May 2013

Texas BBQ Posse / 2013 / May

May 2013

Sorted by Date

Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ first timers - Miller's Smokehouse in Belton

Brisket sits on the pit at Miller's Smokehouse. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) You never forget your first time. That applies to visiting great barbecue joints as well. Our first trip 14 months ago to Miller's Smokehouse in Belton was one of those unforgettable journeys. The visit was so inspiring that I couldn't wait to get home and write about Miller's. The lede was as follows: "Every now and then you hit the motherlode on the Texas BBQ trail. For every 20 mediocre BBQ joints, there's one good one. For every 50 good ones, there's one great one. You can add…

Joints - 05/23/2013

Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ first timers - Joseph's Riverport Barbecue in Jefferson

The opening spread to Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ list. (Photos by Wyatt McSpadden/Texas Monthly) During the past four years, we've eaten a lot of great barbecue and met an equal number of notable folks running BBQ joints around the state. A meal is almost always followed by a pit tour while swapping tales about the Texas BBQ trail. They always have a story to tell. At some point the conversation almost always turns to Texas Monthly magazine and the holy grail of endorsements, their Top 50 BBQ list. Faces would light up at the possibility of landing on the…

Joints - 05/22/2013

Dallas BBQ history made at Daniel Vaughn's book party with the first briskets ever cooked in Big D by Aaron Franklin

Aaron Franklin, center, works the serving line while Justin Fourton works his smoker "Lurlene." (Jim Rossman photo) Friday was a historic night in Dallas barbecue. The book party for Daniel Vaughn's Prophets of Smoked Meat at the home of Steve and Anne Stodghill brought together four of Texas' best pitmasters: Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge in Dallas, Tim Byres of Smoke in Dallas and Will Fleischman of Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas. Steve Stodghill, a principal at the Fish and Richardson law firm, represents Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Daniel Vaughn signing books (@harryhunsicker…

People - 05/18/2013

New Dallas Joint: CattleAck BBQ

From left: Todd David, David Mills, Misty David and Lauren Parajon (all photos by Jim Rossman) In the wake of the Texas Monthly Top 50 list which was released this week, there’s been an abnormal amount of BBQ chatter on Twitter. It was in a Tweet I saw mention of CattleAck BBQ in Dallas. I was intrigued, as I’ve at least heard of most joints in Dallas and this one was under my radar. A jump to their Twitter feed @cattleackbbq led me to their website www.cattleackbbq.com. What I found was a BBQ catering business that four weeks ago started opening…

Joints - 05/17/2013

Where's Vera's? ... and other Posse reactions to Texas Monthly's new Top 50 BBQ joints

In case you missed it, Texas Monthly's new Top 50 list of the best BBQ joints in the state is at the end of this post. The magazine will reveal its Top 4 on Thursday. Why only 4? We're hearing No. 5 had consistency problems and was dropped at the last minute. Now, for some Posse reaction to the new Top 50: -- The most interesting omission was Vera's Backyard Bar-B-Que in Brownsville. New Texas Monthly BBQ editor Daniel Vaughn put Vera's in his Top 5 in the state in his book, The Prophets of Smoked Meat. But maybe whole…

Joints - 05/16/2013

A review: In Barbecue Crossroads, Robb Walsh shows how to write a road trip book

Author Robb Walsh doesn't think much of the best-of barbecue lists compiled by bloggers and journalists. But we won't hold that against him. The former food writer at the Houston Press, whose Barbecue Crossroads was just issued by the University of Texas Press, admits he was once there himself. Besides, Crossroads is a fine book. As a barbecue road trip account, it's everything that Daniel Vaughn's The Prophets of Smoked Meat isn't. "Take off your jacket, honey, make yourself comfortable," Thelma Williams of Thelma's in Houston tells a New York companion of Walsh's during their visit to her place. Thelma…

People - 05/14/2013

True confessions of a BBQ vegan

Wearing my favorite BBQ t-shirt from Stanley's while dining at our favorite vegan joint, The Loving Hut in Addison. I've been a blogger for the past ten years, writing mainly about photojournalism and barbecue. I even helped start the now-defunct Dallas Morning News fantasy football blog in the early 2000's. Because I have a confession to make, this may be the toughest post I've ever had to write. For six long weeks in February and March of this year, I walked in the shoes of the enemy. The co-founder of the Texas BBQ Posse became a vegan. I'm the same guy who…

People - 05/07/2013

The Barbecue Chronicles: Austin is the new Lockhart BBQ Tour

The Texas BBQ Posse dives into a spread of sausage, brisket, ribs and turkey at La Barbecue in Austin. (Photo by Tom Fox/DMN) Story by Gary Jacobson It would be easy to get carried away by what’s happening in Austin barbecue. Amid a fertile startup environment, young pitmasters are creating a smoked-meat renaissance, using only wood-fired pits and adopting old-school ways to cook for a new generation. A case could even be made that Austin has replaced Lockhart as the capital of Texas barbecue. We’ll leave that big-think stuff for another time. This is a story about…

Roadtrips - 05/07/2013

A review: Daniel Vaughn's book on Texas BBQ seems more about bad barbecue than good

The Posse has been a strong supporter of Daniel Vaughn, self pro-claimed BBQ Snob, champion blogger and new BBQ editor of Texas Monthly magazine. Once, long before he got his new gig, we even discussed how an alliance of aggressive bloggers -- him and us -- might actually be able to displace the magazine he now works for as the bible of Texas barbecue. So, this review is painful in the blogger brotherhood. I expected his new book, The Prophets of Smoked Meat, to be a celebration of great Texas barbecue because there is plenty to cheer, including an…

People - 05/06/2013

Corkscrew BBQ: Finally found the best BBQ in Houston...well, Spring, TX.

Corkscrew BBQ in Spring, just north of Houston. (Photos by Jim Rossman) For several months I've been monitoring the buzz around Corkscrew BBQ, a trailer operation in Spring TX, between Conroe and Houston. My parents had forwarded me an article from the Houston Chronicle praising a new classic of Houston BBQ and decided it would be a priority on my next trip to visit my parents. Fast forward and today's the day. I got to Corkscrew just after noon and there were about 15 people in the line that stayed about that long until 1:30 p.m., when Pitmaster Will Buckman…

Joints - 05/03/2013

Advertise with the Posse

Product Review Request Form

“

Let the meat speak for itself.

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy