Kerlin BBQ isn’t yet a year old, making it one of the youngest barbecue joints in Austin to be mentioned with the big names. Owner and pitmaster Bill Kerlin is also pretty new to the craft of smoking meat. “I never cooked a brisket until I moved to
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.R.J. Hinkle – Addison, TexasA native son of the Lone Star State as well as a
As I’ve talked about before, smoked brisket wasn’t always the cornerstone of Texas barbecue. Before the beef purveyor IBP started shipping individual cuts to meat markets, these establishments (if they smoked meats at all) were cooking the entire beef forequarter. This meant they were smoking both the cuts familiar to us
– John Lewis of Austin’s la Barbecue will travel to South Carolina to show them what Texas BBQ is all about in this cross-cultural barbecue event.– Alice Laussade lists ten ways you know your relationship is over in Dallas. #2 is “He takes you to Dickey’s.”–
Pitmaster: Lockhart Smokehouse, Plano; Opened 2014Age: 42Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: OakWill Fleischman has tattoos and steel hoops in his ears, but his most distinguishing feature is the beard. He’s hard to miss when behind the counter slicing, but it might be a
Nothing about Hinze’s BBQ in Sealy says trendy. It’s situated a half block from I-10, and right next to a Whataburger. Just like that Whataburger, Hinze’s has a drive-thru stacked with vehicles. There were so many cars that I went inside to find their massive menu displayed on
I eat a lot of barbecue, but rarely do I fear taking a bite of what I’m served. This weekend was one of those rare experiences. It was some of the most soulless, thoughtless barbecue I’ve encountered. There were so many questionable decisions made in the course of assembling a
Austin County has served as the cradle for German Texans since 1831 when Friedrich Ernst founded the town of Industry. It was the first permanent German settlement in Texas, and Ernst became a huge promoter of Texas through his letters back to his home country. His home also became
– Zagat Austin lists their favorite barbecue events around the state this summer.– Gayot comes out with their list of the top ten barbecue joints in the country.– CheapTickets.com has a list of their top BBQ destinations. In Austin they highlight a humorous paring of events
Pitmaster: Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew; Opened 2011Age: 44Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: Post OakLance Kirkpatrick didn’t grow up cooking barbecue. He didn’t come from a long line of barbecue cooks, but at the age of thirty-one he answered the most important newspaper ad
Brown’s Bar-B-Que has one of the best briskets in Austin, and one of the best side items in Texas. When I visited a year ago (at their previous location) I found the brisket to be the weak link, but no longer. Pitmaster Daniel Brown has found the sweet spot in his
Smoke has become a popular new ingredient in all kinds of cuisine outside of the barbecue realm. Chef Richard Gras of Oak in Dallas is pushing those limits. He is smoking pasta. Well, technically he is smoking flour over mesquite chunks, then using that flour for his house
During the nineteenth century public barbecues in Texas, you were likely to find a whole calf, goat, or lamb roasting for the crowd. But it was more likely that you’d find a whole hog. Hogs were prevalent in the eastern part of the state, which made them easier to come by,
– Alison Cook of the Houston Chronicle doesn’t hand out the four star reviews often, but Killen’s BBQ in Pearland just got that high praise this week. She calls it “Houston’s first destination barbecue.”– Fed Man Walking has released a number of Austin BBQ lists over the past
Owner/Pitmaster: Martin’s Place; Opened 1925 (current location 1939)Age: 57Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: OakA Kapchinskie has been cooking barbecue at Martin’s Place in Bryan, Texas since 1925. That makes it older than Black’s BBQ in Lockhart and just as
During an interview with Steve Kapchinskie of Martin’s Place in Bryan (since 1925), he mentioned a copy of an old menu that he had in his records. The menu is from the forties,and he was kind enough to scan it and send it for us to post it here.
Johnny Doyle cooks on a gas rotisserie, but he’d do it differently if he could. He takes pride in the barbecue he puts out in his nearly forty-year-old Denison restaurant, so when a pit fire destroyed his Oylers, he wanted to replace them. “[J&R Manufacturing] told me it would be
Zagat produced a couple great videos on Texas barbecue comparing the historic and the hip joints in Texas. The first highlights the historic joints like Black’s BBQ, Opie’s, Snow’s BBQ, and Louie Mueller Barbecue: The second video looks at the new and hip barbecue joints in Austin. It features Franklin Barbecue, Kerlin BBQ, la
A barbecue sauce specific to North Texas.
