Texas BBQ

[deadshank 24653]

52 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

“Down to buda”

9 miles between the two joints

 

lol, in houston, we have neighborhoods bigger than that

Austin fellas are soft.

[GreenspointTexas 9605]

“How dare you say i should drive 12 minutes (thats what it currently says on google maps) for BBQ!

[Jerry Callo 8704]

Tomorrow, I will walk over from our seats at Q2 for a Valentina's brisket taco. Best grub in the stadium.

[jimmyjazz 45963]

9 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

Tomorrow, I will walk over from our seats at Q2 for a Valentina's brisket taco. Best grub in the stadium.

Wait, they cater to Q2?  Shit, my office is around the corner.

[Jerry Callo 8704]

Wait, they cater to Q2?  Shit, my office is around the corner.

They have a trailer during the soccer matches with a limited menu. Brisket tacos, a couple different sandwiches, rack of ribs.

[PantsTent 2002]

Tried to go to Valentina's Sunday at 11:30. The line was insane wrapped around the inside perimeter, and they were hanging the "sold out of brisket" sign already.  So much for a soft opening.  Awesome space, though, hope it works out for him and he's able to scale up with the same quality.  Well and people continue to visit one the new wears off.

 

[futureman 22469]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:23 AM, Party_Taco said:

Y’all is talking crazy…

“Fine”?!

This ain’t no Rudy’s!

this is central texas, ground zero for the best bbq on the planet.  interstellar is fine.

[Native Horn 3504]

22 hours ago, irishtexan said:

Yeah. That's 18 miles roundtrip on I-35 currently under construction that I don't have to travel. Plus I don't have to be in Buda. These are good things. 

I don't give a shit how far people drive for BBQ in Houston.

Do you even Old San Antonio Road, bro?

[tx 3 putt 76980]

Jr’s Smokehouse on 59. Just past buccee heading south. Would I order a plate here, nope. Would I order a chopped beef with chopped sausage ? Hell to the yes…..

 

[DoobieWah 1445]

The Jerk Store called and...

[Braff Zacklin 13592]

2 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

There are times when the over-the-top saltiness and greasiness of a Muncho just hits the fucking spot. Well done, sir.

[tx 3 putt 76980]

Just now, Braff Zacklin said:

There are times when the over-the-top saltiness and greasiness of a Muncho just hits the fucking spot. Well done, sir.

and that time, is all the time 

[Jerry Callo 8704]

Grabbed a moist brisket sandwich and spicy slaw from Rollin Smoke BBQ in Austin. Arbor Food Court on East 12th. It's really good.

Too often, I want to sample meats by the pound. Sometimes, a sandwich is the right option.

[ScottS 1065]

7 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Jr’s Smokehouse on 59. Just past buccee heading south. Would I order a plate here, nope. Would I order a chopped beef with chopped sausage ? Hell to the yes…..

 

When I used to make the trip on 59 between Houston and the coastal bend I stopped here many a time to avoid the crowds at the Wharton Buc-ee's or at Prasek's, especially when I was headed south on 59.  Loved being able to pull in here, get gas if needed, take a piss, grab a chopped beef sandwich, and let the dogs out in the field next to the store while I ate my sandwich.  I also would pick up a jar or two of their salsas from time to time.   Great place that feels like a hidden gem right in plain sight.

[Party_Taco 3734]

Fwiw, my top three are Louie M, Franklins, and probably Truth so I might really just like heavy pepper. 

Interesting…

My only visit to Interstellar blew away stops at both Truth locations. Very much enjoyed Truth in Brenham, but would firmly put the Houston location into the “fine” category.

[tx 3 putt 76980]

3 minutes ago, ScottS said:

When I used to make the trip on 59 between Houston and the coastal bend I stopped here many a time to avoid the crowds at the Wharton Buc-ee's or at Prasek's, especially when I was headed south on 59.  Loved being able to pull in here, get gas if needed, take a piss, grab a chopped beef sandwich, and let the dogs out in the field next to the store while I ate my sandwich.  I also would pick up a jar or two of their salsas from time to time.   Great place that feels like a hidden gem right in plain sight.

i agree, hidden gem. If you like chicken salad, it’s great there and made fresh daily. Very good sausage and meat market. All their pickled stuff is excellent 

[SizzleChest 8284]

4 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

Grabbed a moist brisket sandwich and spicy slaw from Rollin Smoke BBQ in Austin. Arbor Food Court on East 12th. It's really good.

Too often, I want to sample meats by the pound. Sometimes, a sandwich is the right option.

But did they have Munchos?

[Deej 76800]

Seems suspect.

Quote

The LawnStarter rankings includes 199 cities, but here are the top 15 barbeque cities for 2023:

1. Kansas City, Missouri

2. St. Louis, Missouri

3. Kansas City, Kansas

4. Memphis, Tennessee

5. Houston, Texas

6. Orlando, Florida

7. Springfield, Missouri

8. Omaha, Nebraska

9. Nashville, Tennessee

10. Richmond, Virginia

11. Los Angeles, California

12. Austin, Texas

13. Minneapolis, Minnesota

14. New York, New York

15. Las Vegas, Nevada

 

https://www.statesman.com/story/entertainment/local/2023/06/27/best-bbq-austin-texas-barbecue-cities-ranking-list-2023-lawnstarter-us-country/703608

 

[Anastasis 23474]

Lawn care blog seems legit. 

[Texzilla58 4739]

Seems suspect.

The LawnStarter rankings includes 199 cities, but here are the top 15 barbeque cities for 2023:
1. Kansas City, Missouri
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Kansas City, Kansas
4. Memphis, Tennessee
5. Houston, Texas
6. Orlando, Florida
7. Springfield, Missouri
8. Omaha, Nebraska
9. Nashville, Tennessee
10. Richmond, Virginia
11. Los Angeles, California
12. Austin, Texas
13. Minneapolis, Minnesota
14. New York, New York
15. Las Vegas, Nevada

 
https://www.statesman.com/story/entertainment/local/2023/06/27/best-bbq-austin-texas-barbecue-cities-ranking-list-2023-lawnstarter-us-country/703608
 

I’m sorry this is quite a bit of bullshit.

St Louis barbecue is godawful, mostly stovetop/crockpot shit drowned in syrupy sauce. They eat fucking pork steaks which cook slices of pork shoulder into dry bootsole awfulness.

Orlando. Uhh…nothing is good to eat in Orlando. There is no barbecue.

Springfield is a no. Omaha. They got great pork and beef it just ain’t barbecue.

