BBQ
December 12, 2016
Christopher B “Stubbs” Stubblefield: A Cook
Lubbock guitarist, Jesse “Guitar” Taylor, was hitchhiking in Lubbock when a Cadillac pulled up. A stranger offered him a ride and Taylor hopped in. They drove for a bit and stopped in front of Stubb’s Bar-B-Que in East Lubbock. “I’ve walked by this place so many times and never been…
BBQ
December 9, 2016
Gobble, Gobble
Rose Diamond once ruled the world of smoked turkey. In 1938, customers in New York, Miami, and Hollywood enjoyed her smoked turkeys shipped out from her Fort Worth home. According to The Claude News, they brined for at least ten days before being smoked in a brick pit in Diamond’s…
BBQ Joint Reviews
December 2, 2016
Juicy Pig Barbecue
From side-lovers to vegetarians, there's something for everyone at this adventurous joint.
Food & Drink
November 23, 2016
Knives Out
There are certain dishes that every good Texan knows and loves. But do you really know how to grill a flawless ribeye? Season that cast-iron skillet in your cupboard? Make sure your dough rises? We asked experts around the state to share some how-tos and a few recipes that will…
BBQ Joint Reviews
November 15, 2016
Local Yocal Backyard
The McKinney butcher shop now operates a barbecue food truck.
BBQ Joint Reviews
October 21, 2016
Hammond’s BBQ and Roadrunner Smokehouse
In Glen Rose, the biggest competitor to Hammond’s BBQ is… the Hammond family.
BBQ
October 18, 2016
Smoked in Texas: BBQ Tacos at BBQ on the Brazos
Combining barbecue and tacos is a damn-near perfect culinary Texas creation. In fact, it is the barbecue tacos at Valentina’s Tex-Mex BBQ in Austin that has made this one of my favorite joints in the state. I’ve often wished that more tortillas were stuffed with smoked meat, so I was happy to find another…
BBQ Joint Reviews
October 3, 2016
The Pit Room
Brisket, tacos, potato chips, sausage, cherry pie--this place does it all, and does it well.
BBQ Joint Reviews
September 23, 2016
Back Country Bar-B-Q
Four decades of classic barbecue, still going strong thanks to a new owner.
Food & Drink
September 21, 2016
Snow’s Queen
On Saturdays Tootsie Tomanetz cooks barbecue the old-fashioned way for legions of loyal fans. That doesn’t mean she’ll ever give up her day job.
BBQ
September 19, 2016
Interview: Earnest Griffith Sr. of Back Country Bar-B-Q
Pitmaster: Back Country Bar-B-Que; Opened 1975 Age: 62 Smoker: Wood-Fired Rotisserie Smoker Wood: Hickory Earnest Griffith Sr. has been cooking barbecue in Dallas for 42 years. He started in downtown Dallas in 1970, when the area was teeming with workers in need of lunch. This was before the days of…
BBQ Joint Reviews
September 16, 2016
The Pit BBQ
Central Texas style barbecue, with a few surprising twists.
BBQ
September 8, 2016
Sonny Bryan’s 24/7
The headlights from a Chrysler 300 beamed through the window and into the historic dining room of Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas. It was after midnight, and the driver was waiting for his seemingly inebriated (or maybe balance-impaired) passenger to get back with a couple chopped brisket sandwiches. I had just ordered ribs…
BBQ Joint Reviews
September 2, 2016
Dylan’s Barbeque Saloon
Barbecue rookies have built a promising stop off of Northwest Highway in Dallas.
BBQ
August 30, 2016
“Barbecue” is for Squares
I have a Twitter follower who, for a while, enjoyed pointing out when a barbecue joint spelled their name “incorrectly.” Presumably, “Barbecue” and “BBQ” were acceptable, but not “Barbeque,” “Bar-B-Q,” or its slight variation “Bar-B-Que.” He’s not alone. The AP Stylebook, generally used by journalists, doesn’t like those alternate spellings either,…
BBQ
August 22, 2016
Evan LeRoy Leaving Freedmen’s Bar
Talented pitmaster Evan LeRoy has left his position at Freedmen’s Bar in Austin. He’s planning a place of his own, but details are still vague. LeRoy told me over the phone that he hoped to have something open in the Austin area within…
BBQ
August 8, 2016
A Eulogy for the Barbecue Joint
Barbecue joints aren’t simply born. It takes time to develop into one. A barbecue joint is a worn-in stool at a counter smoothed over by time. It’s a soot-stained ceiling, a broken-in barbecue pit, a menu with prices scratched out, and a bigger smile when you use cash. A barbecue joint evokes…
BBQ Joint Reviews
July 29, 2016
Stringer’s Lufkin Bar-B-Que
Pork ribs, tradition, and the best bread in the business.
BBQ Joint Reviews
July 25, 2016
Caroline’s Quality and Quantity Bar-B-Que
Beef links worth celebrating.
BBQ Joint Reviews
July 19, 2016
Red Wagon BBQ
Pure, savory flavors, organic ingredients, and the best brisket in Waco.
BBQ Joint Reviews
July 18, 2016
The Grove Smoke Shack
Decent barbecue staples in a carefully cultivated atmosphere.
