Gavin Cleaver
Audio By Carbonatix
To celebrate National Barbecue Day on May 16, the ratings aggregator Yelp dove into our collective words on barbecue across the country to determine the 10 cities with the best barbecue. And we sighed really hard after reading it. The thing about general aggregators is that, for better or worse, they miss a lot.
But we do agree with the top of the list: the No. 1 best-of-the-best barbecue city in America is, according to Yelp, Austin. No booing here. We agree that this valedictorian of smoked meats and neighbor down Interstate 35 has a long list of iconic spots, from Franklin Barbecue to Michelin-rated La Barbecue and Interstellar. To be sure, there are some solid smoke rings here.
San Antonio is second on the list with the top-rated joints like Curry Boys BBQ, which is introduced by Yelp Elite 25 reviewer Brett N. with this simple description: “Thai. BBQ. Tex-Mex. Three of my favorite things in life – all under one roof.”
Smoke Shack, a more traditional Texas barbecue spot in San Antonio, is also called out.
Turns out Yelp limited the list to just two cities per state to ensure “geography diversity.” That’s silly. No one wants that. This Senate seat approach gives too much pull to Maryland, Delaware, Vermont, Oklahoma and every state that’s not Texas.
Kansas City was third on the list because it has “earned a reputation as a top barbecue destination,” and the use of the word “reputation” is key here. In my experience, I’ve found that Kansas relies on sauce to cover up bland meat. There. I said it. Yelp points to Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que with 3,500 5-star reviews for solid sandwiches; Jack Stack and Q39 Midtown are also mentioned.
Memphis, Tennessee, is fourth, but now we’re really getting into the weeds with barbecue historical significance and lore based on what was happening in a region when the foodways started to take shape. This is like going to the Olympics, assigning medals while one team is throwing the shot put, the other the disc, all while a sprinter and a hurdler are lining up elsewhere.
Alas, this is why local journalism is important and we just need to separate our emotions on this.
Charleston’s Lowcountry-style meats, “heavily influenced by coastal South Carolina traditions,” are next on the list. Rounding out the list are Greenville, South Carolina; Honolulu, Hawaii; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Durham, North Carolina; and Nashville, Tennessee.
What Yelp Missed
Hopefully, no one is planning their summer trips to hit the best barbecue in the U.S. based on this list, because a simple drive along Interstate 35 from North Texas to San Antonio would do the trick. By dismissing Dallas altogether, we miss places like Cattleack Barbeque, one of our top 100 restaurants and a stalwart on our essential barbecue of Dallas. The only quibble we have with Cattleack is the limited hours: Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The pastrami wagyu brisket sandwich on thick slices of white bread is the stuff empires are built on. Cattleack sits at No. 6 on Texas Monthly’s lauded list of top 50 spots. A wee bit west, tucked in the southeast corner of Fort Worth, we have Goldee’s, which was Texas Monthly’s No. 1 barbecue spot on its list published in 2023.
These are just a few Dallas examples, along with Slow Bone, Smokey Joe’s and Lockhardt, which also must be mentioned when talking about good barbecue in Big D.