Nashville. No fucking way. A bunch of whole hog Carolina interlopers there. And Richmond. The last good meal served in Richmond of any type was eaten by Robert E Lee. When they were starving.

Fort Worth belongs on this list. I’ll put the offerings here against anyone in the country.

Fucking idiots. Surprised they didn’t put Portland and Oakland on here. Shit towns for barbecue. I ate bbq once in Portland that was smoked with cedar. Fuckibg cedar. It was like eating a burnt urinal cake.

[Deej 76800]

When I think barbeque, I always think of Los Angeles, before Austin. 

[Anastasis 23474]

SEO scam 
 

https://infogram.com/methodology-table-2023s-best-bbq-cities-1h8n6m3d9ovvj4x

 

[Texzilla58 4739]

When I think barbeque, I always think of Los Angeles, before Austin. 

Minneapolis over Ft Worth. Boas Fuvkibg Vegas? Dopshits

[Jerry Callo 8704]

28 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

Minneapolis over Ft Worth. Boas Fuvkibg Vegas? Dopshits

I fear you are having a stroke.

[conVINCEd 21469]

3 hours ago, Deej said:

When I think barbeque, I always think of Los Angeles, before Austin. 

The choices in LA have improved significantly over the last few years.  Mostly Texas transplants.  It’s still a bullshit list, but there are actual options there that didn’t exist 5 years ago.

[Texzilla58 4739]

That LA shit looks like a pan of Dickeys or prison commissary shit. It’s probably plant based or manufactured meat substance.

[Kyrie Eleison 9312]

4 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

Minneapolis over Ft Worth. Boas Fuvkibg Vegas? Dopshits

narbecue…

 

[tigol 2398]

15 minutes ago, Kyrie Eleison said:

narbecue…

 

Grover Cleveland approved.

[conVINCEd 21469]

4 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

That LA shit looks like a pan of Dickeys or prison commissary shit. It’s probably plant based or manufactured meat substance.

You’re a snowflake.

[Da Fino 2783]

12 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

That LA shit looks like a pan of Dickeys or prison commissary shit. It’s probably plant based or manufactured meat substance.

Weird. Looks pretty decent actually. 

[Deej 76800]

1 hour ago, Da Fino said:

Looks pretty decent

High praise. 

 

[Texzilla58 4739]

Weird. Looks pretty decent actually. 

Pretty decent is the best you’ll find there. Remember they call grilling barbecue and they put tritip at the top of their bbq pyramid. That’s like eating a muscle cramp. Don’t be fooled by the fancy digs and nice weather.

[Texzilla58 4739]

I fear you are having a stroke.

Writing that gave me one of those transchemic mini stroke things as my cerebellum shorted out my frontal lobe. Better now. It’s just clickbait shit that fucking subs for journalism these days.

[futureman 22469]

B. Cooper

still no line.  prime brisket for less than $30/lb.  still delicious. 

[Da Fino 2783]

1 hour ago, Texzilla58 said:

Pretty decent is the best you’ll find there. Remember they call grilling barbecue and they put tritip at the top of their bbq pyramid. That’s like eating a muscle cramp. Don’t be fooled by the fancy digs and nice weather.

You said it looks like prison food. Both Dickey's and "prison commissary shit" look far worse than decent. 

[Jerry Callo 8704]

4 hours ago, futureman said:

B. Cooper

still no line.  prime brisket for less than $30/lb.  still delicious. 

Nice.  I stopped by there a couple weeks ago after going to LA BBQ.  It was noon and there was nobody manning the trailer.  I didn't wait, but glad to hear he is still there.  It was great the first time I went.

[futureman 22469]

3 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

Nice.  I stopped by there a couple weeks ago after going to LA BBQ.  It was noon and there was nobody manning the trailer.  I didn't wait, but glad to hear he is still there.  It was great the first time I went.

I think he’s closed monday through wednesday; not sure if you went any of those days.  he also told me today he is moving to a new spot in a couple weeks, I think a few blocks further east.  the people that own that art gallery place on the lot have decided they don’t want a man selling bbq on their property anymore.  he said they are kicking him out to bring in a vegan coffee trailer.  I’m sure he’ll post his new address on his instagram. 

[Davis Lane 5586]

Driving down Brodie this morning I noticed Whitfield's is gone.

Did I miss a post about them closing again?

Maybe they've moved to a new location?

[NoName 16352]

42 minutes ago, Davis Lane said:

Driving down Brodie this morning I noticed Whitfield's is gone.

Did I miss a post about them closing again?

Maybe they've moved to a new location?

nothing on insta or FB. google says they are "temporarily closed" but that doesn't mean much.

Edited June 30, 2023 by NoName

[Davis Lane 5586]

Strange, the pit is still there.

But the food truck and portable garage are gone. 

[futureman 22469]

B. Cooper, again 

[tx 3 putt 76980]

2 hours ago, Davis Lane said:

Strange, the pit is still there.

But the food truck and portable garage are gone. 

pits are heavy 

[Tonesky 936]

Lunch at Truth today was just OK. And, the $43 beef rib was 50% fat.  Sad and gruntled. 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Tonesky

[Party_Taco 3734]

Lunch at Truth today was just OK. And, the $43 beef rib was 50% fat.  Sad and gruntled. 

Which location?

[NoName 16352]

NYT: The 20 Best Texas BBQ Restaurants from the New Generation - https://archive.ph/i4Zkg

 

includes a bunch of well known places (2M,  Burnt Bean, Goldees, Leroy & Lewis, Truth, Valentinas) + new places (Barbs, Brisket & Rice, Smoke N Ash in Arlington) + places i want to go (Distant Relatives) and places I've not really heard of (Charlies in Beaumont? Pitchforks and Smokerings in Slaton?)

 

Spoiler

The 20 Best Texas Barbecue Restaurants From the New Generation

Over the last decade, the rule book for barbecue has been rewritten. Here are some the most important new authors of this singular cuisine.

•  

•  
•  
•  

By Brett Anderson and Priya Krishna

Brett Anderson traveled to Texas seven times in over two years in search of the best new barbecue joints in the state. Priya Krishna is a native of Dallas.

July 3, 2023, 5:01 a.m. ET

 

Clockwise from top left: pork in the pit at Valentina’s; Pitforks and Smokerings, in Slaton, Texas; a tray of barbecue at Pitforks and Smokerings; the chalkboard menu at Pitforks and Smokerings; a platter of smoked meat at Charlie’s, in Beaumont; Evan LeRoy and Sawyer Lewis, co-owners of LeRoy and Lewis, in Austin.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times, JerSean Golatt for The New York Times, JerSean Golatt for The New York Times, JerSean Golatt for The New York Times, Jessica Attie for The New York Times, Sarah Karlan for The New York Times.

