Film & TV
June 15, 2017
10 Filmmakers on the Rise
The Texas filmmakers poised to usher in a new Golden Age of Texas cinema.
2965 Articles
BBQ
May 30, 2017
Barbecue Honorable Mentions
Shout outs to the best meat, sides, atmosphere, and more that we found while putting together the top fifty barbecue list.
Food & Drink
May 22, 2017
The List: The Top 50 Barbecue Joints in Texas
Welcome to the golden age of Texas barbecue.
The Daily Post
February 13, 2017
Watch: Beyoncé, Maren Morris, And Gary Clark Jr. Perfectly Repped Texas At The Grammys
Queen Bey reigned, while Clark and Morris repped the Lone Star State.
Politics & Policy
January 29, 2017
How The Refugee Ban Is Affecting Texas
A snapshot of two of Texas's busiest airports in the aftermath of the refugee ban.
Politics & Policy
January 25, 2017
Flush With Power
You’ve probably heard about the bathroom bill—and you’re going to hear a lot more—but here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the legislature and the politicians, lobbyists, agitators, and donors who really run the show.
Music
December 30, 2016
The Top Twenty Texas Albums Of 2016 (According To Us)
The best albums released by Texas artists this year, according to the 'Texas Monthly' staff.
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
February 26, 2016
What Do You Think the State Song of Texas Should Be?
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Eat My Words
February 7, 2016
Texas-Sized Super Bowl Party
Your mouth’s guide to the Super Bowl, fresh from the ’Texas Monthly’ archives.
The Daily Post
December 31, 2015
Our Most Popular Stories of the Year
2015's most read in longform, news, food, and general Texanness.
Bum Steer 2016
December 23, 2015
Bum Steer Awards 2016
Rounding up a year of Texas oddballs and oddities with the Bum Steer 2016.
The Daily Post
August 18, 2015
The State of Texas: August 18, 2015
Screaming for Blue Bell ice cream can stop in less than two weeks, and rats invade the Dallas criminal court.
The Culture
October 13, 2014
Roar of the Crowd
Readers respond to the October 2014 issue.
Roar of the Crowd
July 23, 2014
Roar of the Crowd
Readers respond to the July 2014 issue.
BBQ
May 29, 2013
Recap: Daniel Vaughn at Austin’s BookPeople
As if defending the TMBBQ Top 50 weren’t enough, Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn is also in the middle of his book tour for The Prophets of Smoked Meat, which brought him last week to the city he now says is “the capital of Texas BBQ.” That’s
BBQ
May 22, 2013
A Declaration of Barbecue War
LAST WEEK WE RELEASED our quinquennial list of the state’s top fifty joints. Today the full story is online and on newsstands everywhere. It’s packed with reviews explaining why we liked our top joints and how we picked the best (and incredible photography by Wyatt McSpadden). This year, however,
BBQ
May 21, 2013
Welcome to TMBBQ.com
Things have changed dramatically since Texas Monthly published its last list of the state’s top fifty barbecue joints, in 2008. Not only has there been an unprecedented flourishing of great new joints in the past five years (sixteen of the places on this year’s list were not even open in
BBQ
May 21, 2013
A Nod to the Honorable Mentions
While the list of the best barbecue in the state of Texas (therefore, the world) is limited to just fifty joints, there’s plenty more out there to love in the Lone Star State. Our team of dedicated tasters came back from their travels with notes on everything great about Texas
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 21, 2013
Franklin Barbecue
The best barbecue joint in Texas is only four years old. This is an unusual development, but one that will surprise no one familiar with Franklin Barbecue, which, since opening in 2009, in a trailer off Interstate 35, has built a cult following for its meats. Has any other restaurant
BBQ
May 21, 2013
San Antonio Mayor Castro Lays Down Granary ’Cue on Spurs
Bad news, Memphis: not only are your Grizzlies on the way to losing to the Spurs, but you still won’t get to eat the world’s best barbecue! Taking up on a suggestion made by @tmbbq on Twitter, San Antonio mayor Julian Castro is wagering smoked
BBQ
May 17, 2013
And Now, Some BBQ Saber-Rattling
You may have noticed that when we released our list of the Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas this week, we went ahead and declared them to be the Top 50 BBQ Joints in the World. It’s right there on the cover, where we crossed out
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 17, 2013
Snow’s BBQ
For some in the small town of Lexington (population roughly 1,200), Saturdays are as holy as Sundays. It’s hard to miss these devotees. They congregate at the end of Main Street, within view of some grain elevators dressed in a gingham rust—a line of farmhands, ranchers, well-off weekenders, and groggy
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 17, 2013
