A Few Bones to Pick
While I was excited to read the latest issue of Texas Monthly (yes, we do read up here in the Panhandle), I was shocked to see that our favorite, Tyler’s Barbeque, in Amarillo, wasn’t anywhere on your list of the top fifty barbecue joints, not even in the honorable mentions [“The 50 Best BBQ Joints 2021,” November]. I recall Tyler’s has been on your list before. Did your staff have some sort of collective amnesia from eating too much downstate barbecue? I’m guessing the wide-open spaces and big sky this far north might frighten your writers and tasters, who aren’t used to being able to see the horizon in all directions.
Chuck Kitsman, Amarillo
Holy chow! No Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, in Llano, on the list? Being in Kerrville, that’s been my go-to joint for years. I’m singin’ a different tune now, but which one? “Crazy” or “I Will Always Love You”—or maybe it’s “Turn out the lights, the party’s over . . .”
Steve Brow, Kerrville
I’m amazed that Railhead Smokehouse, in Fort Worth, never makes your list. Best ribs in town, very good brisket, fun atmosphere, and the best prices in the Metroplex. Plus, coldest draft beer you can find.
Steve Hull, Richardson
Selected Responses From TexasMonthly.com . . .
These tasters must be a bunch of Yankee Austin millennials who do not even know what real barbecue tastes like.
Larry Boyd
Looks like this list was compiled by someone from Ohio. Oh, wait. It was. Let’s get some Texans to do this work.
Heath
As usual, TM, you are in the ballpark, but you are outside the foul lines. The biggest decision diners have to make always has been, and remains, bread or crackers. And anyone requesting a carrot soufflé with their meal isn’t looking for a barbecue joint; they’re looking for an Applebee’s.
David Boggan
WTH—Buc-ee’s not in the top fifty?
Rob Roll Smoke
I can’t believe they left off Bill Miller!
Tad Bednarz
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for putting Franklin Barbecue’s incredibly overrated and overpriced BBQ someplace besides first.
Bobby Barker
407 BBQ gets only an honorable mention?? It’s some of the very best in the state. Whomever you sent there to taste Bryan’s cooking must not know squat about BBQ.
Last Rational Person on Earth
Being from Lockhart, all I can say is that this list is a joke.
Roscoe P. Coaltrain