A renaissance in Texas barbecue has transformed what was once a hidebound tradition into one of the country’s most dynamic vernacular cuisines, changing the landscape of American barbecue in the process — and turning Texas into the country’s ultimate barbecue destination.

These new faces of Texas barbecue tell the story of that transformation, and offer a taste of what it has wrought. All have all opened their restaurants since 2011, when Franklin Barbecue opened its doors in Austin, a turning point in American barbecue history.

Texas Barbecue Is the Best It Has Ever Been. Here’s Why.

In a new golden age, younger pitmasters are advancing the form using dynamic flavors from Black, Mexican and Asian cuisines, among others.

July 3, 2023

The new faces of Texas barbecue bring more to the craft than previous generations. They learned from traditional pitmasters, but many also come from fine dining backgrounds, or are self-taught. Many come from other countries. The food at each of their restaurants is testimony of an individual Texas experience; together they give voice to a population enriched by waves of new arrivals from other states and countries.

 

The hours at barbecue joints can be unpredictable. Be sure to check hours before you go.

Here are 20 of the best of what we found, in alphabetical order:

2M Smokehouse

San Antonio

 

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A barbecue platter at 2M. Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

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Esaul Ramos Jr. and Joe Melig IV, co-owners of 2M. Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

The brisket, sausages, pork ribs and even the smoked turkey at 2M are exceptional, evidence that co-owner Esaul Ramos Jr. — who learned his craft at La Barbecue in Austin — ranks among the state’s most talented pitmasters. At the place he opened with his partner Joe Melig IV in 2016, Mr. Ramos is setting a high bar. If San Antonio barbecue has a terroir, it tastes like 2M’s brisket and pickled nopales taco, or the pork sausage spiked with serrano chiles and enriched with Oaxacan cheese. Also, Grecia Ramos, Esaul’s wife, makes terrific cheesecakes, galettes and Pop Tarts with seasonal fruits.

What to order: Pork ribs, brisket, chicharoni macaroni, pickled nopales, Pop Tarts.

2731 South WW White Road, 210-885-9532, 2msmokehouse.com

 

Barbs-B-Q

Lockhart

 

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The owners of Barbs, from left, Alexis Tovías Morales, Chuck Charnichart and Haley Conlin.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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A platter at Barbs includes unconventional Texas barbecue dishes, like lamb chops, green spaghetti and spelt swirl bread.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

Barbs was the most hotly anticipated new barbecue restaurant in Texas when it opened in May. Two of its three owners (Alexis Tovías Morales, 24, and Haley Conlin, 30) are former vegans. The third, Chuck Charnichart, 25, was relatively inexperienced when she joined the staff at Goldee’s Barbecue (see below), where she was cooking brisket when it was named the state’s top barbecue joint by Texas Monthly in 2021. The food showcases the honed technique of precocious talents with influences from Brownsville, the Texas border town where Ms. Morales and Ms. Charnichart grew up. In its first month, Barbs’s food met its lofty expectations.

What to order: Beef ribs, lamb chops, brisket, blue corn tortillas, green spaghetti.

102 East Market Street, barbsbq.com

 

Blood Bros. BBQ

Bellaire

 

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An array of Asian-influenced Texas barbecue at Blood Bros. includes char siu pork banh mi, brisket fried rice, smoke brisket and gai lan chow fun, Thai chile peanut butter sticky ribs, gyoza sausage and jalapeño creamed corn.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Brothers Terry and Robin Wong, left and center, and pitmaster Quy Hoang, right, are the owners of Blood Bros.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

The trio behind this pioneering strip-mall joint includes two actual blood brothers (Terry and Robin Wong) and Quy Hoang, an honorary family member and childhood friend who is Houston’s first working Vietnamese American pitmaster. The old-school Texas barbecue served here is top shelf. The innovations on that tradition reflect the owners’ upbringing and imaginations: Thai chile-peanut butter ribs, pho-rub beef belly spring rolls and Thai green curry boudin balls are just a few recent examples. Last year, the partners opened Luloo’s Day & Night, an all-day cafe, joining the ranks of Texas barbecue operators trying other styles of restaurants.

What to order: Togarashi chicken, gochujang-glazed pork ribs, smoked char siu pork belly, brisket.

5425 Bellaire Boulevard, 713-664-7776, bloodbrosbbq.com

Brisket & Rice

Houston

 

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Brisket and rice with sausage, left, and barbecue fried rice with street corn and sausage at Brisket & Rice. Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

It’s not unusual to find delicious Texas barbecue inside former gas stations. Finding one inside a working gas station is less common. The brothers Phong and Hong Tran opened their place in a Phillips 66 station last year, in part because it was the best place the self-taught pitmasters could afford. The menu represents what the Trans ate growing up in Vietnamese communities. “We always had rice to stretch the meat,” said Hong, who, along with his brother, still works as a machinist in the blue collar, northwest Houston neighborhood they serve. “People always ask, Why didn’t you open a machine shop?” he said. “It’s too boring.”

What to order: Brisket and rice, jalapeño sausage, barbecue fried rice, cranberry almond slaw.

13111 Farm to Market Road 529, 713-936-9575, brisketnrice.com

Burnt Bean Company

Seguin

 

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Ernest Servantes, left, and David Kirkland, co-owners of Burnt Bean Company, are friends from the competition barbecue circuit.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

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Barbacoa tacos, top, and menudo are weekend specials at Burnt Bean.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

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A full smoker at Burnt Bean in Seguin.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

Ernest Servantes and David Kirkland, Burnt Bean’s co-owners, are buddies from the barbecue competition circuit. Mr. Servantes is an experienced culinary professional — the former executive chef of nearby Texas Lutheran University — who knows how to keep the quality high. In his hometown, Uvalde, Mr. Servantes’s family ate barbecue with guacamole, pico de gallo and tortillas. Burnt Bean’s Sunday brunch is a tribute to the menudo, barbacoa and huevos rancheros his grandmother made for a post-church feast. “A lot of people come here and are confused, they think we’re from Mexico,” he said. “We’re Texans from South Texas. This is our food.”

What to order: Brisket, jalapeño Cheddar sausage, bone-in pork chop (weekends only), street corn pudding, peach cobbler.

