Every four years or so, a major event happens. It’s an event that defines the state and the nation, having ripple effects for the entire country.
No, not the presidential election. It’s the Texas Monthly Top 50 Barbecue Joints list.
Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor for Texas Monthly, joined the Standard with his insight on the 2025 list.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: We have talked about some of what it takes to put this list together, but let’s remind our listeners about how this process actually works. Where do you begin?
Daniel Vaughn: Well, we start about six or seven months before we have to have this list finalized. And that means a bunch of our staff members at Texas Monthly coming together in a big room where we have a big load of barbecue. And we discuss barbecue, what we love about barbecue and how they should be judging when they hit the road for that first round of judging.
And so once that first around of judging is done, those scores come back to me, and I’ve got a couple of months to double-check them all.
We should just cut to the chase: What about the newcomers on the list? Roughly how many newcomers do you have on the list, and how does that compare with past years?
Well, so every time we do this, I think people are surprised by how much turnover there is, and it’s usually about half the list. I think this time around it’s 23; last time it was 29.
So there’s always a lot of turnover because there’s so much good barbecue opening up in Texas.
» WHERE THERE’S SMOKE: The latest barbecue news from across the Lone Star State
Now, how much of that is the variation in how each, I don’t know, how each brisket is cooked versus like say what’s happening to the economics of barbecue? Because we’ve talked in the past about how many of these places have shuttered in recent years.
Yeah, well what has been surprising really is a lot of these newcomers, especially to the top of our list, to our top 10, are those small-town joints that we’ve talked about in the past have been struggling because they can’t charge those big-city prices.
Places like LaVaca BBQ in Port Lavaca, No. 8 on our list. Or GW’s down in San Juan, down in the Valley, No. 5 on our lists. And, you know, No. 1 on our list is Burnt Bean in Seguin, Texas. These places have really shown that small-town barbecue maybe has a lot more power to it than we thought.
No. 1 in Seguin?
In Seguin, right outside of San Antonio. You’ll be standing there looking at the courthouse and the world’s largest pecan – which is not a pecan nor the largest – while you’re in line at Burnt Bean Co.
Well, this begs the question, or maybe I’m just begging you to answer my question: What about Franklin? And what about some of these big dogs in the business?
Yeah, well, a lot of those big dogs in the business are still on our top 50 list. You’ve got Franklin Barbecue and Snows BBQ, which has been near the top of the list for many lists running here, but they’re not in the top 10 anymore.
And that really is a lot more to say about the new barbecue that’s come on and the quality of barbecue that we now enjoy in Texas. All these new places coming in are just doing some astounding work. And places like Snows and Franklin, they really haven’t had to do much to change to draw in those customers.
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That’s just it, though, Daniel. Is it that they just haven’t changed much, or is it their quality seems to have gone down relative to the others? Are the others innovating in some way that you might be able to describe?
Really, yeah, it is the others innovating – just adding more variety when it comes to the proteins, the sides.
You know you have a place like Leroy and Lewis in Austin, which is No. 2 on our list, and they have basically just this massive menu of all kinds of different options, whether it’s a smoked cheeseburger, smoked tri-tip, smoked beef cheeks, different sausages.
Then you got Burnt Bean Co.: They’ve got a whole Sunday barbecue breakfast service, which they only do once a week, and it is just one of the finest meals you can get anywhere. It’s a very barbecue-centric breakfast with brisket huevos rancheros, barbacoa tacos, and the list goes on.
But yeah, it’s really about that innovation.
Let’s step back for just a moment, because we’re talking about some specific joints, some specific barbecue spots. But I would think part of the intrigue about this list is whether or not you can see sort of broad trends that are happening.
As you step back, what are you seeing? It sounds like more proteins on the menu, right? That’s one thing.
Yes. I’m also seeing a lot of barbecue joint owners and pitmasters really trying to show off their own personality and sometimes their own heritage when it comes to the barbecue, with different takes on it
You know, speaking of small towns like Port Neches, I have Redbird BBQ, which opened just two years ago. Amir Jalali is the owner and pitmaster there, and he does this smoked koobideh sausage based on his Iranian roots that is served in house-made pita bread with the shirazi salad and a yogurt and feta sauce. So it is a Southeast Texas smoked beef sausage, just served in a little bit different way.
