results from our dependence on foreign oil, executive editor Skip Hollandsworth on those nice polygamists in Eldorado, writer-at-large Michael Ennis on our coming exit from Bush Country after twenty years happily/smugly ensconced, senior executive editor Paul Burka on finally getting to know his father, my exit interview with Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, and brand-new fiction from writer-at-large Sarah Bird: a cheeky excerpt from her latest novel, How Perfect Is That.

Next month

Elmer Kelton takes back the word “cowboy,” a first hand account of life as a soldier in Iraq, a West Texas backyard feast, the deer slayers of Iraan, an open letter to Cormac McCarthy, and the match made in hell that is writer-at-large Kinky Friedman and Bill O’Reilly.

What Are You Thinking?

Has a TEXAS MONTHLY story got you mad or made you glad? Is your community having an event? Let everybody know at TEXTALK.

Send your ethical, civic, and decorum-minded questions to assistant editor David Courtney at texanist@texasmonthly.com and read the answers in his column, The Texanist.

Post a gastronomic question at our RECIPE SWAP, where avid foodies share recipes and cooking tips.

Tell us what you think of this month’s issue at roar@texasmonthly.com.

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Blog Roll

Burkablog
Delay of Game
Eat My Words
Poll Dancing
State of Mine

The story continues on texasmonthly.com

SMOKIN’ JOINTS: Executive editor Patricia Sharpe narrates a slide show of the top barbecue joints in Texas, one of which you’ve probably never heard of—until now.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT: Check out our special section devoted to Texas barbecue—videos, staff picks, podcasts, and archived “best” lists—and post your own reviews.

THE MYSTERY BRISKET: See how a dark and smoky night changed our lives—and our taste buds.

THE MERRY WIVES OF AUSTIN: Evan Smith talks to Sarah Bird about her new novel, How Perfect Is That—a biting satire of the downfall of an Austin socialite.

GET KINKY: Your daily dose of wit and wisdom, courtesy of Kinky Friedman.

FLASHBACK: Topical stories from our archives: Paul Burka on Galveston’s past in “The Grande Dame of the Gulf” (December 1983) and Jan Jarboe Russell on Iraq, oil, and Oscar Wyatt in “Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog” (April 1991).

BLOG ON: TEXAS MONTHLY editors follow the 2008 election on the Poll Dancing blog. Paul Burka talks Texas politics, and Evan Smith speaks his mind. Plus: Patricia Sharpe on food and our editors on Texas sports.

PODCASTS: Skip Hollandsworth reads his story on the Eldorado polygamists, and Sarah Bird reads her latest column.

Contributor of the Month

TEAM BBQ: Behold, fourteen of the eighteen-member band of intrepid reviewers who landed one of the most coveted jobs in Texas: barnstorming the state in search of the best barbecue by stopping at as many restaurants, joints, roadside stands, and walk-ups as possible (“BBQ08”). In the end only fifty made our list, which means our readers won’t ever have to waste a second on dry brisket, fatty ribs, or tasteless sides. So who was king of all the eaters? That would be assistant editor David Courtney, standing front and center, who visited nine places in a single day.

Food

DOUGH PIZZERIA NAPOLETANA, SAN ANTONIO: When you dine out for a living, you can get a bad “been there, ate that” attitude. While other people are e-mailing each other like crazy over their latest find, you’re hitting the “delete” key as fast as possible. But a few months ago, notes from readers about a San Antonio pizzeria started popping up in my mailbox. The place was called Dough, and it was making certified Neapolitan pizza. Wait—potentially excellent pizza pies in Puffy Taco City? That got my attention.

Arts and Culture

A MODERN ADDITION: San Antonio’s McNay Art Museum has had some work done. Again. Like a plastic surgery addict, the state’s first official home for modern art is set to reveal yet another upgrade. But unlike the previous seven additions, the latest is no mere tweak: The 45,000-square-foot Jane and Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions, which nearly doubles the McNay’s size, is a profile-changing improvement that signals a new era for the 54-year-old institution.

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JUNE 2008Letter from Evan Smith

JUNE 2008
Letter from Evan Smith