108 South Austin Street, burntbeanco.com

Charlie’s Bar-B-Que

Beaumont

 

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Charlie Brewer holds a rack of ribs outside the smoker at Charlie’s Bar-B-Que & Catering, his restaurant in Beaumont.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Smoked oxtails and housemade boudin are among the specialties at Charlie’s.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Charlie’s has been carrying the torch for Beaumont-style Texas barbecue since 2017.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

Barbecue in Beaumont is synonymous with links. It’s a style of beef sausage that varies from kitchen to kitchen but is distinguished by a soft, spicy filling wrapped in a thick casing. The links at Charlie’s, based on a recipe from owner Charlie Brewer’s grandfather, Leroy Ardoin, are less greasy than the Beaumont norm. They’re also far from the only reason to visit the joint Mr. Brewer opened in 2017. The mahogany-skinned chicken is redolent of smoke, and the smoked boudin (“boudain” on the menu) rivals any from nearby Louisiana.

 

What to order: Links, oxtails, boudin, rice dressing.

3125 College Street, 409-767-7683, facebook.com/charliesbbqbeaumont

Convenience West

Marfa

 

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Myles Nurse approves of the hummingbird cake at Convenience West. Credit...Justin Hamel for The New York Times

 

 

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Mark Scott checks the beef links in the smoker at Convenience West.Credit...Justin Hamel for The New York Times

 

 

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Diners eat on outdoor picnic tables at Convenience West.Credit...Justin Hamel for The New York Times

 

 

Mark Scott remembers Marfa before it was hip, and before there was good barbecue. “Growing up, people would throw brisket in the oven, wrapped in tin foil, with liquid smoke and Claude’s marinade,” he said. “That was brisket in Marfa.” Barbecue is much different in the far West Texas town today thanks to Convenience West, the joint Mr. Scott opened in 2017 with his wife, Kiki, and partners Adam Bork and Katy Rose Elsasser, a talented pastry chef. The food blends fine dining techniques (most evident in the sides, desserts and singularly creative sausages) with regional flavors and flights of imaginative fancy that match the personality of one of the country’s most stylish rural destinations.

What to order: Whole or half chicken, sausage, curried green beans, carrot dip, icebox cake.

1411 West San Antonio Street, conveniencewest.com

Distant Relatives

Austin

 

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The staff at Distant Relatives, from left to right: Kornpawee Brockway, David Gomez, Nia Ashanti, Graham Penninger, Forrest Allen, Damien Brockway, Reji Thomas and Alicia Evans.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

Inspired by his family history, the food of the African diaspora and the work of pitmasters (particularly Latin-American ones) in his adopted hometown, Damien Brockway stepped away from fine dining restaurant kitchens to open Distant Relatives. The dishes on the food truck’s menu piece together a larger story. Take the peanuts. They are roasted at the head of the smoker, close to the fire, a nod to Mr. Brockway’s West African ancestors, and his great-grandparents, who were sharecroppers in Virginia. “It’s one of those things that encapsulates everything we do,” he said.

 

What to order: Chicken leg quarter with chile vinegar, pulled pork sandwich, burnt ends and black-eyed peas, spicy smoked peanuts.

3901 Promontory Point Drive, 512-717-2504, distatantrelativesatx.com

Evie Mae’s Pit Barbeque

Wolfforth

 

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A platter of smoked meat at Evie Mae’s.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

 

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Desserts, including pecan pie, are a specialty of Evie Mae’s.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

When you run a barbecue restaurant on the outskirts of Lubbock, as Arnis and Mallory Robbins do, your livelihood depends on satisfying locals, again and again. Evie’s does that with extensive dessert offerings (two kinds of pecan pie!), smoked prime rib specials and free beer when you’re waiting in line (seriously) to go with its top-notch traditional smoked meat. The sausage and cheese grits are spiced with green chile, not jalapeño, a regional distinction in this West Texas town and a nod to the Robbins’s childhood in eastern New Mexico.

What to order: Beef ribs, green chile cheese sausage, brisket chili, baked potato casserole.

217 U.S. 62, 806-782-2281, eviemaesbbq.com

 

Gatlin’s BBQ

Houston

 

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Pork ribs, spicy sausage, collard greens, fried okra and dirty rice at Gatlin’s BBQ, in Houston.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

The Gatlin family helped bring the new Texas barbecue boom to Houston, with a blend of east and central Texas barbecue styles. What started as a small takeout operation expanded into a full service restaurant in 2015. The food is precise and delicious across the restaurant’s all-day menus — from the fluffy breakfast biscuits to pitmaster Greg Gatlin’s juicy brisket and whole chickens. Mr. Gatlin, collaborating with chefs Michelle Wallace and Darius King, stretched out even more last year with the opening of Gatlin’s Fins & Feathers, a Louisiana-flavored Southern restaurant with amazing jerk chicken.

What to order: Fried chicken biscuit, spicy sausage, whole chicken, dirty rice, candied yams.

3510 Ella Boulevard Building, gatlinsbbq.com

Goldee’s Barbecue

Fort Worth

 

 

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The Goldee’s team, from left: Lane Milne, Jonny White and Jalen Heard.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

 

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Goldee’s was named the best barbecue in Texas by Texas Monthly in 2021Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

Jalen Heard, Lane Milne and Jonny White have created an Avengers-like supergroup — for barbecue. They’ve collectively worked at stalwarts like Franklin, Valentina’s Tex Mex Barbecue and Micklethwait Craft Meats BBQ, and it shows. The meats at Goldee’s are far more than just fat, salt and smoke; they’re deftly seasoned, juicy all the way through and complex in a way that barbecue often is not. The white bread is freshly baked, there’s kale in the coleslaw and the standout side is a hearty pork gravy served over rice called Kennedale stew. The genre is far more interesting with Goldee’s in it.

What to order: Brisket, pork ribs, Kennedale stew.

4645 Dick Price Road, 817-480-4131, goldeesbbq.com

Kemuri Tatsu-Ya

Austin

 

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Smoked tuna collar sits at the center of a spread of Japanese-Texas barbecue at Kemuri Tatsu-Ya.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

 

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Tatsu Aikawa and Takuya Matsumoto, co-owners and chefs of Kemuri Tatsu-Ya. Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

Kemuri Tatsu-Ya is not a Texas barbecue joint, exactly. It’s a full-service restaurant that imagines what a Japanese chef might be cooking at a Texas roadhouse 100 years ago. Called a Texas izakaya by chef-partners Tatsu Aikawa and Takuya Matsumoto when it opened in 2017, Kemuri remains arguably (along with Blood Bros., outside Houston) Texas’ most fully realized Asian-influenced barbecue restaurant. Mr. Aikawa, whose family moved from Tokyo to central Texas in 1989 said, “Texas barbecue has always been about the blending of cultures.” He pointed out similarities between smoking brisket and making ramen, a specialty of his restaurant group. “It’s about taking a long time to make something perfect.”

