Texas seems to export our barbecue styles as far and wide as our natural gas. Earlier this year I noted how often the aesthetic of meat on butcher paper, a decidedly Texas design is imitated on both coasts (and a few places in between). But as anyone who has
The Wall Street Journal felt the swift and vicious wrath of Texas barbecue fans this weekend. Austin, the Best New Barbecue Destination was written to shed light on the burgeoning barbecue scene in the capital city. Instead, it will be remembered only for comically praising Franklin Barbecue’s boneless brisket
The Guinness World Record for the world’s longest sausage, from the UK, checks in at just over thirty-six miles. The longest smoked sausage, from Germany, was 1,581 feet, 5 inches, but the longest smoked sausage in Texas (probably) was on display yesterday at Meat
Shawn Eagle and Cody Smithers opened a Denton barbecue joint in a strip mall with $5,000 from a Kickstarter campaign and a big dream. A week into running the business they shared with the local paper the desire to make the Texas Monthly Top 50 barbecue list. Five months
– Here’s why good barbecue joints run out of meat.– The most important employee at a barbecue joint might be the person cutting the meat.– Ronnie Killen and Wayne Mueller are coming to Austin for a barbecue pop-up on 11/17.– A new homemade sausage
Patience. Not only is it a virtue, it’s the key to good brisket. No meat in barbecue suffers more when it’s subjected to the foolish habits of the impatient pitmaster: cranking the heat too high in the smoker; obsessively opening and closing the lid to check on the smoker’s contents; or just taking the
Tracy Frydberg attended the Kosher BBQ Championship in San Antonio and filed this report:When we eat smoked brisket in Texas, we can stop and thank the Jewish community. Or, at least that connection can be firmly made. As Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly’s barbecue editor, noted in a column on the
I’d like to be able to say more about Mesquite Wood Bar-B-Q, but the items available from the smoker the day I stopped in didn’t allow for it. I stood perusing the menu on the small porch at the ordering window that faces Drake Street. A few blocks south the county
– Not your average backyard barbecue:How to barbecue a whole steer: @GGBeristain @ParaleloN http://t.co/VaxoJKR39H — Robb Walsh (@robbwalsh) November 1, 2014 – Brian Williams talks to David Letterman about his love for the Salt Lick BBQ. – KLRU in Austin is seeking funding for
Photo provided by Billy Ray NelsonOwner/ Pitmaster: Hitch-N-Post BBQ; Opened 2009Age: 64Smoker: Wood-fired Indirect Heat SmokerWood: Hickory, Red Oak, White Oak & PecanAfter he retired from his duties as a Polk County sheriff’s deputy, Billy Ray Nelson decided to turn his hobby into a retirement plan. He opened Hitch-N-Post BBQ five years
The only thing easy about the restaurant business is failure. For every five new restaurants that open in the U.S. this week, three will be gone within three years. That’s a sixty percent failure rate, and my guess is that it’s even higher with barbecue joints. In barbecue, the waste
Larry Lavine has been an accomplished restaurateur in Dallas for decades, but he’s best known for founding the Chili’s chain in the seventies. He sold the business thirty years ago, even before baby back ribs ever made it to the menu, and now he’s in the brisket game. After plenty of
– The Daily Show filmed in Austin this week. The Monday episode started with an homage to the show Dallas in the intro, and featured Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue among other notable Austinites.– Later in the show, correspondent Jordan Klepper showed off the barbecue lei
Samuel Jones (right) with NC BBQ legend Ed Mitchell (left)Co-Owner/Pitmaster: Skylight Inn; Opened 1947 in Ayden, North CarolinaAge: 33Cooker: Direct heat brick pitWood: Oak and HickorySamuel Jones is part of a North Carolina family that was cooking barbecue back in the nineteenth century. He’s been at the restaurant since birth, and surmises
Bacon is more popular than ever; cooking with lard is no longer taboo; and lardo—cured pork back fat—is a luxury item on charcuterie plates around the country. America is slowly rediscovering its love of pork fat, and yet good, fatty pork is still hard to come by.It all started back in 1977
Legendary whole hog cooker Samuel Jones is bringing a special taste of North Carolina barbecue to Dallas this Sunday (tickets here). The Jones family has been cooking whole hogs in eastern North Carolina since 1830.In 1947, Samuel’s grandfather, Pete Jones, opened the Skylight Inn restaurant in
I didn’t go looking for a barbecue theme as I drove around the rural roads northwest of Fort Worth, but I found plenty. It seems in the Azle/Rhome/Haslet part of the state that a barbecue joint can’t operate unless it has hand-cut fries (five out of five that I visited)
– “In 2013 the U.S. produced almost the same amount of beef as it did in 1976, about 13 million tons. It achieved this while slaughtering 10 million fewer cattle.” From an in-depth look into the cattle industry, with a focus on Texas, from National Geographic.– National Geographic
