Texas BBQ tours

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Tootsie’s barbecue pork steak warms the heart of a Carolina pig cooker

Phillip Townsend shows off his tray of smoked meats at Franklin Barbecue in Austin, one of the highlights of his four-day Texas BBQ trip. (Photo ©Trish Townsend) By Phillip TownsendSpecial to the Texas BBQ Posse The North Carolina barbecue tradition runs in my veins. Doctors say that might account for my triglycerides, but that’s another story for another day. As a kid, I grew up helping my dad raise, butcher, and cook hogs on our small farm. Through my teen and college years, I eagerly embraced every opportunity to sample good barbecue — the Eastern N.C. style of my youth…

Roadtrips - 12/05/2019

'Nobody better' in Dallas than Cattleack Barbecue

Lunch sampling of brisket, pulled pork, beer bacon beef sausage & brisket pastrami at CattleAck BBQ. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) There may be some prophets of smoked meat, but too bad there aren't more poets. The Posse could have used one last Saturday because the smoked pastrami that Todd David served at CattleAck Barbecue deserved an ode, if not a sonnet. "That's the barbecue gauntlet right there," Posse member Bryan Gooding said of the pastrami. "Everybody else is going to have to figure out how to do it." Sliced from the lean end, the meat glistened on the tray.…

Joints - 06/15/2015

A very tasty Texas BBQ day: Breakfast at Snow's, lunch at Louie Mueller and dinner at Miller's Smokehouse

Legendary Snow's BBQ pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz. (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves/fotobia.com) The Posse took it's long overdue 5th anniversary barbecue tour Saturday. Dubbed the Central Texas Legends Tour by Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins, it came 5 years and 5 months after our very first trip in November 2009. It was a one-day roundtrip dash from Dallas, covering 390 miles in about 13 hours. We ate at 3 joints and stopped at a fourth to pay homage to one of the state's cooking legends. A lot has changed since the Posse first started touring. And some things haven't. One of those is the…

Joints - 04/15/2015

In a Hyden brothers barbecue showdown, Kirby wins with his brisket

Randy Hyden (top) of Hyden Family Barbeque in Teague and brother Kirby Hyden of Kirby's Barbeque in Mexia.(Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) You could call them The BBQ Brothers. In fact, we will. Kirby and Randy Hyden, once business partners with a long family tradition of barbecue, now operate separate joints about 15 miles apart. Kirby runs Kirby's Barbeque in Mexia and Randy has Hyden Family Barbeque in Teague. The Posse first ate at Kirby's in the summer of 2013 during a tour of Central Texas places that didn't include Randy's. Ever since, we've wanted to return and rectify that…

Joints - 02/09/2015

Killen's in Pearland might just be the best BBQ joint in Texas

Customers wait for the 11am opening of Killen's BBQ in Pearland on Saturday morning. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Even before we had finished eating at Killen's Barbecue in Pearland on Saturday, the great debate began. "When you factor everything in, this is the best barbecue place in Texas," declared Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins. We ate brisket, pork ribs, pork belly, beef ribs, turkey and sausage. Everything was excellent -- moist, flavorful and nicely cooked. On a scouting mission in May, Posse member Jim Rossman called the food at Killen's, which opened in a permanent location early this year, "spectacular."…

Joints - 06/29/2014

Stellar preview for the new Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum, Dallas

Owners Diane & Justin Fourton address the crowd at Pecan Lodge's preview party. (Photo by Jim Rossman) All right. The new Pecan Lodge will open Friday, May 23, ending nearly a couple weeks of Dallas barbecue drought since the original joint last served at the Farmers Market on May 11. That's the grand opening target for the new place on Main Street in Deep Ellum, according to owner/pitmaster Justin Fourton, who with his wife, Diane, hosted a preview party Thursday attended by about 200 guests. The new space is wonderful. And the food won't miss a beat, according to many…

Joints - 05/16/2014

Some great BBQ joint names, and some great food, too

Clockwise from top left, our stops included Buck Snort BBQ, The First Baptist Church of Bells, Cackle & Oink BBQ and Bull Hollar BBQ. (Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Had this been an official Posse outing, we would have called it the All-Time Best BBQ Name Tour. Covering 180 miles over 7 hours last Saturday, we ate at Buck Snort BBQ in Van Alstyne, Bull Hollar BBQ in Bells and Cackle & Oink BBQ in Sherman. As names for Texas joints go, that's a whole lot spicier than Franklin, Pecan Lodge and Kreuz Market. Mid-trip, we also ate at the First…

Joints - 04/23/2014

Check out our South of Fort Worth BBQ Tour story in this weekend's Dallas Morning News

Here's the latest Texas BBQ Posse tour story in the pages of The Dallas Morning News. The story written by Posse co-founder Gary Jacobson tells about our recent trip to four joints located south of Dallas/Fort Worth. Award-winning DMN staff photographer and Posse member Tom Fox takes you on visual journey of our tour. You can click here to read Gary's story online on dallasnews.com. Click here to see a slideshow of Tom's photos from the tour. The South of DFW BBQ Tour 9am: Leave Dallas. 10am: BBQ on the Brazos, 9001 E Hwy 377, Cresson, TX. Open Mon-Fri 6:30am-3pm, Sat…