What to order: Smoked tuna collar, brisket, barbecue eel, chicken meatball kushiyaki, cornbread taiyaki.

2713 East Second Street, 512-803-2224, kemuri-tatsuya.com

LeRoy and Lewis

Austin

 

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A platter at LeRoy and Lewis with brisket, citra hop pork sausage, cauliflower burnt ends and kale Caesar slaw.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

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Evan LeRoy is a co-owner of LeRoy and Lewis and an influential Texas pitmaster.Credit...Sarah Karlan

 

 

This food truck serves some of the most justifiably praised barbecue in Austin. Evan LeRoy, a co-owner, started as a pitmaster at Hill Country Barbecue Market in New York City. “I started working there because I was homesick,” he said. He moved back to Austin in time to take part in the barbecue boom of the early 2010s, mentoring a number of talented barbecue entrepreneurs before opening LeRoy and Lewis in 2017 with his wife, Lindsey, and Sawyer and Nathan Lewis. The menu brings New American vibes to Texas barbecue: Beef cheeks and cauliflower “burnt ends” both pair well with the house kimchi. The repertoire will expand further at the partners’ first brick-and-mortar location in Austin later this year.

What to order: Beef cheeks, citra hop pork sausage, L and L burger, kale Caesar slaw, Frito pie.

121 Pickle Road, 512-945-9882, leroyandlewisbbq.com

Pitforks and Smokerings BBQ

Slaton

 

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The patio at Pitforks and Smokerings on a highway in Slaton.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

 

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Housemade tortillas, mac and cheese, fried cabbage, brisket, sausage, ribs, pickles onions and jalapeños at Pitforks and Smokerings.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

 

Isaac Arellano grew up in the gas station his father, Cruz, purchased in the early ’80s, just before he was born. In 2017, Isaac started converting the family business into a barbecue joint with his wife, Ashley. The dining room is where the mechanic’s shop used to be; the menu for the breakfast burrito business his parents ran is still on the wall where diners now place orders for smoked meat, handmade tortillas and daily specials that can include smoked baloney, barbacoa, burgers and fajitas. The Arellanos plan to expand into dinner hours. “It’s an old gas station on a highway,” Mr. Arellano said. “The ambience is too damn awesome not to do something at night.”

What to order: Turkey, pork ribs, creamed corn, tortillas.

1808 U.S. 84, 806-317-5818, facebook.com/pitforksandsmokeringsbbq

Ray’s Real Pit BBQ Shack

Houston

 

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Smoked oxtails and fried corn on the cob, on the tray on the left, join the traditional array of sausage, ribs and brisket at Ray’s. The East Texas style joint’s also serves soul food staples like fried catfish and hush puppies. Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

Ray is Ray Busch, a retired sheriff deputy, who started cooking barbecue out of a food truck in the ’80s. He opened a permanent location in 2011, in Houston’s Third Ward, and moved to its current location in 2018, with Maxine Davis and Herb Taylor, a former N.F.L. player, as partners. It serves some of the best East Texas barbecue, a style that covers a lot of ground, from traditional smoked meats to soul food to Cajun and Creole dishes, like boudin, gumbo and dirty rice. Mr. Taylor, a Houston native, said he grew up eating ribs and brisket: “I seen my uncles dig out a hole, do a whole hog down there.”

 

What to Order: Fried catfish, gumbo, rib tips, smoked oxtails (Thursday only).

3929 Old Spanish Trail, raysbbqshack.com

 

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The barbecue at Smoke ’N Ash combines the culinary traditions of Ethiopia and Texas.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

Smoke ’N Ash Barbecue

Arlington

The Tex-Ethiopian platter at Smoke ’N Ash is a thing of beauty: pork ribs rubbed with fiery awaze; doro wot, chicken that’s been coated with berbere and charred in a smoker; beefy collard greens — all of it piled on injera, the juices seeping into the tangy, absorbent bread. The singular cuisine served here is the product of the husband-and-wife team Fasicka and Patrick Hicks. She is from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and he is from Waco, Texas. While Smoke ’N Ash started as a traditional barbecue joint that also sold Ethiopian food, the couple realized the sum could be more interesting than the parts. You have to wonder: What took so long for this to exist?

What to order: Tex-Ethiopian platter for two, awaze pork ribs, smoked brisket tibs, rib tip tibs, smoked doro wot.

 

5904 South Cooper Street, 817-987-7715, smokenashbbq.net

Teddy’s Barbecue

Weslaco

 

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Joel Garcia slices brisket to order at Teddy’s Barbecue, in Weslaco. Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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This platter at Teddy’s includes Creekstone Farms brisket, smoked turkey, pork belly, Mexican rice and tortillas made by the owners’ mother using rendered brisket fat.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Joel Garcia, with his son, Maximiliano, and wife, Bernardina; his mom, Ana Maria, and brother, Jesse.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

When you’re at Teddy’s, you know you’re in a South Texas border town. There are uniformed border patrol personnel filling the small dining room and Tex-Mex crosscurrents in the food: the whiff of cumin and chile powder in the sausage, the pork belly whose exterior is crispy as chicharron, the menudo on the weekends. The brothers Joel and Jesse Garcia opened this joint in their hometown in 2019, after receiving a barbecue education in Austin. Their mother, Ann Maria, makes the tortillas, from rendered brisket fat, and a number of the side dishes. The Lower Rio Grande Valley is a long way from the hot barbecue scenes of central Texas, but Teddy’s serves some of the best barbecue in the state.

What to order: Brisket, chicken, sausage, tortillas, Mexican rice, mac and cheese.

2807 Texas Boulevard North, 956-532-6124, teddysrgv.com

 

Truth BBQ

Brenham and Houston

 

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Daedrean Raglin, the lead cutter, prepares a tray of food at Truth.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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A platter at Truth includes beef ribs, burnt end boudin, collard greens and Tater Tot casserole.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

Opening first in rural Brenham, in 2015, Truth brought some of rural Texas’ finest barbecue to Houston when it opened in the state’s largest city four years later. The meat done by Leonard Botello IV, the owner and pitmaster, is superlative, even when he’s venturing into Carolina territory with the whole hogs his team smokes on Saturdays. You’ve likely heard how Texas’ best barbecue joints attract legendary lines. Truth is a good place to visit to find out how worthwhile that wait can be. Don’t miss the desserts, made by Mr. Botello’s mom, Janel, and the restaurant’s baker, Laquita Wilkins.