– If you’ve never been to Memphis in May and want to get a taste, check out Republic of Swine from Bitter Southerner. A taste: “First timers British Bulldog BBQ of Surrey, England are…the “best of the best” from the British Barbecue Society — which sounds about as
Owner/Pitmaster: Kirby’s Barbeque; opened 1991 (2007 in current location)Age: 59Smoker: Offset steel smokersWood: OakUntil Anna Nicole Smith came along, the most famous area resident of Limestone County was Cynthia Ann Parker. She was abducted from Fort Parker at a young age, and her
Melissa Perkins grew up in Colbert, Oklahoma just across the Red River from Texas around the same time that the legendary PO Sam had his barbecue joint along Franklin Street in Colbert. A friend of hers worked at the barbecue joint, so when she took her friend to PO
Title: River Cottage Handbook No. 13; Curing & SmokingAuthor: Steven LambPublished: Bloomsbury Publishing; 2014River Cottage is a Cooking school in rural southwest England that focuses on the use of local and ethically raised meat. In England, River Cottage’s chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been the host of
In the middle of this Wednesday’s lunch hour nearly 16,000 people were watching a brisket smoke in real time on YouTube. Arby’s was re-airing their record-breaking thirteen-hour commercial that was first shown on a single television station in Duluth, Minnesota, over the Memorial Day weekend. They were promoting their
– This month is National BBQ Month, and yesterday was National Brisket Day. Why so limiting?– Matthew Odam from the Austin American Statesman steps into the barbecue list fray with his Top 10 BBQ Joints in Austin.– You can also listen to Matthew Odam talk barbecue
Owner/Pitmaster: Oklahoma Joe’s Bar-B-Cue; Opened 2011Age: 52Smoker: Gas-Fired Rotisserie SmokerWood: PecanJoe Davidson has been involved in all aspects of the barbecue world. He became a successful entrepreneur when his smoker company got off the ground in the eighties. He hit his
Chances are you won’t just happen upon Bubba Moses Pit BBQ in Dawson. The tiny town is along State Highway 31 between Corsicana and Waco. Even if you’ve driven that route, a well-timed sneeze might cause you to miss Dawson entirely. If you’re alert, look for the steady mesquite smoke that rises
Last week I went searching for good barbecue in Oklahoma. I wasn’t looking just for barbecue joints in the state, but was instead trying to find a defining factor of how barbecue in Oklahoma is unique to that state. With my wife’s family still living in Oklahoma City, I’d canvassed the
This is a note from pitmaster Carey Bringle. It is copied in its entirety, with his permission, from the Facebook page of Peg Leg Porker. And to those who will surely point it out, I do realize he is talking to me too, but it’s an important message. Enjoy.To
– The summer barbecue list onslaught is in full effect this week. The first one comes from Travel + Leisure which ranks the twenty best cities in the country for barbecue. Nevermind that Nashville is laughably in the top spot, but they left off towns like Lockhart, Texas
Steven Raichlen, the man who wrote the Barbecue! Bible, will be in Texas this week for three events with Kent Rathbun’s restaurants. He’s promoting his new book Man Made Meals in Austin tonight, Plano tomorrow, and in the Woodlands on Friday. Each event ticket
Photo by Nicolas McWhirterOwner/Pitmaster: Virgie’s Bar-B-Que; Opened 2005Age: 49Smoker: Wood-Fired Offset SmokerWood: Post OakOn Virgie’s website they have a brief description of their restaurant, but what has stuck with me was their promise of a “barbecure.” It’s a
In Wyatt McSpadden’s book Texas BBQ from 2009 there are two evocative early-morning photos of the tall smokestack at Mack’s Split Rail Bar-B-Que in Mineola. Other than these photos, I hadn’t seen or heard much about the place and wondered if maybe it had closed. On a trip to Tyler
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.Jody Horton – Austin, TexasOriginally from Charleston, South Carolina, Jody has called Austin, Texas home for more than
Fred Fountaine is arguably Texas barbecue’s most influential pitmaster—and you’ve probably never heard of him. For forty years he cooked the barbecue at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, and during his tenure, he helped bring national acclaim to Texas barbecue.Fountaine, who grew up in Massachussetts, lived in Rhode Island after
