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Pitmaster Interviews

  • Interview: Christine Jones of Christine’s Blues ‘N BBQ

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    Owner/Pitmaster: Christine’s Blues ‘N BBQ; Opened 2000 Age: 53 Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired Pit Wood: Mesquite and Pecan Records line the wall above the bar at Christine’s Blues ‘N BBQ. As soap operas played silently on the television, I asked her where all the good music was. With a smile, as if she thought nobody would ask, she found …

  • Christopher B “Stubbs” Stubblefield: A Cook

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    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 in here,” Taylor said to …

  • Interview: Alice Lassaude of Meat Fight

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    Alice Lassaude is an incredibly funny writer with a James Beard award to show for it. She’s also the Meat Queen of Meat Fight, or more properly, the CEO of Meat Fight, Inc. Meat Fight is a barbecue competition unlike any other. It pits chefs against chefs, and leaves all the judging to a panel …

  • Interview: Earnest Griffith Sr. of Back Country Bar-B-Q

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    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 the downtown tunnels, which began construction in the mid-1970’s, and …

  • Interview: Arnis Robbins of Evie Mae’s Bar-B-Que

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    Owner/Pitmaster: Evie Mae’s Bar-B-Que; Opened 2015 Age: 32 Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired Pit Wood: Oak Arnis and Mallory Robbins opened Evie Mae’s Bar-B-Que last year in Wolfforth. They started in a food trailer along the highway, and quickly gained a following. A year after opening, they celebrated a new chapter in their brand new barbecue joint not far from the …

  • Interview: Dwight Harvey of Off The Bone Barbeque

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    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 joint has grown with it. Not willing to rest easy …

  • Interview: Laura Loomis of Two Bros. BBQ

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    Pitmaster: Two Bros. BBQ; Opened 2009 Age: 28 Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired Pit Wood: Oak A few years ago, Laura Loomis didn’t think much of Texas barbecue. Neither cooking nor eating it was a big deal in her family, and she admits to never really having a favorite joint growing up. She doesn’t remember eating good barbecue until working …

  • Interview: Karl Kuby Sr. of Kuby’s Sausage House

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    Owner: Kuby’s Sausage House; Opened 1961 Age: 84 If you’ve had breakfast at Kuby’s Sausage House in Dallas’s Snider Plaza, chances are you’ve seen Karl Kuby Sr. canvassing the dining room looking for kids so he can pass out his trove of gummy bears. At eighty-four he’s still there often, or down at the family’s meat processing …

  • Interview: Tim Mikeska of Mikeska Brands

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    Owner: Mikeska Brands Texas Bar-B-Q; Founded 2008 Age: 56 Smoker: Brick Smokehouse Wood: Oak wood with oak and hickory sawdust Tim Mikeska has had enough with running restaurants. He’s traded it in for the wholesale sausage business, and now his family’s Czech sausage recipe can be enjoyed in Texas, New York, Connecticut, and all over Chicago. He comes from …

  • Interview: Johan Fritzell of Holy Smoke BBQ

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    Owner/Pitmaster: Holy Smoke BBQ; Opened 2014 Age: 43 Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired Pit Wood: Oak Swedes love to grill, but low-and-slow, Texas-style barbecue is a concept so foreign that only one restaurant in the country serves it. They opened in 2014 when Johan Fritzell turned his passion into a rural barbecue stop in a field in southwestern Sweden, one and …

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