Victoria goes all-in with barbecue trail
Imagine you’re the director of tourism for a small Texas town, tasked with diversifying the local economy by drawing visitors from around the state.
The problem, of course, is that you’re competing against Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston for tourist dollars. Even small towns like Marfa, Round Top and New Braunfels have an edge.
How do you distinguish your small town from the hundreds of others? In the case of Victoria, you harness the continuing popularity of Texas barbecue. Explore Victoria, the city’s tourism bureau, just launched the “Coastal Texas Barbecue Trail” campaign with a comprehensive website and itineraries targeting barbecue fanatics who might otherwise head for Lockhart or Austin.
It’s unlikely that South Texas will ever topple Central Texas as the capital of barbecue tourism, but Victoria is making a go of it.
The campaign is the brainchild of Explore Victoria’s new director, Anthony Cordo, who arrived there in February from a previous post at the tourist office in Columbus, Ohio.
Though he admits his experience with barbecue is limited — “There’s probably only one good barbecue joint in all of Columbus”— Cordo noticed that barbecue joints were not only prevalent and popular in Victoria, they also had a lot of history.
“People in Victoria are modest and don’t always think of promoting themselves,” Cordo said. Combine that with traditionally secretive and low-profile barbecue pitmasters, and Cordo saw an opportunity. He and his team fanned out to pitch the idea of the Coastal Barbecue Trail to local pitmasters.
“Responses ranged from ‘You want to do what?’ to ‘It’s about darned time!’” Cordo said.
They eventually settled on seven local places — Aunt Jo’s BBQ, KB’s BBQ, McMillan’s Bar-B-Q, Mumphord’s Place, Quality Packers Smokehouse, the Fire Pit and Uncle Mutt’s Bar-B-Que. From there, stories were gathered, photos taken and a dedicated website set up.
Unlike some tourism websites, slapdash affairs with little original content, the Coastal Barbecue Trail site is professionally designed with informative content about the history of each barbecue joint.
Itineraries cleverly tie the histories of the barbecue joints with the history of Victoria and South Texas. For instance, nearby attractions such as Goliad State Park and the Presidio La Bahía have longtime historical ties to cattle ranching and the associated barbecue traditions of the area.
They wisely developed itineraries around local tourist attractions combined with the nearby barbecue joints, coffee houses and dance halls to mix up the experience. That said, hungry tourists could easily visit all seven places in one day if they are so inclined.
The idea of a touristfocused barbecue trail is nothing new. Various tourism bureaus and chambers of commerce have created similar things in Central Texas and North Carolina. It’s an effective way to promote the barbecue traditions of an otherwise unknown area of the state and country.
Improbably, Victoria may be a perfect fit for a barbecue trail. It’s a small town whose prosperity is buoyed by an oil and gas industry sitting astride the giant Eagle Ford shale formation. But the recent downturn in oil prices is a wake-up call to all small towns of the need to tap into other resources unique to Texas — including barbecue.
Will the Coastal Texas Barbecue Trail be successful? I think it will, based on the engagement of everyone involved. Cordo credits the support of the Victoria City Council as well as the participating restaurants for the success of the campaign’s rollout.
And what about the actual barbecue? I’ll admit I’ve only been to one place on the itinerary — KB’s BBQ. I recall that it was good, but it probably won’t be challenging Central Texas or Houston for barbecue predominance any time soon.
I doubt that any one of these Victoria barbecue joints would be considered “destination barbecue.” But taken together, they represent a unique weekend trip for anyone interested in learning about and tasting the history of barbecue in Victoria. jcreid@jcreidtx.com twitter.com/jcreidtx