Joints - 04/20/2014

Some barbecue bracketology: The Posse picks the best of the best in Dallas-Fort Worth for the Final Four

Pecan Lodge had a strong showing on the Posse's Best of the Best DFW BBQ list. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BB Posse) While compiling our list for Final Four fans of the best Dallas-Forth Worth area barbecue joints, we also engaged in some smoked meat bracketology. We rated the best-of-the-best individual menu items -- and some other categories -- from the field of North Texas competitors. For this task, we relied on the opinions of 6 veteran Posse members. All have eaten a lot of barbecue since we started going on tours in 2009. All have strong opinions. There was just one…

Joints - 04/02/2014

Hey, Final Four fans! Here's the Posse's guide to the best BBQ in Dallas-Fort Worth

Over the years, readers have asked the Posse for barbecue joint recommendations. Those requests have increased recently with the Final Four of the NCAA men's basketball tournament headed to North Texas. So, here is our list of best places in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. None of them is more than an hour's drive from AT&T Stadium. The closest is right across the street. One reader asked what may be the ultimate question this year for barbecue fans who also enjoy a little college basketball: Pecan Lodge or Hutchins? Our answer: Figure out how to eat at both. These are probably…

Joints - 03/31/2014

Give customers what they want, says Pit Stop BBQ boss

Award-winning pitmaster Steve Graham and his primary smoker at Pit Stop BBQ. (Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) An experienced competition cook, Steve Graham has filled his Pit Stop BBQ restaurant outside Waxahachie with trophies and plaques. He knows how to cook for a tough audience, judges, even different sets of judges. For example, he said, he always tried to get a look at the judges before he started preparing his meat. Older judges like salt, he said. "In a competition, that first taste is everything," Graham said. So the flavor has to be bold and great. If you read our posts…

Joints - 03/25/2014

In Texas, barbecued bologna is not the new turkey

Pitmaster Terry Massey slices smoked bologna at Lazy S&M BBQ in Joshua. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) A year ago, after our best of Austin tour, we wrote about how turkey breast was making a move to join the royal family of Texas barbecue: brisket, pork ribs, and sausage. We're still not ready to give the big bird equal status, but we order it whenever we see it on menus. A lot of joints in the state are smoking great turkey. On our recent South of DFW Tour, three of the four places we visited served barbecued bologna. Different, we…

Cooking - 03/22/2014

A second opinion on the Posse's South of DFW BBQ Tour

Michael Meadows, left, and the Posse dig in at Pit Stop BBQ in Waxahachie. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Maybe there was a time, long ago, when I was surprised at how seriously people take barbecue. But certainly not anymore. Take Michael Meadows, one of the Posse's newest members. He and his family were in Colorado skiing last week. They drove 900 miles Friday arriving back in Dallas just before midnight. And yet Meadows made the starting gate with the rest of us Saturday morning at the first stop of our South of DFW Tour. During the day, we ate at…

Joints - 03/21/2014

On the barbecue trail, the Posse crosses an historic past and meets again one of its favorite dishes, the Jambo Texan

The legendary Jambo Texan sandwich was one of the highlights of our BBQ tour. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins) On the way to Lazy S&M BBQ in Joshua, the second stop of our recent South of DFW Tour, we crossed the Chisholm Trail Parkway. The 27-mile toll road, which runs from Fort Worth to Cleburne, is scheduled to open later this year. It was an interesting moment of synchronicity. Our modern barbecue trail intersected -- symbolically anyway -- part of the historic route that Texas cowboys used a century and a half ago to drive their cattle to the railroads. Some might…

Joints - 03/18/2014

Arlington's Crossroads Smokehouse stands out during the Posse's Mid-Cities mini-tour

Brisket is sliced at Eddie Deen Crossroads Smokehouse in Arlington. (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves/Fotobia.com) It has been a few months since the Posse went on a barbecue tour. So, it was nice to get back on the trail again this past weekend, if only briefly. We ate at three joints during a 60-mile, 3 1/2-hour mini-tour through the Mid-Cities between Dallas and Fort Worth. Over the course of the tour, a couple of Posse members made cameo appearances, but our main group numbered 8, including some newcomers: Michael Meadows, president of the Dallas Zoological Society; Mark Vamos, who holds an endowed…

Joints - 02/13/2014

Zip Code 78702 -- East Austin -- the center of the Texas BBQ universe

Tom Micklethwait, pitmaster & owner of Micklethwait Craft Meats. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Last spring we wrote that Austin had replaced Lockhart as the new barbecue capital of Texas. Now, with La Barbecue moving east of I-35, we're prepared to be even more specific. East Austin, specifically Zip Code 78702, is the undisputed center of the Texas barbecue universe. La Barbecue, with pit boss John Lewis, opens this week in its new location at the corner of East 6th Street and Waller. According to Google, that puts La Barbecue about a half-mile (a 9-minute walk) from Franklin Barbecue on East…

