Since that time, the barbecue menu has been expanding faster than my waistline, with the addition of real turkey breasts, a renaissance in beef ribs, and a full-on embrace of pork steaks and chops.
In 2008 the quartet of brisket, pork ribs, sausage, and chicken ruled our list, and we lamented aberrations such as deli turkey. Which brings me to a final trait of this moment we’re in: variety. At this rate, our next fifty best could come solely from our five or six biggest cities. By contrast, Houston has four entries, Austin seven. Lockhart was once the smoked-meat capital, with three fantastic joints on our list in 1997 this year, the town has one representative. This coincides with another trend: more than ever, barbecue is urban. These days all it takes are a few raves on Yelp, and it has a good chance of success. Decades ago, a barbecue trailer on a farm road could dry up and blow away in between customers. Thanks to Twitter, Google Maps, Facebook, and Instagram, you can get a brisket or sausage fix when and where you need it. Now it stretches far and wide.īarbecue is easier to find too. Once the term “Texas barbecue belt” meant the center of the state. A claim of “That’s great brisket” in Longview no longer has to be qualified with “for East Texas” today’s pitmasters provide an excuse for a road trip to just about any far-flung corner. This is true from Wolfforth to Mercedes and Pecos to Spring, because excellent barbecue is also more widespread. Restaurants serve butter-tender beef ribs and name-check the ranches they hail from on their menus.
When we compiled our very first list-twenty places-in 1973, smoking anything but the cheapest briskets was unthinkable now, glistening slices of Top Choice-even Prime-beef are the norm. The cult-level popularity of barbecue has permanently changed the old landscape. There was nowhere to go but up! Our appetite for smoked meat remains insatiable, and I can say, with gusto, that we are living in the golden age of Texas barbecue.Īnd what defines this succulent era? First, quality. We were right, of course, but I did wonder: Had we peaked? Was there nowhere to go but down? Four years later, the answer is clear.
Texas barbecue has no peer on earth.” That’s what I immodestly declared in 2013, when we published our fourth list of the fifty best barbecue joints in the state.
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