– Say it with me. “Whiskey-Flavored Pigs.”– Twelve great examples of barbecue on scripted television shows.– Another Rudy’s is coming to Houston:@BBQsnob for the Que News. 59 and Grand Parkway sugar land / ft.bend county pic.twitter.com/vq7GUJhVDE — Pappa Charlies BBQ (@pappacharlies)
Owner/Pitmaster/Chef: The Granary; Opened 2012Age: 31Smoker: Wood-Fired Rotisserie SmokerWood: Live Oak There isn’t another barbecue joint in Texas with as many menus to deal with as The Granary. They have a lunch menu with traditional barbecue items and a rotating daily lunch special that
A accolade from two years back brought me to this renovated Sonic on the east side of San Antonio. A local media outlet (I don’t recall which one) wrote that Ed’s Smok-N-Q served the best brisket in the city. That claim in San Antonio doesn’t carry quite the weight as the same
A few months ago the Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE) released a sixty-six page report on meat consumption around the globe called the Meat Atlas. In their words “the report presents a global perspective on the impacts of industrial meat and dairy production, and illustrates
As of yesterday, pitmaster Emilio Soliz is gone from Two Bros. BBQ Market in San Antonio. He broke the news over Facebook and I caught Soliz on the phone.“I’m nervous, but excited.” He’s planning a new venture in San Antonio which he hopes to have open soon. Right
As you read this, Texas Monthly’s editor, Jake Silverstein, is moving the last few items out of his office. He has traded his view of the Texas Capital building for that of a Duane Reade and is moving to the New York Times Magazine. We’ll miss that guy.And I personally owe him
– Kitchen scientist Greg Blonder designs what he feels is the ideal smoker – the Janus Smoker.– Here are a few more less-than-ideal grills that will work if you don’t have a lawn.– A functional Biblia Definitiva Do Churrasco (The Bible of Barbecue) comes out of
Pitmaster: BBQ Pitmasters (2010), Sugar & Smoke (2012), Chopped (2012)Age: 43I visited Sugar & Smoke restaurant in Fredericksburg in early 2012. That’s the first time I was introduced to Nicole Davenport. The menu was long, with only a few items of true barbecue. When I asked
I was looking for a jerk chicken restaurant just south of the Trinity University campus in San Antonio when I drove past a brightly painted converted service station. I hadn’t planned on visiting Hot Spot BBQ that day, but when the jerk chicken shack was locked down tight, I made
Title: Charcutería: The Soul of Spain Author: Jeffrey WeissPublished: Surrey Books, 2014In recent years we’ve seen the publication of several high profile books on charcuterie and salumi. From them you can learn the finer points of curing meats in the French or Italian traditions, but recipes from Spain
Arguably the most beloved figure in Texas barbecue is Tootsie Tomanetz, a septuagenarian pitmaster who’s been tending the fires at Snow’s BBQ since it opened in 2003. She was first discovered by Texas Monthly in 2008, stooped over the hot smoker on the outskirts of Lexington,
– A Texas Ranger tweets that he prefers North Carolina barbecue and rightfully catches the ire of fans.– The Rangers don’t serve North Carolina barbecue at the stadium:Dinner is served in center field! BBQ is always a Texas favorite! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/SCDSPkN38u — FSSouthwest Girls (@FSSWGirls)
Photo by Robert J. LermaOwner/Pitmaster: Buzzie’s Bar-B-Q, opened 1993 (current location since 1997)Age: 54Smoker: Wood-fired smokerWood: Live OakI had just started a phone conversation with Harold “Buzzie” Hughes. “Let her rip potato chip” was his way of getting our interview kicked off. Buzzie is a man of steadfast opinions on
This review comes from Texas Monthly’s Food Editor Pat Sharpe who found this little barbecue trailer during her travels through Victoria.The first sign that today was not my day was when I screeched up in front of Kevin Broll’s barbecue truck a mere nine minutes before closing time—that was pretty
Texans will take on Australians in a barbecue cook-off next month in Houston. As part of the Houston International Festival, whose theme this year in Celebrate Australia!, ten top Houston restaurants will prepare their finest barbecue, and compete for the title and bragging rights of
