Always seeking a route away from the interstate, I found myself driving the back way into Mathis, Texas on FM 666. When I saw that the state had failed to skip that number when naming farm-to-market roads I just had to take it. It was a humorous detour until I
Josh Ozersky announced the line-up for Meatopia Texas today at a press conference in San Antonio. That it was held at the Pearl Brewery made it no secret that the Granary, which is located at the Pearl, would be featured. Well, that and the fact that Ozersky has
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.Robert Strickland – Dallas, TexasIt happened fast — wildly fast. As that first bite of truly great brisket faded away, I found myself drowning
As is true throughout the South, the public barbecue was commonplace in Texas long before there were any restaurants serving commercial barbecue. As soon as a little town had enough population to consume a whole steer, the fourth of July celebrations at the center of town or the political rallies
– Get some Franklin Barbecue brisket infused bourbon at CU29 in Austin.– Behold the Widowmaker:@BBQsnob new barbecue cut? The Widowmaker beef rib roast! only 2 per carcass, but sexy as hell! pic.twitter.com/VTC35AuqKP — Salt & Time (@saltandtime) August 8, 2013 – Amy Evans of the Southern
Photo by Jeff BergusThis is an extended version of an interview with Mr. Bewley that ran in the New York Times on August 4th. I visited with Mr. Bewley in his house along with his daughter Rhonda and her husband Larry Lewis who now runs
Update: This joint is permanently CLOSED.2013: A meat cutter stood next to a cutting block loaded with smoked meat. It was all illuminated by a heat lamp. This was where the cafeteria line commenced. A plate was stacked with sliced brisket, pork ribs and warm, buttered Texas toast. I placed
Paula Lambert has been making cheese at the Mozzarella Company in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas since 1982. The store/factory produces a wide variety of cheeses, but mozzarella is the flagship as the name suggests. After mastering fresh mozzarella Paula started smoking it. The smoked
If you’ve spent any time on the interstates of Texas, then you’ve probably had a similar thought – Is that barbecue worth exiting for? You see a billboard, a collection of restaurant logos on a blue board, or a sign for BBQ right along the access road. Instincts would tell
– They take their BBQ pits pretty seriously in Lone Star, Texas. A pit dispute led to shots being fired in a convenience store parking lot.– Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin needed someone to choose their food vendors. They chose Austin pitmaster John Mueller. This should be
Owner/Pitmaster: Longoria’s BBQ, opened 1995Age: 50Smoker: Wood-fired lazy-susan style smokersWood: Post oak and pecanDavid Longoria runs a joint started by his parents in a small town just south of Fort Worth. On the other side of town is Hickory Stick Barbecue which is owned and operated by Mark Jones. There are plenty of
Since 1989 Jamie Geer has been manufacturing barbecue pits for his company Jambo Pits. These days, many of the smokers that come out of his welding shop in Burleson are destined for the competition circuit. You can find the shiny custom paint jobs of famous barbecue competitors
Title: Smoke: New Firewood CookingAuthor: Tim ByresPublished: Rizzoli, 2013Tim Byres and I have known one another for a few years now. Before I knew him the owners of Smoke, a restaurant in Dallas where Byres is the chef, asked me to come in and try their barbecue. They were
Since 1960, A.N. Bewley Fabricators has been bending, slicing and welding steel for high-quality barbecue pits that can easily cost $20,000.
