If you haven't heard, Daniel Vaughn, AKA The BBQ Snob, has recently been hired by Texas Monthly as their official barbecue editor. He joins William Breathes, the Denver Westword ganja writer, in the the ultra-elite ranks of the coolest jobs in journalism.
See also: - Daniel Vaughn: The BBQ Snob
I've had the pleasure of hanging out with Vaughn a handful of times, most notably when I interviewed him for a profile as part of our People Issue last year. While we sat at the bar at Union Bear, I asked him if he had any dreams of jumping into writing full-time. Back then he wasn't so sure. Talk to him now, though and he sounds downright giddy.
Next week, Vaughn will work his last day as an architect (he says he's got to wrap up some sort of safety plan for Golds Gym) and join the ranks of the poor, starving, overworked journalists. He starts with Texas Monthly later in April.
Vaughn's been contributing to the magazine since June 2010 when he was asked to help them build a mobile barbecue app. Texas Monthly subsequently added the blogger to their Top 50 Barbecue restaurants tasting team, and Vaughn started covering the Texas barbecue scene for the magazine.
"We had been working together on so many things one day [editor] Jake Silverstein said why don't we stop making goo-goo guys at each other over email and make it official," said Vaughn. It took several rounds of budget planning, but as soon as they secured the position they solicited Vaughn and talked about his title. "That was one of my first questions to Jake," Vaughn said. "I am going to have a Texas Monthly business card that says barbecue editor on it, right?"
On April 15 Vaughn plans to drive to Austin and sit down with his new teammates to lay out a plan for his coverage. He plans to pick up those business cards too.