Former Owner: Kreuz Market; Opened 1900 (current location 1999)Age: 69Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: Post OakIt’s the most famous family feud in Texas barbecue. A disagreement between Nina Sells and her bother Rick Schmidt caused a rift that sent the historic Kreuz Market packing. After ninety-nine years in the same building,
If you’re a Texan looking to expand your barbecue literacy with a trip to the Missouri/Kansas border, be warned that the brisket you order will not resemble the beautifully carved, thick, juicy slices of black crusted beef you’ve come to expect in Texas. Rather, an order of brisket in KC
The Rabrokers have been selling their family recipe German sausage out of Westphalia Market since 1963. The tiny town of Westphalia sits between Zabcikville and Lott on Highway 320 (about twenty minutes east of Temple), and the market is a great reason to take a detour. They make several kinds
Good barbecue in West Texas is about as common as an oak tree west of the Pecos River. Consequently, it was a revelation when we found Pody’s BBQ in Pecos a couple years back. When I first visited Pody’s back in 2012 it was brand new. A search
– Neil Patrick Harris will be the host of the Oscars. Along with announcing his big news, he also announced his love for the Salt Lick.– “I actually had my first barbecue here.” – Lorde at ACL Festival in Austin.– La Barbecue fed Eminem
Former Owner: Kreuz Market; Opened 1900 (current location 1999)Age: 69Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: Post OakRick Schmidt owned Kreuz Market from 1984 to 2011. He bought it from his father Edgar “Smitty” Schmidt, and sold it to his son Keith. Rick took a momentous step in moving the business from its
Last week I spent some time in West Texas eating barbecue. I’ve done a few tours through the area already, so I know not to get excited when I see “German sausage” on a menu, but I had a temporary memory lapse. The prospect of finding a coarsely ground and smoky beef
Nothing about this bungalow with a French name screamed smoked meat. Well manicured ivy enveloped the Épicerie sign out front, and the interior looked more like a wine and cheese bar, but the menu had a different message. Smoked house made boudin and beef pastrami, a smoked goat sandwich special,
You’ve probably didn’t know there is an Oklahoma, Texas, but that’s where you’ll find The Wooden Spoke on a corner gravel lot along FM Road 2978. It’s officially in Magnolia, but the Oklahoma Cemetery and the Oklahoma Community Center are just a block away. Despite that, owner and
– John Lewis of la Barbecue in Austin is opening a new barbecue joint in…Charleston, South Carolina. He’s bringing some beef to a state where pork is king. Word is, when the doors open to Lewis Barbecue in 2015, it’ll be just down the street from a new
Owner/Pitmaster: Leon’s World’s Finest In & Out Bar-B-Que; Opened 1987Age: 74Smoker: Wood-fired Rotisserie SmokerWood: Post OakLeon O’Neal didn’t get into the barbecue business until he was forty-five years old, but he’s managed to be successful in Galveston for nearly three decades in a converted house that once contained
If you’ve spent any time on the interstates of Texas, you’ve probably seen barbecue restaurants advertised on numerous billboards, blue service signs, or obnoxiously huge structures situated along the access road. Who among hasn’t seen one of those logos and thought, is the food worth stopping for? If a place needs that
This article originally appeared on ModernFarmer.com and is reprinted here with the permission of Modern Farmer. Photo by Nicholas McWhirterYou’re experiencing a rapid heartbeat, flush cheeks, and a sweaty brow. All are symptoms of overindulgence, but not of the alcoholic kind. Rather than an elevated BAC, the
It’s just a mile or so off 190, the state highway that runs through Livingston, but Florida’s Kitchen feels like it’s way out in the country. I passed it on my way to visit Hitch-N-Post BBQ, a Texas Monthly top 5o barbecue joint, just another mile
– The Dallas Observer released their Best of Dallas list, and in the food categories, barbecue is well represented. Tim Byres of Smoke received the Best Chef nod, Peggy Sue BBQ was recognized for their baby back ribs, Cattleack BBQ had the best barbecue
Pitmaster: Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que; Opened 1962Age: 64Smoker: Charcoal-fired steel cooker and electric rotisserie smokerWood: Lump Mesquite CharcoalThere’s more than one cook at a big operation like Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano, but Bo Phillips is the one who gets up early enough to
Another fast food giant is dragging the good name of barbecue through the sauce. Late last week, Wendy’s announced their new line of pulled pork menu items: the predictable pulled pork sandwich with slaw; a pulled pork-topped burger; and pulled pork cheese fries—all served with your choice of three barbecue sauces.