Last Saturday, business was booming at Pecan Lodge in Shed #2 at the Dallas Farmers Market. I was eating tamales from La Popular, another vendor at the market, and it was great to see such vibrancy in at Shed #2. Just a few years ago, when Pecan Lodge opened,
– Big Red injects a little humor into their new ad campaign for the “Big Red BBQ Bottle.” The ad is just disturbing. – Beef experts believe 2014 might be a make-or-break year for the US beef industry if herd numbers don’t improve rapidly.– They’re farming insects in Spain to
The lines at Pecan Lodge are pretty crazy these days. At the opening bell last Saturday I counted over 150 people waiting for barbecue. Today, owners Diane and Justin Fourton are announcing a few changes that may ease lines like this one:From the press release:
Owner/Pitmaster: Fargo’s Pit BBQ, opened 2000Age: 50Smoker: Wood-fired offset pitWood: Oak with a bit more mixed inAs we sat at a table inside Fargo’s Pit BBQ in Bryan, I asked owner and pitmaster Alan Caldwell if I could see his pit. He said no. In total I probably asked
Driving southwest out of Fort Worth along Highway 377 you get out into the country pretty quickly. In just fifteen minutes you’ll be in Cresson which until now was best known for a country club for sports car enthusiasts called Motorsport Ranch. About the only thing between
Texas A&M has been making jerky in the Rosenthal Meat Science Center since the 1980’s. It’s one of the most popular items sold out of the school’s on-campus meat market, and even has its own website. I picked up a bag while I attended
A Czech potato chip manufacturer has created a flavor of specifically grilled meats in their Bohemia line. Their plan is to export it to the US, and they want to begin in Texas. From their press release – “Where else should we test the new flavor of
As a companion to this week’s column on beef back ribs and last week’s on beef short ribs, here is a list of barbecue joints offering beef ribs in Texas:Beef Short Ribs:3 Stacks Smoke and Tap House, FriscoBlack’s BBQ, LockhartBlue Ox BBQ, AustinCattleack BBQ, CarrolltonCooper’s, Llano, New Braunfels
Last week, after I wrote about beef short ribs, I got a few responses from folks who said they flat out didn’t like beef ribs. After pressing them a bit more, I found that some of them had only eaten beef back ribs instead of the giant beef short ribs I
– On the Smithsonian blog Food & Think, they discuss the origins of American barbecue. They also surmise how individual styles that are so distinct from one another emerged. In the explanation they go a little light on the Texas contribution.– Raising beef is still a
Photo by Nicholas McWhirterOwner: Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue since 2006Age: 36Smoker: Gas-fired rotisserie for ribs, offset wood-fired smoker for everything else.Wood: PecanNick Pencis was once the pitmaster at Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue in Tyler. He tried his best, but knew he had a real pitmaster when he hired Jonathan
The beef short rib has become the ultimate carnivore trophy, but they're a costly menu item to produce.
Evan LeRoy has come a long way from New York. He worked for a while at Hill Country Barbecue in Manhattan before making his way to Austin. That’s a long way to come so you can cook in the back of a bar, but it’s not any
Every month we’ll bring you a profile of a photographer who has captured the people, the food and the spaces that make up the world of barbecue.Robert J. Lerma – Bee Cave, TexasI relocated to Austin in August 2008 from California. I reside in Bee Cave with my family and
“Great barbecue clearly makes creative teams think alike.” Thus begins the explanation of Parade‘s food editor on why yesterday’s cover had a curious resemblance to Texas Monthly’s June cover. The Texas Monthly team worked with Franklin Barbecue to style a tray of smoked meats fitting for
Customers love beef ribs. When a pitmaster plunks down a big, thick fatty rib on a plate, cameras are whipped out to document this ultimate carnivore trophy that is the succulent symbol of the Texas obsession with beef.While beef backs ribs have been found in joints from Fort Worth to
– It’s Texas Monthly BBQ Week. You have two more days to indulge on special menu items at joints across the state. A percentage of proceeds to benefit Foodways Texas. Read about it here, here, here, and here.– There was a
In the business world, verbal partnerships are notoriously fraught with discord, and Kenny Hatfield, the pitmaster at Hatfield’s BBQ and Blackjacks Beer Garden in Rockport, Texas, recently learned this firsthand. Earlier this year, just six months after opening the restaurant with two friends, he was celebrating the news that his