BBQ Joint Reviews
July 1, 2016
Top 5 BBQ
Four years ago, Davetta Greene bought a used barbecue pit for $40. It was a gift for her husband, Kendon. After fried pork chops caused two separate fires in their home kitchen, she thought it was time he moved his cooking outside. He didn’t take to the pitmaster role immediately. “It was…
BBQ Joint Reviews
June 24, 2016
Pat Gee’s Barbecue
The hand-painted wooden sign reads “Pat’s Barbecue,” but everybody calls it Pat Gee’s after its late founder, Mack Henry “Pat” Gee, who opened this barbecue shack east of Tyler, deep in the piney woods, sometime around 1963. Pat, his wife Vida, and their seven children lived just up the hill…
BBQ
June 17, 2016
Eugene “Hot Sauce” Williams
The contributions of African Americans to our country’s barbecue culture are often overlooked. The influences can be hard to trace, which make it tempting to ignore them. Throughout Texas and the rest of the country, records of black barbecue culture are either gone or never existed in the first place. Most newspapers and magazines were…
BBQ Recipes
June 13, 2016
Raise Your Steak Game
If you’ve never heard of the reverse sear, then the best steak of your life is still in your future. Ever since I first used the reverse sear method, I haven’t cooked a steak any other way. It’s that good. And simple. What is a reverse sear? The name sounds a little…
BBQ Recipes
May 16, 2016
Tootsie Tomanetz’s Pork Steak
Tootsie Tomanetz has been cooking barbecue for fifty years, an art she didn’t start practicing professionally until she was in her thirties. When she began her career in Giddings, offset smokers weren’t nearly as popular as they are today. Then, barbecue was cooked directly over wood coals, and that’s the…
BBQ
May 9, 2016
Smoked in Texas: Stuffed Potato at Smoke to the Bone BBQ
Gregory Johns didn’t learn to cook barbecue from his family, books, videos, or from a mentor. He taught himself through trial-and-error. As he told me, “You burn some meat, you get it right next time.” His journey began in 1998 when he purchased a steel barrel smoker. Eight years later, Johns…
BBQ
May 3, 2016
Interview: Dwight Harvey of Off The Bone Barbeque
Owner/Pitmaster: Off the Bone Barbeque; Opened 2009 Age: 70 Smoker: Wood-Fired Rotisserie Smoker Wood: Pecan and Mesquite Off the Bone was once a tiny joint in a neighborhood without much of an identity. Since it opened seven years ago, The Cedars has grown into a destination, and the barbecue…
Business
April 26, 2016
Big Mac, Bigger Mac, Baby Mac
Texans will decide if McDonald's should add new sizes of its classic menu item.
BBQ
April 21, 2016
BBQ News: 04/15 – 04/21
– “If there was a state meat, surely it would be brisket.”: – The Dallas Observer wades into the barbecue sauce or no sauce debate. – Conde Nast Traveler has chosen their list of the fifteen best barbecue cities in the country. – Luke…
BBQ Recipes
March 28, 2016
The Rib Sandwich
Perhaps you’ve seen it on a menu and have been too embarrassed to ask if what you’re ordering is a sandwich full of bones. That’s understandable. “Rib sandwich” does sound like a dental episode waiting to happen, and while yes, it does have bones, it’s often the best deal at a Texas…
BBQ Joint Reviews
March 25, 2016
Back Home BBQ
Just a few months after opening in early 2015, Dallas’s Back Home BBQ pulled a barbecue mulligan: They shut it down. The already renovated Chinese restaurant got re-renovated. A new patio and sign were installed, and the menu was overhauled. When it reopened last November, pitmaster Carl Anderson began cooking with…
BBQ
March 21, 2016
Jon Flaming: Barbecue Artist
Jon Flaming is an artist based in Dallas with a love for Texas barbecue. His past work has focused on small-town Texas as well as the oil and gas boom in the state, but he has now shifted his focus to the…
BBQ Joint Reviews
January 22, 2016
Tejas Chocolate Craftory
Scott Moore wanted to make tequila, but you can only call it “tequila” if it’s made in Mexico, and there is already plenty of competition on the store shelves. So he settled for chocolate. The availability of good chocolate was a different story in 2011 when Moore and his partner, Michelle Holland,…
BBQ Joint Reviews
January 18, 2016
Church BBQ
Out in the Piney Woods of East Texas, a legendary barbecue joint run by the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church has been dishing out classic East Texas-style barbecue since the seventies. Some refer to it as New Zion, after the church it supports next door. Tthers call it “The Church of the…
BBQ
January 6, 2016
Barbecue Crossfire
The nation is talking about Texas’s new open carry policy, and two pistol-packing pitmasters are grabbing headlines for their opposing views. Trent Brooks, of Brooks Place BBQ, welcomes open carriers to his Cypress barbecue trailer, and in fact offers a ten percent discount for anyone showing off…
BBQ Recipes
December 22, 2015
Smoked Fried Turkey
I’m of the opinion that most foods can be improved when they’re smoked, and one of my favorite dishes that proves this proclaimed axiom is smoked turkey. We’ve got plenty of great options in Texas, all of which likely beat the oven-roasted turkey that your family overcooked at Thanksgiving. But when it…
BBQ Joint Reviews
December 18, 2015
The Big Bib BBQ
There’s no sign over the door—at least not for now—but somehow that doesn’t seem to matter. The Big Bib BBQ and its new attached event space anchor the corner of an aging strip center along Austin Highway in northeast San Antonio. It’s under construction, and the awnings are being replaced, but…