Barbecue lists are popular — and hard to get right
Arguing about who makes the best barbecue in the state is a fundamental right of any Texan.
I’d suggest from the very earliest days of statehood, perhaps at a community barbecue at the original Austin’s Colony in the mid-1800s, a pioneer took a bite of smoked pork or beef, leaned in toward his neighbor seated nearby and proclaimed, “This is pretty good, but let me tell you about the barbecue I had at this fella’s place down the road.”
Today, with the rise of social media and shortened attention spans, “Best of ” barbecue lists proliferate faster than Hill Country bluebonnets in the spring. Undoubtedly, many of these lists are generated by anonymous writers who have not and will never set foot in most of the barbecue joints they pass judgment upon. When it comes to finding authoritative best-barbecue lists, it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, or the brisket from the hamburger, if you will.
The gold standard for Texas barbecue lists is the “Top 50 BBQ Joints” from Texas Monthly magazine. It debuted with a list of 20 in 1973 and returned with 50 in 1997, 2003, 2008 and 2013. A new list will be published in the magazine’s June issue, appearing on tmbbq. com starting next week.
Throughout its history, the Texas Monthly Top 50 list has mirrored changes in barbecue both in Texas as a whole and Houston, in particular.
The 1973 list was spearheaded by staff writers Griffin Smith Jr. and Paul Burka, two friends and barbecue fans who met while attending Rice University. Smith’s article that accompanied that list has become something of a founding document of contemporary Texas barbecue.
Smith delineated the traditional Central-versus-East Texas barbecue styles, noting the sauceless, beef-centric smoked meats associated with Austin versus the sauced and chopped pork traditions of joints around Houston.
Indeed, the Houston entries on the list featured the Central Texas-style Otto’s on Memorial, the quintessential East Texas-style joint Matt Garner’s on West Gray and a somewhat mysterious place known as the Western Kitchen with two locations on Richmond and Kempwood. All have since closed.
The list went dormant throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, arguably because of a downward swing in quality from the introduction of automated pits and the proliferation of chain barbecue restaurants.
The magazine resurrected its list in 1997, paralleling an increased interest in food media with the rise of the internet and The Food Network.
“There was just a sudden realization that Texas has comfort foods like barbecue and chicken-fried steak that people want to read more about,” says Texas Monthly food editor Patricia Sharpe, who was one of five members of the ’97 research team. For that list, Goode Co. Barbeque and Pizzitola’s Bar-BCue were the Houston entries suggested by staff writer John Morthland.
Goode Co. remained in 2003, with East Texas-style institutions Thelma’s Bar-B-Que and Williams Smokehouse also getting nods. Five years later, Burns Bar-B-Q and Virgie’s Bar-B-Que joined the club.
By 2013, the Texas barbecue landscape, and how it was covered in the media, had changed dramatically. Texas Monthly hired a full-time barbecue editor in Daniel Vaughn, and Franklin Barbecue in Austin turned Texas barbecue into an international sensation. Joints were opening at a breakneck pace, and the research team was larger than ever. I had the privilege of being asked by Vaughn and Sharpe to help with research for the growing barbecue scene in Houston.
Over months in 2013, Sharpe and I crisscrossed Greater Houston, visiting dozens of barbecue joints in East Texas.
“It was the first time I gained an appreciation of how varied the barbecue is in Houston,” Sharpe says.
Houston had its best showing ever that year, with Brooks’ Place BBQ, CorkScrew BBQ, Gatlin’s BBQ and Virgie’s all making the cut.
In the four years since, Texas barbecue has grown and changed even further with the rise of “craft barbecue” associated with Central Texas traditions and centered in urban areas. (I also contributed to the 2017 list.)
No “best-of ” barbecue is perfect, and certainly not everyone will agree with the conclusions. But the best lists reflect the longest and strongest traditions of our communal obsession with smoked meats while acknowledging the inevitable changes that happen over time.