Sunbird Barbecue Finally Finds a Permanent Home in Longview
After falling out with their investors, the three owners of the East Texas barbecue joint struggled to find their footing. Now they’re back, and as strong as ever.
After falling out with their investors, the three owners of the East Texas barbecue joint struggled to find their footing. Now they’re back, and as strong as ever.
Previous visits to the East Texas town for barbecue were disappointing, but Scholl Brothers Bar-B-Que’s new owners have changed that.
Chuck Terrell had a horrible accident two years ago. After surgery and therapy, he’s easing his way back into serving his customers at Chuck’s Country Smokehouse, in Carthage.
Mr. D’s BBQ in Texarkana is located across the street from a truck stop, and offers up chicken and ribs to those who don’t have many options on the road.
Photographer Keith Carter explores the otherworldly wetlands of East Texas in a stunning new book.
Jennifer Scharen and her family serve marvelous versions of the Native American dish at their Pittsburg trailer in honor of her late husband.
Ann Thomasson-Wilson’s East Texas bait shop is a must-stop before anglers of all ages head out to the nearby Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
The Lindseys have nurtured a new pitmaster in the family to take over the original location of this chain in Longview after several closures.
Mossy cypresses seem to float in the clouds at Martin Dies Jr. State Park, which offers otherworldly paddling and hiking trails.
The early road used by Native Americans and settlers ran through what would become Gary Pinkerton’s family farm in Rusk County.
From the rural East Texas community of Pleasant Hill, a group of women depicts the sights and sounds that guided people to freedom.
The best secret in Mineola can be found at the back of a downtown mercantile where Shelia Parker serves hot, homemade fried pies.
Kitt Williams invented a cornbread sandwich when she was eight years old. Today, it's a local Jefferson favorite.
Robert Lane took over City Shoe Shop in Palestine after his father’s death.
Halfway between Mineola and Tyler, Lindale Candy Company has been creating hand-pulled peppermint since 1946.
Taqueria Mi Rancho serves posito, tacos al pastor, and birria, and is located on the co-owner's ranch, bringing a sense of comida casera to the restaurant.
For decades, Roddy Wiley ran the only bank in the small town of Oakwood, which happily resisted modern technology well into the twenty-first century.
The Beaumont photographer zeroed in on the dignity of East Texas residents in his 1989 Texas Monthly photo essay.
A short story.
Getting a haircut in a small town used to be a story-finding strategy for Texas Country Reporter, but the tale of Blanche Harris is one of my favorites.
Wade and Becky Brewer provide their small town of Buffalo, located between two major hubs, with delicious smoked meat at W. B. Custom Cooking.
Every year, Floyd Boyett takes a break from his routine to gather with friends and participate in the old-world process of making syrup from raw sugarcane.
I’ll never forget Herman “Train” Gates, the man who collected junk on an empty lot in Carthage, helped fix bikes for neighborhood kids, and wrote poetry.
At the former president’s Saturday evening rally in Conroe, even candidates whose opponents he’d endorsed were out in full force.
Free of the chain's fixed menu, Bingham and his co-owners traffic in excellent experimentation and well-smoked meat with their Longview barbecue trailer.
With newly perfected sliced brisket, porkstrami, and a chopped brisket and pimento cheese sandwich, East Texas joint Wright On Taco is worthy of the "& BBQ" it just added to its name.
To survive the pandemic, the beloved Longview restaurant had to evolve. As a waiter there, I did too.
The Hill Country offers fast-flowing streams and some nice bass. But for solitude and diversity of species, the creeks and bayous east of I-45 can’t be beat.
In Jacksonville, Palestine, and Tyler, local entrepreneurs cater to tourists looking for luxury (and a very fine slice of pie) amid the Piney Woods farms and fields.
I cycled nearly 400 miles across East Texas this week, enjoying the kindness of strangers along the way.
Contrary to what a viral video suggests, it’s unrelated to the pandemic.
Not everyone in San Augustine is on board for local artist Gary Brewer's perplexing project, which is three stories high and counting.
But for decades the town where it was created had no idea.
Brian and Julie Wright’s restaurant and coffee shop is giving the community of Harleton a smoked meat education.
Ray Gene, proprietor of Longview’s singular It’ll Do Tavern, passed away last weekend.
The care that pitmaster Craig Wood takes with this Smith County joint’s high-quality smoked meats and sides makes it a worthy destination.
Plus, a hip-hop powerhouse from Houston, an immersive history exhibit in Austin, and a fictional boy genius in East Texas.
Over the years, Texas Monthly’s most celebrated voices have written about the places that shaped them, from the Panhandle to the border. We revisit some of the classics.
The documentary, premiering on PBS December 17, looks to the elderly minister's hometown of Grand Saline to uncover why he set himself alight.
A Dallas man who grew up in East Texas isn't sure his home region actually exists.
Instagramming my way around East Texas.
How long it will take the dreaded emerald ash borers to fully establish themselves in Texas? And how many native ash trees will they decimate?
Two decades after killing Marjorie Nugent, Bernie Tiede was sentenced this spring for her murder—again. So what do we make of him now?
How the kindest, gentlest family man in Nacogdoches began writing some of the creepiest, grisliest fiction in the country.
The Instagram accounts that’ll have you itching to take a Texas road trip.
In search of the mysterious, absurdist, and lyrical East Texas writer William Goyen.
Vandals leave racist messages and a Nazi symbol after breaking into a house, and the media fails to mention it. When can we talk about racism?
This is how “religious freedom” actually works.
The existential threat to football comes from parents who are terrified of their children suffering from CTE in their thirties and forties. In the East Texas small city of Marshall, a coach is trying to mitigate that concern.
Petty, childish, and oh-so-satisfying.