Every month we bring you a profile of a photographer who has captured the people, the food and the spaces that make up the world of barbecue.Lisa Rawlinson – Austin, TexasI fell into photographing barbecue through my blog, Full and Content, somewhat by happenstance. I’ve always loved
There’s something homey about a meal at Texas Smoke BBQ Co. in downtown Sanger. Owner and pitmaster Jay Coin prepares the barbecue plates back in the kitchen while his wife, Mindy, works the front of the house. They work together on the popular smoked meatloaf, and a table full of
– In one of the laziest pieces of barbecue journalism I’ve seen, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune showed up at Franklin Barbecue in Austin fifteen minutes before they opened, abandoned the long line, came back two hours later, and was mad that she didn’t get barbecue. She
Photo from Fugitt’s Facebook pageWriter: 100 Best Barbecue Restaurants in AmericaAge: 29Johnny Fugitt is nearing the end of a one year tour around the country looking for the best barbecue joints in the country – one hundred of them to be exact. He was sick of all
In a state currently obsessed with brisket, the lean side appears to be always the bridesmaid. The bride, of course, is the fatty stuff. (As the tired saying goes, “fat is where it’s at.”) Further evidence of this love for adipose was on full display in a recent article for Maxim magazine,
This past weekend Portland, Oregon got a taste of Aaron Franklin’s brisket. The Austin pitmaster travelled to the Northwest for Feast Portland, a culinary event that brought chefs in from around the country – along with plenty of homegrown talent – to showcase their dishes to
Just outside of downtown San Saba is Double G Pit Stop, a combination drive-thru beer barn and barbecue joint. You can get a drink any day, but for barbecue you’ll have to wait until the weekend. Owner and pitmaster Bobby Galindo only fires up the pits on Saturdays and Sundays, and
– The Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival was this past Sunday, and many of our attendees had plenty to say about the event:– Thrillist ATX learned ten facts about Texas barbecue.– Here’s our own wrap-up of collected photos from the event.–
Owner/Pitmaster: Hometown Bar-B-Que; Opened 2013Age: 42Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: Oak and CherryBilly Durney is all New York, but he knows where to go in Texas to find great barbecue. This past week his restaurant Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook, Brooklyn celebrated its
“There is no one definitive way to make Memphis barbecue.” So says Craig David Meek, author of Memphis Barbecue: A Succulent History of Smoke, Sauce & Soul. After a four day tour through the River City, I must agree with him.Those who
Yesterday we held the fifth annual Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival. It was the biggest one yet with twenty-five pitmasters feeding thousands of hungry barbecue fans. If you made it out to enjoy the beautiful day, we thank you. If not, we’ll see you next year.Here are a few of the
When I took the first bite from the towering chopped brisket sandwich at David’s Barbecue in Pantego, I thought this must be what Sonny Bryan’s used to taste like when it made it on everyone’s “best of” barbecue lists. You see, owner and pitmaster Jimmy Harris is part of the
– A drone that delivers barbecue was spotted at a high school football game in Idaho.– An entire steer on a spit at Meatopia UK: – Man Up Texas BBQ tried out the new Slab BBQ in Austin.– A full and complete guide to eating at
Owner/Pitmaster: David’s Barbecue; Opened 1988Age: 49Smoker: Wood-fired Rotisserie SmokerWood: HickoryJimmy Harris doesn’t have much time for barbecue reviewers. “The real judge is that cash register.” And it hasn’t let him down for over two decades since he and his dad opened the
If you’ve eaten barbecue in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there’s a good chance you’ve eaten it at Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse. For more than a century, four generations of Bryans have operated barbecue restaurants, eventually creating a national franchise that’s now nine strong (eight in DFW and one in Utah). Their saturation in the market
