We’re sad to report that Top 5 BBQ in Desoto has closed its doors. They had a spot on the 2017 Top 50 BBQ list and moved to a new, larger location late last year. Owner Kendon Greene explained in a video why they were forced to make the tough decision.

But Top 5 might not be closed permanently. A few DFW-area pitmasters are hosting a barbecue benefit on April 13 to raise funds with the hope of helping Top 5 BBQ reopen.

Baseball season brings plenty of ballpark barbecue concoctions with it:

Old Hickory Bar-B-Que is serving smoked beef short ribs at its stand in the Washington Nationals ballpark.

“The BBQ Hall of Fame only has room for a dead black pitmaster.” – Howard Conyers questions why the contributions of African Americans to the American barbecue tradition are not better represented in the BBQ HOF.

Go behind the scenes at Cattleack Barbeque in Dallas:

The folks from Meat Fight are holding a Meat Raffle—for many meats of the smoked and cured variety—in Dallas on April 14.

Doug Pickering of Ferris Wheelers BBQ, in Dallas, has switched to grass-fed briskets, and he’s buying all that Grass Run Farms has to offer.

The Eat Now Run Later blog shared some great photos of their Texas barbecue road trip that spanned from Austin to Houston.

Fort Worth Magazine profiled a number of up-and-coming pitmasters in the city:

This Sunday, Fort Worth Food & Wine Fest brings together an impressive barbecue lineup to their Ring of Fire event.

Dayne’s Underground Barbecue has become Dayne’s Craft Barbecue after finding a permanent address in Fort Worth. They plan to open in September.

Beaumont’s Cat5 site has compiled a list of 125 great family-owned restaurant operations in the area, and there’s lots of barbecue in the mix.

Blood Bros. BBQ in Houston has gotten lots of attention recently:

On the same day, there was a review of Blood Bros. BBQ published in the Houston Press, and on this very website.

The next day, CultureMap Houston announced their annual Tastemaker awards and named Blood Bros. BBQ their best new restaurant.

In its “Essential Dishes” series, Houston Food Finder put their list together of the essential smoked briskets in Houston, including Blood Bros. BBQ.

Southern Q in Houston outgrew its home of the last four years and has just reopened in a new, larger location.

Burns Original BBQ in Houston is offering a scholarship program:

Operation BBQ Relief has been doing good work for years, and they teamed up with the Salvation Army and Famous Dave’s to provide barbecue to Nebraska flood victims.

“Billy Graham himself couldn’t save you if you didn’t do whole hog over wood.” – Samuel Jones on Eastern North Carolina whole hog barbecue in a book I co-authored with him.

Hey, what are you smoking?

Under new rules, the pork industry is about to be in charge of inspecting the pork industry. This really comes down to line speeds. Hog plant workers now process 18 hogs per minute, about 1 hog every 3.5 seconds. That’s not fast enough for the bosses.

For some background on the government’s pilot program that led to the pork inspection rule changes, see this 2015 article where a USDA whistleblower called the program “out of control.”

Truth Barbeque shuttered its Brenham location for a while to open the new Houston location. Now it’s planning to reopen the original in Brenham on Saturday.

Mark Gabrick, who left Texas to open a barbecue joint in Sarasota, Florida, is back with a new barbecue operation in Austin.

A shut down of the OSR, a state highway running north of College Station, until July 2020 has Blue Moon BBQ worried for their own survival.

AKA smoked and fried Cornish hen:

Billy Durney of Hometown Bar-B-Que in Brooklyn takes Brad Thomas Parsons on a level of NYC bar-crawling to aspire to in this Punch article.

The eighth annual Brisket King of New York competition will pit 20 pitmasters against each other in Brooklyn on 04/10.

The readers of Southern Living have spoken in their vote for the South’s best barbecue joints.

You’ve probably heard about adding Coke or Dr Pepper to barbecue sauce recipes, but what about Mountain Dew?