Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ in Texas

[leemajors]

http://www.texasmonthly.com/eat-my-w...arbecue-joints

Every five years or so (since 1997), this magazine dispatches a team of trained eaters to travel around Texas incognito, ingesting huge amounts of barbecue. Their goal is to visit as many of the state's approximately two thousand barbecue joints as possible in order to come up with a list of the fifty best. At each joint, the eaters sample at least three meats, a couple of sides, and a dessert. In areas of high barbecue density, they may visit as many as nine places in a day. Immediately after each visit, our eaters fill out a detailed score sheet. The final score considers intangibles like setting, service, and history, but mainly it is based on the meat. The brisket score counts the most. This time, eighteen places from the 2008 top fifty made it onto the list. (The joints with asterisks are ones that were featured on the list in 2008.)

The team consisted of fifteen staff members and one carefully vetted freelancer. The group was led by food editor Patricia Sharpe and barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn. Their eating took place over the past eight months. In all, they logged 33,168 miles and visited 658 places, the most ever in the history of our top fifty list. In case you can't tell, we take this pretty seriously.

ALAMO
The Original Willie's Bar-B-Que

AMARILLO
Tyler's Barbecue

AUSTIN
Franklin Barbecue
John Mueller Meat Co.
La Barbecue
Lamberts Downtown Barbecue*
Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew

BELTON
Miller's Smokehouse

BRYAN
Fargo's Pit BBQ

CYPRESS
Brooks' Place

DALLAS
Lockhart Smokehouse
Pecan Lodge

EAGLE LAKE
Austin's BBQ and Catering*

FANNIN
McMillan's Bar-B-Q*

FORT WORTH
Cousin's Bar-B-Q*
Longoria's BBQ

FREDERICKSBURG
Cranky Frank's Barbecue Company

GALVESTON
Leon's World's Finest In & Out Bar-B-Que

GARLAND
Meshack's Bar-B-Que

GIDDINGS
City Meat Market*

GRAPEVINE
Bartley's Bar-B-Q

HENDERSON
Bob's Bar-B-Que

HOUSTON
Gatlin's BBQ & Catering
Virgie's Bar-B-Que*

JASPER
Billy's Old Fashion BBQ

JEFFERSON
Joseph's Riverport Barbecue

KERRVILLE
Buzzie's Bar-B-Q*

LEXINGTON
Snow's BBQ*

LIVINGSTON
Hitch-N-Post BBQ

LLANO
Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que*

LOCKHART
Black's Barbecue
Kreuz Market*

LULING
City Market*

MARLIN
Whup's Boomerang Bar-B-Que*

MCKINNEY
Hutchins BBQ

MEXIA
Kirby's Barbecue

PEADENVILLE
Hashknife on the Chisolm*

PEARSALL
Cowpoke's*

PECOS
Pody's BBQ

ROCKPORT
Hatfield's BBQ & Blackjacks Beer Garden

SAN ANTONIO
The Granary 'Cue and Brew
Two Bros. BBQ Market

SAN MARCOS
Hays Co. Bar-B-Que and Catering

SMITHVILLE
Zimmerhanzel's BBQ

EWOOD
Opie's Barbecue*

SPRING
Corkscrew BBQ

SWEE ER
Big Boy's Bar-B-Que

TAYLOR
Louie Mueller Barbecue*

TYLER
Stanley's Famous Pit Barbecue*

VICTORIA
Mumphord's Place BBQ

[baseline bum]

What's the asterisk for? And no Smitty's in the top 50? Are they ing nuts? Never had brisket that was anything but spectacular at Smitty's.

[ohmwrecker]

Terrible list.

[Capt Bringdown]

Cooper's in Llano over-rated and expensive, IMO.

[jeebus]

Bill Millers

[ohmwrecker]

Bill Millers

GTFO

[benefactor]

Stanley's...

[DesignatedT]

Snows FTW

[baseline bum]

Snows FTW

Is their brisket that much better than Black's, Smitty's, City Market, etc. to justify the drive? I know leemajors thinks so, but I gotta get a second opinion.

[DPG21920]

People really love brisket? I mean, it's ok but I always prefer ribs.

[leemajors]

What's the asterisk for? And no Smitty's in the top 50? Are they ing nuts? Never had brisket that was anything but spectacular at Smitty's.

Asterisk means they were in the last one 5 years ago. Black's has always been meh so they must have had a real off day.

[leemajors]

Cooper's in Llano over-rated and expensive, IMO.