What to order: Beef ribs, brisket, burnt-end boudin, creamed spinach, chocolate cake.

2990 U.S. 290, Brenham, 979-830-0392; 110 South Heights Boulevard, Houston, 832-835-0001, truthbbq.com

Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ

Buda

 

 

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A fully loaded smoker at Valentina’s.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Miguel Vidal, Valentina’s pitmaster and founder, stands at this restaurant’s old location, which was built around a barbecue truck. The first brick-and-mortar Valentina’s opened last month.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Valentina’s helped bring Mexican American items like tortillas, guacamole and fajitas into the Texas barbecue mainstream. Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

Miguel Vidal started Valentina’s as a food truck in 2013, aiming to blend new Texas barbecue (the brisket is made with grass-fed beef) with the food he grew up eating in San Antonio. The result offers three of Austin’s most famous food categories — barbecue, Tex-Mex, breakfast tacos — on one menu, making Valentina’s popularity perhaps preordained. The business, which Mr. Vidal runs with his wife, Modesty, helped bring Mexican influences into the Texas barbecue mainstream. Last month, Valentina’s opened its first brick and mortar location, in a suburb 15 miles south of downtown.

What to order: Breakfast taco, brisket tacos, spicy Oaxacan sausage, pork spareribs.

308 South Main Street, valentinastexmexbbq.com

Vaqueros Bar-B-Q

Grapevine

 

 

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The sausage, tacos and brisket at Vaqueros.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

 

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Arnulfo “Trey” Sanchez is owner of Vaqueros Bar-B-Q in Grapevine.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

Vaqueros serves Texas barbecue with Mexican influences, but it’s not quite Tex-Mex. There’s no queso or chili con carne. Instead, there is cochinita pibil that begins in a smoker, rubbed simply with salt, pepper and garlic, before it is wrapped in banana leaves, bathed in a citrusy marinade and served in handmade corn tortillas. Birria tacos are made with brisket, the fat transformed into a soul-enriching consommé. The owner Arnulfo “Trey” Sanchez has the chops of an old-school pitmaster — his father ran the traditional barbecue joint Arnold’s Texas Bar-B-Q. At Vaqueros, Mr. Sanchez, whose family is from Mexico, brings the same finesse to smoked ribs and sausage as he does to carne asada and barbacoa, showing that these barbecue traditions can be more similar than they are different.

What to order: Barbecue birria with consommé, smoked cochinita pibil, any of the rotating selection of tacos.

906 Jean Street, vaquerostexasbarbq.com

Additional reporting by Matthew Odam

Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.

Brett Anderson joined the Food desk as a contributor in July 2019. He was restaurant critic and features writer at The Times-Picayune, in New Orleans, from 2000 to 2019. He has won three James Beard awards, including the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award, and was named Eater's Reporter of the Year in 2017 for his reporting on sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. @BrettEats

Priya Krishna is a Times Food staff reporter. She is the author of multiple cookbooks, including the best-selling "Indian-ish." @priyakrishna

main guy also did an article about why Texas BBQ is the best it's ever been. it has reasonable info in it and i agree with it - basically additional styles / flavors added to it. worth a read. good to see Evan and Sawyer and a bunch of other good folks including Brisket and Rice (!!!) get some text in both articles

Quote

The spice palette, once confined to salt and pepper, has gone Technicolor. Pitmasters are incorporating lemongrass, fenugreek, gochujang and turmeric into their cooking. Kimchi and salsa negra have elbowed their way onto barbecue trays, along with char siu, lamb chops, tuna collar and smoked doro wat.

 

text:

Spoiler

Lockhart is the Barbecue Capital of Texas. This has been officially true since 1999 — thanks to a proclamation passed by the Texas House of Representatives — and unofficially true for years before that, thanks to how long people have been eating smoked meat in the Central Texas town. Three of Lockhart’s most famous barbecue joints have been open for a combined 289 years.

The owners of Barbs-B-Q joined this history when they opened on the Lockhart town square in May. At the same time, their woman-owned business is challenging assumptions about Texas barbecue — how it is defined, who created it, who is entitled to make it.

 

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The dining room at Barbs-B-Q, in downtown Lockhart.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Haley Conlin, Chuck Charnichart and Alexis Tovías Morales, the owners of Barbs-B-Q.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

Two of Barbs’s three owners (Alexis Tovías Morales, 24, and Haley Conlin, 30) are former vegans. The third, Chuck Charnichart, 25, grew up in the border town of Brownsville, where barbecue meant barbacoa. She didn’t taste Central Texas-style smoked brisket until she moved to Austin for college.

 

The partners were attracted to Lockhart in part because of its lineage, but they were inspired by a new generation of Texas barbecue entrepreneurs who are ignoring rules that historically applied to anyone who wanting to be taken seriously in barbecue.

“We feel so empowered now to do things our own way,” Ms. Charnichart said. “And there is so much history in Lockhart, it just kind of made sense for us to be here.”

The 20 Best Texas Barbecue Restaurants From the New Generation

Over the last decade, the rule book for barbecue has been rewritten. Here are some the most important new authors of this singular cuisine.

July 3, 2023

Barbs’s menu follows orthodoxy — its brisket and beef and pork ribs are excellent — but isn’t bound by it, featuring items like lamb chops, blue corn tortillas and green spaghetti, a dish sparked by the roasted poblano cream Ms. Charnichart ate growing up.

Barbs is part of a Texas barbecue renaissance that began roughly 15 years ago. It has slowly transformed a cherished but hidebound local tradition, once confined to a fixed set of dishes (notably brisket, beef sausage and pork ribs, otherwise known as the Texas trinity), into arguably the country’s most dynamic vernacular cuisine.

 

The technical rigor and freedom of expression that animates Barbs’s barbecue permeate the country’s second largest state.

***

Texas barbecue today is no longer primarily associated with central European immigrants and white male pitmasters. It is a malleable cuisine, one that is open to newcomers and includes the traditions, notably Black and Mexican American styles, that have long thrived here.

 

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Charlie Brewer holds a rack of ribs outside the smoker at Charlie’s Bar-B-Que & Catering, his restaurant in Beaumont.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

The new Texas barbecue gives voice to a population that has been diversified by new arrivals from other states and countries, and to a cultural dialogue between rural and urban artisans; much of it nods to American barbecue’s origins in the live fire cooking of Indigenous people and enslaved Africans.