Louie Mueller Barbecue
Louie Mueller Barbecue has been described as a “cathedral of smoke,” and indeed, many of the trappings of organized religion are present here: the sacramental offerings, the priesthood in their ecclesiastical red apron-robes, the flock of devoted congregants, even the disciples (Austin barbecue star Aaron Franklin credits a bite of
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 17, 2013
Pecan Lodge
Shed #2 at the Dallas Farmers Market is a vast, enclosed, and fully air-conditioned structure that essentially serves as a city-owned food court where up-and-coming restaurateurs crowd in to show off their skills. The unquestioned anchor tenant of this gastro-carnival is Pecan Lodge, a three-year-old barbecue joint producing what is
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Hashknife on the Chisholm
Staunch traditionalists who refuse to eat meat that’s been smoked in a gas-fired pit should drive right on past this remote joint just north of Mineral Wells without stopping. That way, there’ll be more of the smoky brisket—cut into thick, beautifully fatty slices—for the rest of us. And the ribs,
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Cowpoke’s
Even if the meat at Cowpoke’s were terrible, the joint would be jam-packed at all hours, since it’s located on the edge of the booming Eagle Ford Shale formation. But luckily for the patrons jawing about oil prices in the tidy dining room, the barbecue here is exceptional, certainly among
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Pody’s BBQ
Israel “Pody” Campos used to live in Austin, where he worked for the Texas Municipal Police Association, training cops all over the state. When budget cuts forced the association to downsize a few years ago, he moved back home to Pecos and took up a job as the chief deputy
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Hatfields BBQ & Blackjacks Beer Garden
This tidy cedar cabin only opened in November, but pitmaster and owner Kenny Hatfield has been perfecting his craft for years, barbecuing brisket each Friday for his friends and employees at his nearby flooring store. Hatfield smokes his brisket for eighteen hours over a mix of oak and mesquite in
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
The Granary ’Cue and Brew
Not a typical joint by any means, the Granary is part of the flashy new Pearl retail/residential complex and occupies a renovated nineteenth-century home with high ceilings and dark-brown wood trim. The vibe is hipster carnivore: the music is modern, and the walls are covered with barbecue folk art, such
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Two Bros. BBQ Market
Local celebrity chef Jason Dady—who co-owns the place with his brother Jake and wife, Crystal—has gone the route of high-end barbecue in this north San Antonio location. Here, just about everything is done by hand and recipes are original. The brisket has a deep, rich taste; the crust is thick
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Kirby’s Barbecue
Kirby’s is a living testament to the adage, “Teach your children well.” Owner and pitmaster Kirby Hyden learned to smoke meats from his father, who learned from his father, and this family know-how proves to be a rich inheritance. In 1960 Hyden’s grandfather opened a joint called Holloway’s in a
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Hutchins BBQ
Last June, after a one-alarm blaze left their pit room in shambles and their business on hold, the father-son team of Roy and Tim Hutchins began to rebuild. They documented the process on Facebook, offering reports from the construction site and musing about the psyche of the Texas barbecue purveyor
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Whup’s Boomerang Bar-B-Que
You’ll smell Whup’s long before you see it, and despite signage and GPS, you’ll probably miss the left turn that you have to make from Business State Highway 6. This cozy joint is not so much off the beaten the path as on it: a small, tidy house on a
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
City Market (Luling)
There are few places we love as much as the pit room at City Market. Entering the smoke-filled, glass-enclosed chamber at the back of the dining room is an experience you will remember for decades—a trip into an iconic, sacred space in the world of barbecue. Like Kreuz Market and
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Kreuz Market
We wanted to keep this renowned spot at the top of our list, where it’s been since our very first barbecue story, in 1973. But after repeated visits by various staffers, we had to be honest: we couldn’t. The brisket was consistently disappointing. The scanty fat on the “fatty” was
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Black’s Barbecue
