BBQ
May 13, 2021
As Bodacious Bar-B-Q Temporarily Shutters, a Sunbird Rises
Plus: Valentina’s leaves Austin, and Arkansas gets its own barbecue trail.
La Barbecue
BBQ
July 29, 2020
The Red Rocket Hot Dogs at La Barbecue Are Out of This World
Inspired by a childhood favorite, the wieners are a welcome addition to the menu of the Austin joint, especially when served with chili.
BBQ
April 3, 2020
Barbecue Strategy: The Austin Edition, With La Barbecue, Valentina’s, and Franklin
How three of the city's most popular and beloved joints are trying to stay afloat during the pandemic.
BBQ Joint Reviews
April 16, 2019
Smiley’s Craft Barbecue Brings East Austin Flavors to Small-Town North Texas
The new Ponder food trailer is selling far more brisket chopped than sliced, but that’s just fine by pitmaster Brendan Lamb.
Fire & Smoke
December 21, 2018
Fire & Smoke: La Barbecue Is Feminizing Barbecue One Brisket at a Time
How LeAnn Mueller and Ali Clem—the only wife-and-wife barbecue team in Texas—finally brought Austin’s la Barbecue indoors, and why Los Angeles doesn’t know what it’s missing.
BBQ
July 22, 2016
Austin, South Carolina
Texas has lost one if its best pitmasters. John Lewis has taken his talents to South Carolina, and he doesn’t plan to come back to Texas anytime soon. “I live here, and I’m staying here,” he told me during my recent trip to Charleston to visit his brand-new, week-old establishment, Lewis Barbecue.
BBQ
March 31, 2015
Scrubbing Out Austin’s BBQ Growth?
If you live on the outskirts of Austin, your suburb might be the new target for barbecue joints looking to open in Travis County. That is if prospective restaurateurs see a new resolution from the Austin City Council as too onerous. It requires that barbecue smokers (and other wood-fired cooking devices)
BBQ
March 25, 2015
Interview: LeAnn Mueller of La Barbecue
Owner: La Barbecue; Opened 2012Age: 42LeAnn Mueller hails from a famous barbecue family, but all she ever wanted was to be a professional photographer. Now she has the photography career and one of the state’s most highly regarded barbecue joints, which is ironic for someone who wanted nothing
BBQ
February 26, 2015
New Head Pitmaster at La Barbecue
It’s not breaking news that la Barbecue pitmaster John Lewis is working to open a new barbecue joint in Charleston, South Carolina. He announced his intentions late last year, and Lewis Barbecue will open later this year. That means John Lewis will be spending a
BBQ
February 24, 2015
A Barbecue Man in a Quiche Town
Barbecue’s reputation in the culinary world has turned a corner. Last week the nominations for the New York based James Beard Foundation’s annual awards were announced, and a pitmaster was among the names that were otherwise a roll call of haute cuisine. Under the heading “Best Chef: Southwest”
BBQ
March 21, 2014
Bacon in the Time of PEDv
This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy stayed home … and this little piggy got chronic diarrhea and died. That’s no nursery rhyme. It’s what has happened to five million piglets since April of 2013 when the nearly one-hundred-percent fatal Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) first started
Eat My Words
February 20, 2014
GQ Names Qui Best New Restaurant of the Year
And La Barbecue, another Austin establishment, also made food critic Alan Richman's list of the best new restaurants of the year.
BBQ
February 14, 2014
Texas’s Best BBQ Sandwiches
At Prause Meat Market in La Grange, there is a green paper sign right next to the barbecue counter. It reads “Sorry We Do NOT Make Sandwiches.” It’s a reminder to customers that this is a meat market where meat—smoked or raw—is sold by the pound. If you want a
BBQ
February 10, 2014
Jimmy Kimmel in Austin
Jimmy Kimmel and his sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez came to Austin for some SXSW scouting over the weekend. Kimmel will be taping his popular late night show in Austin during SXSW, and he was doing some advance barbecue scouting. Saturday began with Franklin Barbecue followed by Micklethwait Craft Meats
BBQ
October 25, 2013
Everybody Line Up
“Line are overrated.” This is the conclusion of economist Tyler Cowen in a recent article where he shared some of his principles for finding good restaurants. For Cowen, standing in line is a conformist activity, and the presence of a line is a not a good indicator of the
Food & Drink
July 23, 2013
You May Love Beef Short Ribs, But Pitmasters Don’t
The beef short rib has become the ultimate carnivore trophy, but they're a costly menu item to produce.
BBQ
July 17, 2013
Interview: John Lewis of La Barbecue
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
BBQ
May 31, 2013
BBQ Anatomy 101: Know Your Brisket
IF YOU’RE EATING BRISKET in Texas, chances are that your favorite pitmaster is ordering Item No. 120: a beef brisket, deckle-off, boneless. The number corresponds to the cut of meat defined by the Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, or IMPS. No. 120 is “boneless,” meaning that ribs one through four have been
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 14, 2013
La Barbecue
In this case, “La” is not a definite article referring to the “Cuisine Texicana” this relatively new joint says it serves; it’s an abbreviation referring to the first name of the co-owner LeAnn Mueller, granddaughter of the founder of Taylor’s famous Louie Mueller Barbecue (disclosure: LeAnn is a contributing photographer
BBQ Joint Reviews
May 14, 2013
John Mueller Meat Co.
If there’s a dark prince of Texas barbecue, it’s probably John Mueller, the famously irascible, hugely talented, at times erratic master of meat who left his family’s legendary joint—Louie Mueller Barbecue, in Taylor—and set out on his own in 2001 with John Mueller’s B-B-Q, on Austin’s East Side. By 2003,
Food & Drink
February 25, 2013
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Ire
Two grease fires destroyed Louie Mueller Barbecue's 1959 brick pit in Taylor this past weekend—just as John Mueller's new trailer opened in Austin.
BBQ Joint Reviews
February 5, 2013
John Mueller Meat Co.
You may remember last October when John Mueller was shut out of his well-regarded JMueller BBQ trailer on South First Street in Austin. He wasn’t happy about it, to say the least, but stayed quiet, plotting his return. That
BBQ Joint Reviews
July 21, 2012
JMueller BBQ – Closed
Update: This joint is CLOSED. Pitmaster John Mueller was unceremoniously relieved of his duties by his sister LeAnn Mueller who owns the place. She has reopened with the new name La Barbecue. I’ll