The broader narrative flows from more Texans sharing their home cooking with the public at large.

“In South Texas, we never had barbecue sauce, and it wasn’t just white bread,” said Ernest Servantes, co-owner of Burnt Bean Company, in Seguin. “We had charro beans, guacamole, tortillas, pico de gallo. We had a lot of cabrito.”

 

The spice palette, once confined to salt and pepper, has gone Technicolor. Pitmasters are incorporating lemongrass, fenugreek, gochujang and turmeric into their cooking. Kimchi and salsa negra have elbowed their way onto barbecue trays, along with char siu, lamb chops, tuna collar and smoked doro wat.

 

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Smoked brisket and gai lan chow fun at Blood Bros. in Bellaire, in the Houston suburbs.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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A jumbo platter of Tex-Ethiopian barbecue at Smoke ’N Ash, in Arlington.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

You’ve got brisket curry, brisket enchiladas, brisket shawarma, brisket ramen. Tortillas are on their way to becoming as common as sliced bread in Texas barbecue joints — an overdue development in a state where barbacoa predates meat markets in Lockhart.

There is exceptional, distinctive barbecue not just in central Texas, home to established barbecue hot spots like Lockhart and Austin, but from Lubbock to Weslaco to Beaumont.

 

The tapestry created by these pitmasters and restaurateurs still bears the marks of Texas’ ranching history. The quantity and quality of the “trinity” meats have never been higher (same goes for side dishes), as the standards and practices of fine dining find homes in Texas pit rooms.

 

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Brisket in the smoker at Valentina’s.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

Brisket, the “king” of Texas barbecue proteins, still reigns. In fact, the cut is now prevalent even in pork-centric barbecue regions where Texans’ love for beef has been mocked as a function of their inability to lasso pigs. Texas barbecue has essentially become so pervasive across the country as to end debates about which region can claim American barbecue supremacy.

 

Within the state, new strains of barbecue are fervently embraced, if not always with the intensity as at Barbs, where lines form on Lockhart’s town square before it opens. Ms. Charnichart made her name working the pits at Goldee’s, in Fort Worth, which Texas Monthly named the state’s top barbecue joint in 2021.

 

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Jonny White, Lane Milne and Jalen Heard of Goldee’s Barbecue, in Fort Worth.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

 

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A barbecue platter at Goldee’s, which Texas Monthly named the No. 1 joint in the state in 2021.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

Opened by a multiracial group of 20-something friends, Goldee’s provided something of a template for Barbs, and is a case study in how reputations are made in the hot house of Texas barbecue media coverage. Before its Monthly ranking, Goldee’s pitmasters made 20 briskets a week.

 

“We got No. 1 on a Monday, and that weekend we did 50 briskets a day,” co-owner Jonny White said. “And we sold them all.” Hourslong lines are now the norm.

***

The idea that barbecue can be good enough to justify a long wait to eat is nothing new in Texas. But it became a modern phenomenon in 2009. That’s when Aaron Franklin started serving, from a trailer next to an Austin highway, beef brisket that hit a career-making, culture-shifting trifecta of tenderness, beefiness and juiciness.

 

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Franklin Barbecue in 2017. The restaurant marked a turning point in Texas barbecue. The line regularly runs down the block. Credit...Drew Anthony Smith for The New York Times

 

By the time he opened Franklin Barbecue with his wife, Stacy, in 2011, the bespectacled Mr. Franklin was on his way to becoming the country’s most recognizable pitmaster. His best-selling cookbooks and media savvy created home-schooled pitmasters and raised Texas barbecue’s national profile.

“Franklin made it cool for young folks to get into this, at the same time people were making pickles and craft cocktails and everything else,” said Robert Moss, the South Carolina-based author of “Barbecue: The History of an American Institution” and barbecue editor for Southern Living.

 

Texas Monthly also helped draw a wider array of practitioners to the craft. The magazine hired Daniel Vaughn as its first barbecue editor in 2013.

Mr. Vaughn, 45, is not from Texas. (“I knew brisket as corned beef in Ohio,” he said.) The fresh eyes he’s brought to the beat has helped validate the work of pitmasters from all backgrounds. The top 50 joints list, which appears every four years — “like the Olympics,” Mr. Vaughn said — is especially influential.

Joel Garcia grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, and “didn’t even really get into barbecue until I moved to Austin in 2013 and picked up a copy of the Monthly list,” he said. “I’d never had homemade sausage, or brisket that was rendered well and still really juicy.”

 

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Evan LeRoy, of LeRoy and Lewis, in Austin, has trained a number of talented pitmasters across the state. Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

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A platter at LeRoy and Lewis with brisket, citra hop pork sausage, cauliflower burnt ends and kale Caesar slaw.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

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The menu at LeRoy and Lewis incorporates barbacoa and a cheeseburger made with smoked brisket.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

Mr. Garcia immersed himself in Austin’s post-Franklin barbecue scene. He landed a job at Freedmen’s Bar under Evan LeRoy, a culinary school grad in the vanguard of pitmasters who brought a broader array of skills to the craft. The menu at LeRoy and Lewis, the barbecue truck he opened in 2017, captured the precedent-busting sensibility: smoked beef cheeks and barbacoa, kale Caesar slaw, a cheeseburger made with smoked brisket.

Mr. LeRoy said the vitality of Austin’s barbecue scene is something new. “Growing up here,” he said, “we’d go to Lockhart to get the good stuff.”

Mr. LeRoy is among a number of pitmasters inspired by Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ in Austin, which opened in 2013 and helped to push fajitas, tacos, housemade salsas and more into the state’s barbecue mainstream.

 

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Arnulfo “Trey” Sanchez is owner of Vaqueros Bar-B-Q in Grapevine.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

 

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The sausage, tacos and brisket at Vaqueros.Credit...JerSean Golatt for The New York Times

 

“The idea was to express what was happening throughout Texas, from the valley to El Paso to East and West Texas,” said Miguel Vidal, a co-owner of Valentina’s. “And that involved Mexican American culture.”

 

Mr. Garcia opened Teddy’s Barbecue in his hometown, Weslaco, near the Mexican border, in 2020, with his brother, Jesse, and wife, Bernardina. The menu combines central Texas barbecue staples with Mexican dishes like beef-fat tortillas and menudo, both made by the Garcias’ mother, Ana Maria.