Cheaper than the Austin places outside of Styles Switch I believe, but I haven't been to Styles even tho it's 2 miles from my house. LA BBQ is probably the best in Austin IMO.

[leemajors]

Terrible list.

How so? I like that there is no ranking of the top 50, just presenting good places to try.

[baseline bum]

People really love brisket? I mean, it's ok but I always prefer ribs.

Brisket's one of those things I don't really like unless it's done extremely well (well as in skillfully done, not well as in burnt to a crisp). A piece of HEB brisket or something from Bill Millers is really meh, since brisket is such a lousy cut of meat. But in the hands of a skilled cook who has been smoking it 16-18 hours, brisket is pretty damn tough to beat. Have you ever tried it at City Market, Smitty's, or Black's? There's really nowhere in San Antonio that I think makes good brisket (or are you up in DFW? I forget).

[DesignatedT]

Is their brisket that much better than Black's, Smitty's, City Market, etc. to justify the drive? I know leemajors thinks so, but I gotta get a second opinion.

Best brisket I have ever had. All the meats are good though. Problem is they are only open Saturday morning and you need to get there before 11 AM.

[baseline bum]

Best brisket I have ever had. All the meats are good though. Problem is they are only open Saturday morning and you need to get there before 11 AM.

I heard you better be in line a lot earlier than that if you want brisket.

[baseline bum]

Who do you guys think smokes the best chicken in South/Central Texas?

[DPG21920]

Cheaper than the Austin places outside of Styles Switch I believe, but I haven't been to Styles even tho it's 2 miles from my house. LA BBQ is probably the best in Austin IMO.

Over Franklin's? I have not had Franklin's yet (only eaten at Iron Works and Salt Lick), but it seems like most people I know prefer Franklin's.

Brisket's one of those things I don't really like unless it's done extremely well (well as in skillfully done, not well as in burnt to a crisp). A piece of HEB brisket or something from Bill Millers is really meh, since brisket is such a lousy cut of meat. But in the hands of a skilled cook who has been smoking it 16-18 hours, brisket is pretty damn tough to beat. Have you ever tried it at City Market, Smitty's, or Black's? There's really nowhere in San Antonio that I think makes good brisket (or are you up in DFW? I forget).

Have not had any of those, but I live in Austin now.

[leemajors]

Best brisket I have ever had. All the meats are good though. Problem is they are only open Saturday morning and you need to get there before 11 AM.

FYI, you can call ahead and just pick it up/pay at the pit.

edit: pick up at pit

[leemajors]

Over Franklin's? I have not had Franklin's yet (only eaten at Iron Works and Salt Lick), but it seems like most people I know prefer Franklin's.



Have not had any of those, but I live in Austin now.

The guy who did a lot of the pit building for Franklin is at LA BBQ, he also happens to be my former brother in law. They also have house made sausage, which is a big bonus IMO. He got a big writeup in the Chronicle recently:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs...it-technology/

[Viva Las Espuelas]

DALLAS
Pecan Lodge

Yes sir

DALLAS
Lockhart Smokehouse

GRAPEVINE
Bartley's Bar-B-Q

MCKINNEY
Hutchins BBQ

gonna definitely have to try these up here.

GARLAND
Meshack's Bar-B-Que

oh damn. i forgot about this place. it really is a shack and you wouldn't know it's there if you weren't looking for it. i found this place driving down the road with my windows rolled up and i smelled bbq. i had to turn around because it was that good. i really had to go back because they'd been closed for an hour. good stuff.

AUSTIN
Franklin Barbecue

is this place really that good? he looks like a snot-nosed prick on pitmasters and i can't picture him making good bbq.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Salt Lick

wasn't really impressed with that place. smelled better than what it tasted like imo

[leemajors]

is this place really that good? he looks like a snot-nosed prick on pitmasters and i can't picture him making good bbq.

They have excellent BBQ, but the price is up there (around $15/lb for brisket I believe, Niman Ranch beef but still gmafb), and the wait is anywhere from 30-90 minutes if you get there early. Half of the problem with the line is when Aaron is working and jaws with every customer for at least 5 minutes. I can't do it anymore.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

he jaws, alright.

[Capt Bringdown]

They also have house made sausage, which is a big bonus IMO.

Always wanted to learn how to make home-made sausage. A common skill of my Tex-German ancestors. Rural folks. Pretty much every family had their own smoke house.

Lost traditions and skills