Joints - 12/03/2013

Check out our Heart of Texas BBQ Tour story in today's Dallas Morning News

Here's the lede page from our Heart of Texas BBQ Tour story in Sunday's Dallas Morning News Travel section. This was the Posse's 14th barbecue tour since we started following the smoke in November 2009. The Heart of Texas BBQ Tour covered 318 miles over ten hours on a recent Friday. Chick here to see the online package from the tour on dallasnews.com, including Gary Jacobson's story, a slideshow featuring our four tour stops and a video by original Posse member David Guzman. Heart of Texas BBQ Tour 9am: Leave Dallas 10:30am: Wright’s Bar-B-Q, 123 Martin Luther King Jr Hwy…

Joints - 09/01/2013

The power of return customers on display at Kirby's Barbeque in Mexia

A customer arrives at Kirby's Barbeque in Mexia. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Luckily, we got to Kirby’s Barbeque near Mexia about 11:30 on Friday morning. So, at noon, while the line of lunch customers was building, we were already eating some excellent brisket and some very good ribs. At one point, Posse veteran Bruce Tomaso counted 20 people waiting to order at this rural barbecue outpost about 90 miles south of Dallas. Considering that Big D is roughly 150 times larger than Mexia, population nearly 8,000, Tomaso calculated that an equivalent line at Pecan Lodge would number 3,000. That…

Joints - 08/07/2013

Longoria's definitely belongs on Texas Monthly's new Top 50 list; not so Cousin's

Meats sit on the smoker at Longoria's BBQ in Everman. (Photo©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Longoria's BBQ in Everman turns out some pretty stout ribs, but the star of the menu is the brisket sausage, no doubt about it. "Brisket sausage, I don't think life gets better than that," Posse member Magda Michna Goncalves said during the final day of our "DFW Top 7 BBQ Tour" after she tasted Longoria's specialty. To be proper, we should probably refer to Magda as Dr. Michna Goncalves. Among its members, the Posse numbers several JDs, and we just picked up a reverend, but Magda…

Joints - 06/11/2013

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

Today in the Dallas Morning News: The BBQ Posse's Austin BBQ Tour

Here's a look at our Austin BBQ Tour story in today's Dallas Morning News travel section. This is the Posse's second installment from the Texas BBQ trail in the DMN this year. Our Best of Texas BBQ project was published in early March. The tour grew out of a growing suspicion that Austin might be quickly replacing Lockhart as the state's barbecue capital. And nothing we experienced on that day disproved the theory, every stop on the tour was nothing short of sensational. Click here to see the story, slideshow and video links on the DMN Travel section of dallasnews.com. Also, you can join us…

Joints - 04/28/2013

Even in Atlanta, they love Texas barbecue and follow the Posse

Snow's BBQ pit boss Tootsie Tomanetz tends the pits as the sun rises over Lexington. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins) A recent item posted on Eat It, Atlanta involves a tour of Texas barbecue joints inspired by the Posse, according to its author, who goes by the moniker The Legend. A group of four barbecue fans -- two hailing from Atlanta, one from Boston and one from Texas -- visited nine joints in 48 hours and scored the brisket and sausage at each, just as we did on our recent Best of Texas tour. The group's verdict: Snow's BBQ in…

People - 04/25/2013

In very stout BBQ company, Stiles Switch takes the day in ribs during the Posse's Austin tour

Posse members enter Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew for our fourth tour stop. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) We had a few surprises on our lightning BBQ tour -- 400 miles in 13 hours -- to Austin and back Wednesday. Among them, the great pork ribs we had at Stiles Switch BBQ and Brew. "That was the best rib I've had in a long time," Posse member Bryan Gooding said. He said the rub had a "wonderful" flavor and the meat was juicy, firm and cooked perfectly. Several other Posse members agreed. Located in a small shopping center about 5…

Joints - 04/18/2013

What the Posse looks for in great Texas BBQ

A diner eats his lunch at City Meat Market in Giddings. (Photo ©Guy Reynolds) Here's the third video from our Best of Texas BBQ Tour multimedia package on dallasnews.com. In this piece, Gary Jacobson, Jim Rossman, Bruce Tomaso and me talk about what we look for in great Texas barbecue. When we sit down to a plate of brisket, ribs and sausage, here are the basic criteria used to judge what we're eating: Taste, tenderness, appearance, texture and smokiness. Click the video below to see more of our tips on judging great Texas BBQ.

Cooking / Joints - 03/25/2013

The 10 top posts of all-time on the Texas BBQ Posse blog

Posse members toast at Loco Coyote Grill in Glen Rose during our Brazos & Beyond BBQ Tour. (Photo©R.J. Hinkle) We missed a couple of important Posse milestones recently. So, forgive us a few moments of backslapping as we catch up. The very first item on this blog was posted March 7, 2010, just over three years ago. It likely will never be a trivia question, like "what was the first video played on MTV?" (Answer: Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.) But, still, it's kinda sentimental to us. The item was about our first trip to the Central…

Joints / People - 03/22/2013

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