 

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Joel Garcia working the pit at Teddy’s Barbecue, which he opened in Weslaco with his brother, Jesse, in 2020.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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This platter at Teddy’s includes Creekstone Farms brisket, smoked turkey, pork belly, Mexican rice and tortillas made by the owners’ mother using rendered brisket fat.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Joel Garcia, with his son, Maximiliano, and wife, Bernardina; his mom, Ana Maria, and brother, Jesse.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

“We serve things we grew up eating at home,” Mr. Garcia said. “We’re here because I was homesick.”

Texas barbecue’s innovations are often simple reflections of immigrant Texans’ experience, said Tatsu Aikawa, co-owner of Kemuri Tatsu-Ya, in Austin.

His family moved from Tokyo to Central Texas in 1989. For a period of time, he lived next door to John Lewis. Mr. Lewis went on to open Lewis Barbecue in Charleston, S.C., after having been pitmaster at Franklin and La Barbecue, a trailblazing, woman-owned business in Austin.

 

“Sometimes he’d slide me a plate of barbecue over the fence,” Mr. Aikawa said. “In Texas, barbecue is part of everyone’s life.”

 

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The staff at Distant Relatives, from left to right: Kornpawee Brockway, David Gomez, Nia Ashanti, Graham Penninger, Forrest Allen, Damien Brockway, Reji Thomas and Alicia Evans.Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

 

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A platter of smoked meat at Distant Relatives, left, includes brisket with mustard sauce, pork ribs, chicken leg and pulled pork with tamarind molasses sauce. The platter of sides, right, includes burnt ends and black-eyed peas, pickled carrots, smoked peanuts and barbecue carrots with mojo sauce. Credit...Sarah Karlan for The New York Times

 

Damien Brockway, who opened the Austin barbecue truck Distant Relatives in 2020, said he was inspired by the creative ferment of Austin’s barbecue scene. After a career spent in fine dining, he began to study cuisines of the African diaspora and his own heritage. Mr. Brockway’s team uses techniques enslaved Africans brought to plantations in the Caribbean and American South to cook dishes like roasted peanuts and pulled pork with tamarind molasses barbecue sauce.

“It wasn’t like I set out to educate folks,” he said. “It was more like the process educated me.”

***

Regional distinctions in Texas barbecue today go beyond what kind of wood fuels the smokers — post oak? hickory? mesquite? — and often reflect the demographics of the areas where the barbecue is made. This is particularly true in Houston, the state’s biggest city, and one of the country’s most diverse.

 

Left to right, Gatlin’s, Ray’s and Charlie’s.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

It is home to East Texas barbecue, a style forged mainly in Black communities and found in local joints like Ray’s and Gatlin’s. East Texas menus pair common barbecue dishes with soul food staples, like fried catfish and oxtails, and often include hints of Cajun influence — especially when you get closer to Louisiana, as at Charlie’s, in Beaumont.

 

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Brothers Terry and Robin Wong and pitmaster Quy Hoang are the co-owners of Blood Bros.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

Quy Hoang became the city’s first working Vietnamese American pitmaster when he opened Blood Bros. with his Chinese American partners in 2018. It’s where to go for Thai green curry boudin balls and thit nuong pork belly burnt ends.

Phong and Hong Tran, who still also works as a machinist, opened Brisket & Rice inside a working gas station in northwest Houston last year. “This is the epitome of Houston barbecue,” said J.C. Reid, the barbecue writer for the Houston Chronicle. “We don’t care if the nerds show up.”

 

Mr. Reid was taking aim at rival Austin while also noting restaurants in the area mainly serve blue collar employees of nearby oil service companies.

 

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Trays of barbecue fried rice, top, and brisket and rice at Brisket & Rice, in Houston.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

 

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Barbecue fried rice is cooked in a wok at Brisket & Rice.Credit...Jessica Attie for The New York Times

 

“Everybody loves brisket,” Hong Tran said, standing near the pit behind the restaurant, “but not everyone has the time to make it.” Mr. Tran’s brisket is juicy, with a tight, salty crust, and best eaten as he did growing up: over rice, with a drizzle of tomato-based sauce.

Texas barbecue’s success has been a double-edged sword outside of the state. Mr. Moss, the South Carolina-based writer, credits Texas’ influence for “bringing back the pits, bringing back the attention to craft and detail, for side dishes not being an afterthought. That’s all been very good.”

But the spread of Texas barbecue has also had a homogenizing affect. “If it blows up too much, barbecue starts to get derivative, and it paves over some of the regional variations. That becomes a problem,” Mr. Moss said.

 

Back in Lockhart, the warm reception of Barbs is just one sign that Texas barbecue is continuing to evolve and improve, though. The restaurant’s early success isn’t a surprise to Mr. White, of Goldee’s, who has called Ms. Charnichart “the best brisket cook in Texas.”

This doesn’t mean he’s willing to relinquish Goldee’s status as Texas’ top barbecue joint. “Our main focus, for now and in the future, is to get No. 1 again,” Mr. White said. “We still don’t feel like we’ve reached our prime.”

Additional reporting by Matthew Odam

More on Texas Barbecue

A MacGyver of Slow-Cooked Meats at Franklin Barbecue

March 14, 2017

Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.

Brett Anderson joined the Food desk as a contributor in July 2019. He was restaurant critic and features writer at The Times-Picayune, in New Orleans, from 2000 to 2019. He has won three James Beard awards, including the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award, and was named Eater's Reporter of the Year in 2017 for his reporting on sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. @BrettEats

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by NoName

[deadshank 24653]

Progress at 2M Smokehouse - Castroville.   It is nestled in to a great setting north of Hwy 90.  

Edited July 3, 2023 by deadshank

[hornian 5219]

1 hour ago, deadshank said:

Progress at 2M Smokehouse - Castroville.   It is nestled in to a great setting north of Hwy 90.  

Having grown up in Castroville, this is very strange to see something this cool being built there. It was anything but cool back in the day. 

 

[HenryJames 66080]

You got Haby's.

[deadshank 24653]

5 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

You got Haby's.

Nope. Just passing through 

 

14 minutes ago, hornian said:

Having grown up in Castroville, this is very strange to see something this cool being built there. It was anything but cool back in the day. 

 

Castroville  is to be the new Boerne.  
 

Buy now. 

[hornian 5219]

Just now, deadshank said:

Nope. Just passing through 

 

Castroville  is to be the new Boerne.  
 

Buy now. 

My dad still lives there. You want to buy his house when he dies? None of the kids are going to want it.