Snow's BBQ

BBQ Joint Reviews |
June 1, 2017

Snow’s BBQ (Top 50)

It’s early morning and the air is not yet blistering, so you roll the car windows down. You turn off the highway onto a farm road and meander through pastures and farmland, anticipation growing with every mile. Thirty minutes later you arrive in the micropolis of Lexington (population 1,200) and…

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
November 8, 2016

Snow’s Queen

This story about the amazing Tootsie Tomanetz originally ran in our October issue. We’re posting it here in its entirety along with a collection of photos from Wyatt McSpadden. He was assigned with capturing the essence of Tootsie for the story, which he did masterfully, but we could only run so…

By Daniel Vaughn

Food & Drink |
September 21, 2016

Snow’s Queen

On Saturdays Tootsie Tomanetz cooks barbecue the old-fashioned way for legions of loyal fans. That doesn’t mean she’ll ever give up her day job.

By Daniel Vaughn

snow's pork steak
BBQ Recipes |
May 16, 2016

Tootsie Tomanetz’s Pork Steak

Tootsie Tomanetz has been cooking barbecue for fifty years, an art she didn’t start practicing professionally until she was in her thirties. When she began her career in Giddings, offset smokers weren’t nearly as popular as they are today. Then, barbecue was cooked directly over wood coals, and that’s the…

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
December 1, 2015

The Many Briskets of Texas

Not all briskets are created equal. That much is obvious to anyone who’s had a great one—or a bad one. Those experiences are easy to contrast, but what about when it’s not a question of good or bad? When it’s a matter of simply being different? I was struck by the variety…

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
April 11, 2014

Brisket Ain’t Cheap

Two weeks ago Cranky Frank’s Barbeque in Fredericksburg finally bit the bullet. They raised their prices for barbecue and posted a sign on the door explaining the change to their customers. Not two days later I received a question over Twitter with a photo of the sign.

By Daniel Vaughn

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…

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
September 23, 2013

BBQ Photographers: Wyatt McSpadden

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. Wyatt McSpadden – Austin, Texas I’ve been shooting pictures at BBQ places around Texas for better than 25 years. I’ve had the…

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
June 26, 2013

Interview: Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ

Pitmaster: Snow’s BBQ; opened in 2003. Age: 78 Smoker: A steel smoker with an offset firebox for briskets, a direct heat pit for everything else. Wood: Post Oak Tootsie 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…

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ |
June 19, 2013

Interview: Kerry Bexley of Snow’s BBQ

Kerry Bexley (center) at the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival Owner/Pitmaster: Snow’s BBQ; opened in 2003. Age: 46 Smoker: A steel smoker with an offset firebox for briskets, a direct heat pit for everything else. Wood: Post Oak It was Friday afternoon and Kerry was getting ready to start the…

By Daniel Vaughn

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…

By Texas Monthly

BBQ Joint Reviews |
December 20, 2010

Snow’s BBQ

After driving three hours from Dallas to arrive in Lexington at nine in the morning, it’s hard not to suffer some validation bias no matter what you sink your teeth into. But it helps when it’s perfectly smoked and silky tender brisket. I invited a friend on a…

By Daniel Vaughn

BBQ Joint Reviews |
May 21, 2008

Snow’s BBQ

A small wood-frame restaurant, open only on Saturdays and only from eight in the morning until whenever the meat runs out, usually around noon, Snow’s is remarkable not only for the quality of its ’cue—“outlandishly tender brisket, fall-apart-delicious chicken”—but for the unlikeliness of its story. The genius behind this meat…

By Texas Monthly