Grapevine’s HipPop wants you to pop it and lock it (without dropping it, preferably), even if the full onset of summer weather is a bit late this year. The store on Main St. is in its third year of business, but the Rapper’s Delights have been out in these streets…

When Daniel Vaughn reviews a barbecue joint on his frequent jaunts throughout the state in search of the Holy Barbecue Grail, he knows the only way to form a real opinion on a spot is to order basically one of everything. So he was glad I was tagging along this…

Barbecue doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the food truck. The extensive food prep, including overnight cooks in most cases, is usually best left to those with brick-and-mortar bases of operation. Barbecue truck operators are forced to decide whether to smoke offsite and keep the day’s prepared meat warm using a…

Want to be the office hero, #Dallas? Tweet us and we might show up at your office for a sweet break! pic.twitter.com/7D1HDCkXuo— Ben & Jerry’s Texas (@BenJerrysTexas) May 12, 2015 Do it. Be the office hero. The Ben & Jerry’s Food Truck will be in Dallas through June 6, doling…

Me, your mother, that frickin’ grabowski over there, and those other asswipes are goin’ ta Gino’s fer a nice deep dish dinner, ya know? That’s just how Chicagoans talk; it’s been widely documented. Luckily, and educationally, the installation of Gino’s East Chicago Pizzeria, off of I-30 near Six Flags and…

All that has been written about Heim Craft Barbecue in Near Southside Fort Worth to this point has buried the lede. Sure, the brisket, smoky with a pitch black bark, might be better than Pecan Lodge’s. Do not sauce Heim’s brisket. And, sure, the line outside the black trailer in…

Who knew this writing-about-barbecue thing would lead to shoulder-rubbing with the upper-most layer of Dallas’ upper-crust elite this quickly? I was invited into the secret cabal of about 30 judges for Friday’s Big D BBQ Battle, which regrettably had to be cut short due to rain at about 7 p.m…

See if you can count the red flags in this sentence: A Detroit native wanted to clue Texans in on authentic Mexican tacos, so eight months ago he opened a joint in Southlake called Frezko, where 80s rock and pop greets the lunch crowd alongside an Aztec Sun Stone mural…

A specific hook carried me into Longoria’s on my last trip to the corrugated-metal meat mansion in Everman. Owner David Longoria added pulled pork to his eclectic menu a little over a month ago, and by this time had mastered the new offering, making it time, once again, to check…

Have you ever been to a community or town festival, smelled wood, smoke and meat, gotten hyped, then suffered the ultimate disappointment when told you couldn’t have any of what was cookin’? Sadly, this is the experience of many attendees of barbecue cook-offs around the great state of Texas. When…

We are generally skeptical of menu items labeled “poppers.” I mean, we’re not doing any first looks at Chili’s anytime soon. But the chicken poppers at AJ’s on Main in Grapevine have a way of making skeptical heads turn. Crunchy bacon encapsulates a longways jalapeno slice and a chunk of…

Tim Pregler is part backyard-barbecue-professor, part wood-fired charity coordinator. A 57-year old tech consultant from Fort Worth, he founded the Karma Que charitable barbecue collective in 2012 with help from his wife Kim. Three years later, Karma Que consists of three competitive barbecue teams that raise money at cook-offs and…

Whether it’s a 50-year tradition that leaves no choice in the matter, regional availability or a staunch preference for the specific taste derived from one wood or another, Dallas pitmasters have smoking-hot takes on which wood brings the wood in the great creosote debate. A true post-oak disciple, Lockhart Smokehouse…