Owner/Pitmaster: La Barbecue; Opened 2012Age: 35Smoker: Indirect Heat Wood-Fired PitWood: Post OakI talked to John Lewis over the phone while he was making preparations at La Barbecue to open up the following day. John Lewis became the pitmaster at La Barbecue on November, 4 2012. That’s a few
Driving around the south side of Lake Texoma, I was in search of the Shawnee Trail. It’s an old cattle trail that crossed the Red River about five miles west of where Highway 75 crosses it now just north of Denison. The cattle trail followed an even older
Easy Tiger in Austin is many things. A bakery and coffee shop, a beer garden, and table tennis tournament grounds. They also have a great food menu with homemade sausages and sandwiches. The most impressive might be the pastrami sandwich. The slices of cured smoked meat
Spenser Magazine just published a story about the Kreuz and Smitty’s barbecue feud in Lockhart. The story outlined how the two sides of the family came together to create Schmidt Family Barbecue in Bee Cave. It was a great piece, but the companion blog post
– Killen’s BBQ in Pearland had their pit stolen, then recovered a couple of days later. This after having a hot brisket stolen straight from the pit last month. I think they need a smoker enclosure.BBQ pit has been found, a little more
Photo by Nicholas McWhirter Owner/Pitmaster: Riverport Bar-B-Que, opened in 1993Age: 45Smoker: A steel offset smokerWood: Post OakI called Stephen Joseph in the late afternoon while he watched over his pit. He was trying to get it up to temperature so he could put on the meat he would
It’s a long drive out to Clarksville from Dallas. It was a sunny Thursday and I had called in sick at work. The deadline for my barbecue assignment was looming and I hadn’t yet come on board as the barbecue editor. A few members of the barbecue tasting
Plano, Texas is about to get a solid barbecue option. Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ joint, Lockhart Smokehouse has announced plans to expand. The original location opened in 2011 in the Bishop Arts District of Oak Cliff has seen their business grow to a point where owners Jill and
When I’m watching a brisket being sliced, a few things make me shudder, like the aggressive purr of an electric knife, the whine of a deli slicer, and, the worst offense, watching the fat cap being discarded (but we’ll save that for another column).I’ll concede that there are several ways to
Friends don't let friends slice with the grain.
– Texas BBQ in North Carolina? Yep. Jim Price prefers Texas brisket to Carolina whole hog, so his research included a stop in Lockhart, Texas before he opened JJ Texas BBQ in Havelock, NC.– Greg Gatlin of Top 50 BBQ Joint Gatlin’s BBQ in Houston is profiled
Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que is well known for cooking large pieces of meat over mesquite coals. You can place your order directly at the pit before carrying it inside to have it weighed. While you wait, there are bags of jerky hanging there just waiting for
Seeing how the barbecue is made.
“You can master this process fairly quickly.” This was the quote from Slow Bone owner Jack Perkins a few months before he opened his first barbecue joint in April of this year. Perkins has been a force in the Dallas dining scene since his much heralded burger joint,
Title: Meat AmericaAuthor: Dominic EpiscopoPublished: Self-published in 2012Meat art has a provocative history in the last few decades. Lady Gaga famously wore a dress made of raw meat to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. That outfit was certainly unique, but the idea was predated by Jana
For three days this week I was a student at Beef 101, an intensive course taught by the Texas A&M University meat science staff, led by Dr. Davey Griffin, Dr. Jeff Savell, and Ray Riley. The class covers everything about cattle, from the time
– Pecan Lodge in Dallas, a Top 4 BBQ joint in the state, just might be moving. Owner and pitmaster Justin Fourton hinted at this possibility in our interview a few weeks back. Some even speculate that their next stop might not be in Dallas.– A
Pitmaster: Snow’s BBQ; opened in 2003.Age: 78Smoker: A steel smoker with an offset firebox for briskets, a direct heat pit for everything else.Wood: Post OakTootsie took her lunch break to talk with me while working her day job with the Giddings school district. After Texas Monthly named Snow’s BBQ the best barbecue
