“I always just hope that it’s a well-rounded story that we’re telling," the Houston chef says.
Black BBQ
Four of the state’s best pitmasters share their tips.
The brothers behind the longtime Dallas joint are doing everything from Facebook Live chats to free delivery service to help cope during the pandemic.
Fried catfish served with smoked meat is a magical combination—and harder to order than it should be.
Harvey Clay has spent much of his adult life introducing the brisket, ribs, and sausage of his youth into smoked-meat deserts.
Greg Gatlin’s joint is serving better wings than any of the big chains.
After reluctantly leaving past methods behind, the joint now serves some of the best brisket in Dallas.
At the joint they’ve run since 2001, Charles and JoAnn Thomas offer a great deal for good food.
The legacy of Smith McArthur Jr., the man who built the joint from the ground up, is carried on by his children.
Derrick and Kesha Walker have brought phenomenal brisket, rip tips, and sweet potato pie to their old neighborhood.
After the untimely demise of his DeSoto joint, he’s serving great barbecue again from a new trailer.
An intrepid Texas barbecue editor seeks out smoked meats on a long drive from Minnesota to Ontario.
Patrick Joubert’s Fort Worth joint marries the Louisiana flavors of his childhood with the barbecue of his deep Texas roots.
Steve and Sherice Garner’s Houston joint pays homage to the authentic, Louisiana-style sausage of their youth.
The barbecue history of Southeast Texas has been entwined with links for as long as it’s had a dining culture. Legendary joints like Patillo’s Bar-B-Q have been making all-beef sausages stuffed in beef casings for over a century, and a dozen or so link shops carry on…
Hal Guillory serves Southeast Texas specialties at this Beaumont institution.
The family-run Dallas institution is finally back in business after 2017's devastating fire.
Built for the 1908 Elks National Convention, the structure played a role in the lynching of Allen Brooks, which the city will finally recognize with a memorial.
Find excellent chicken-fried steak, buttery cornbread, and a unique pineapple cream pie in Fort Worth.
Abraham Franks finds his true calling as a pitmaster in Ovilla after a stressful career in Vegas.
Podcast: At Momma Jean’s BBQ in Lampasas, owner and pitmaster Johnny Walker carries on his family’s barbecue legacy.
Stop in at the Forest Hill barbecue joint for smoky ribs and brisket-stuffed baked potatoes.
The exhibition, featuring memorabilia from barbecue joints across the country, offers an educational experience as well as a nostalgic one.
In the second episode of our Fire & Smoke podcast, we explore the lasting impact of Etta Randall, a black pitmaster who served four generations of Panhandle residents.
The “Green Books” guides helped black tourists avoid humiliation—and worse.
Here’s a primer to the language of African American barbecue joints in Texas.
Says longtime pitmaster George 'Slim' Miller: 'If that meat don’t feel you, and you don’t feel that meat, ain’t nobody gonna enjoy it.'
The descendants of the late Roy Burns do the institution proud with stuffed potatoes, rib sandwiches, and other favorites.
With its new, larger location, this Third Ward joint’s fried seafood is just as good as its smoked meats.
Owner and pitmaster Johnny Walker’s no-frills menu includes tender, smoky ribs and a sauce with ”some stuff going on.”
With its meat cooked on-site and an eye-catching exhaust system, Houston's new Q is a first-class joint.
Ready for this jelly: Pig ears provide most of the gelatin in the Beaumont restaurant's version, which is heavy on the meat.
Using history as a guide—especially Frank X. Tolbert's priceless Texas reporting—I set out to create the ideal BBQ complement.
Don't be fooled by appearances at this longtime Marshall joint. Herbert White's secret recipe makes Wednesdays extra special.
With a sandwich like the Nasty Nate and impressive barbecue, this one-man show in San Antonio has earned a loyal following.
In 1926 Etta Randall, a young black woman from deep East Texas, set off for a lawless boomtown in the Panhandle, where she found unexpected success not in the oil fields but in an old concrete pit.
A backyard warrior during his younger days in Oak Cliff, Kelvin Harris spent his downtime as a maintenance worker in an aircraft mechanic shop studying videos of the state’s barbecue masters on his phone. Eventually he opened his own place. When early critics of his otherwise stellar brisket suggested he’d…
Pitmaster Greg Gatlin used to be a defensive back at Rice, which was no doubt good mental training for running a barbecue business. He upgraded his highly successful operation a couple of years ago from a small house to new digs with more than four thousand square feet of space.
Strip centers are seldom homey, but the first thing you’ll notice at Top 5 is a sense of community. Kendon Greene greets every customer with “It’s a smoking good day!” and the staff is equally friendly and chatty. They’re good people, and they produce great, highly distinctive ’cue, thanks largely…
We foolishly thought pitmaster Alan Caldwell might finally be ready to chat about the secrets of his smoking method. Ha. Caldwell said only, “You can ask . . .” and then broke into a big smile followed by silence. When we arrived, the eight or so tables were all taken,…
From the view on either side of the highway, Notrees—the town between Kermit and Odessa—seems to have been born of the simplest observation. Not much out here grows any higher than cotton. Heading further north, they don’t even have the luxury of scrubby mesquite. So if you’re going to cook barbecue…
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…
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…
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…