Black’s has little in common with the more publicized Kreuz or Smitty’s other than that they are all in the same town. Instead of a mesmerizing encounter with a picturesque fire blazing at the end of an ancient brick pit like you’ll find at Smitty’s, at Black’s you’re funneled through
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
Texas is in the midst of a barbecue renaissance, an age of smoky enlightenment. One need only sample the goods at new-guard establishments like Franklin Barbecue, in Austin, or Pecan Lodge, in Dallas, to realize it. Yet in the face of all this newfangled excitement, Cooper’s continues to soldier on—an
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Hays Co. Bar-B-Que and Catering
Longtime San Marcosans may recall this place as the former home of Woody’s, a barbecue joint that opened in 1984. It was taken over in 2007 by the Hernandez family, and in 2011 they changed the name to Hays Co. Bar-B-Que and Catering. Last we checked, this venue does welcome
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Zimmerhanzel’s BBQ
Only a few folks were eating lunch when we arrived in this small, well-lit room decorated with mounted deer, but since we had seen the massive pits outside and the piles of post oak, we speculated that a good meal was ahead. We were right. The fat on the brisket
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Opie’s Barbecue
Upon walking through Opie’s front door you will immediately be confronted by a gleaming black metal box. If it’s your first visit, you’ll probably think to yourself that this behemoth is a little too clean and a little too showy to contain top-quality barbecue. But just wait until the lid
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Corkscrew BBQ
Set among a relentless suburban grid of drab brown-and-gray strip malls north of Houston, Corkscrew BBQ’s riotous pink-and-black mini-campus of trailers and smoke shacks stands out like a Longhorn in College Station. This is appropriate, however, considering that Corkscrew represents a new generation of barbecue in Houston. Pitmaster
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Big Boy’s Bar-B-Que
The exceptional thing to note about Big Boy’s Bar-B-Que is the fact that it exists at all. Located in a caliche lot along a desolate road in Sweetwater next to a bowling alley turned bar, Big Boy’s has the feel of an oasis—or a mirage. Blink and it might disappear.
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue
Owner Nick Pencis isn’t going to take it anymore. For years he felt compelled by regional tastes to serve lightly seasoned briskets without a speck of fat on them. But when he renovated his restaurant in 2012 (adding a new bar and patio along with an impressive pit room), a
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 16, 2013
Mumphord’s Place BBQ
The minute you park, you’ll be drawn like a moth to the glowing fireboxes and pits in the screened-in shed out back. That’s where the action is—and frankly, we wondered how the pitmaster gets any work done, he’s so busy posing for pictures with guests and explaining to newbies how
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 15, 2013
Longoria’s BBQ
In 1975 a Bell Helicopter employee named Fidencio “Fred” Longoria began making his own sausage in his kitchen at home. He wanted to create links as good as those he remembered eating in Gonzales as a child. In 1990, after years of tinkering, he finally solidified his recipe for sausage
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 15, 2013
Cranky Frank’s Barbeque Company
As popular as this Hill Country hamlet is among the day-tripping set, Fredericksburg has historically suffered from a surprising dearth of top-rate barbecue. No more. Just a mile and a half south of the knickknack and potpourri emporiums of bustling Main Street stands Cranky Frank’s Barbeque Company. Once inside the
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 15, 2013
Leon’s World’s Finest In & Out Bar-B-Que
Brazoria County native Leon O’Neal doesn’t usually dress up, but he does often don a cowboy hat, even in the summer (when the headgear is made of straw and he may be wearing shorts). Dressed up or not, he and his sister will welcome you like honored guests to their
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 15, 2013
Meshack’s Bar-B-Que
Meshack’s takes the concept of a barbecue joint and reduces it to its most basic element: the meat and nothing else. There are no tables at which to sit and enjoy your food, no whimsical décor, really no ambience at all. Just a cinder-block shack crudely painted with images of
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 15, 2013
City Meat Market
A welcome landmark on U.S. 290 between Austin and Houston is the boxy brick building of City Meat Market, in Giddings. The red painted sign reads “Bar-B-Q and Sausage”—sausage being one of their specialties. Walk through the main room, with its high ceilings, two rows of tables covered in