Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ Joints - 2017

The new list was published in June, just 4 years since the last one. There have been a lot of changes. Franklin’s is displaced at the top by Snow’s of Lexington. The fame and acclaim or Aaron Franklin has attracted a lot of new competition and old line places are trying to up their game. There are a number of places on the list that didn’t even exist 4 years ago. One in Houston, Pinkerton’s, only opened last December.

Four years ago only the top 4 were ranked, all the rest were given scores (ranging from 4 to 5 on a scale of 5). This year the top 10 are ranked, the rest just given the scores.

Pecan Lodge, Dallas, was ranked in the top 4 last time, doesn’t make the top 10 this time but is still on the list. Louie Mueller, also in the top 4 last time, drops one slot.

There used to be a link to a separate published list of the Top 10 but it doesn’t work anymore. I’ll list them below but here’s the whole list, alphabetically by city. The top 10 have stylized numbers accompanying their write-ups.

To find all the places in a metropolitan area you have to look under the names of the suburban towns. In the Houston area, for instance, that includes Pearland, Spring and Tomball.

The Top 10 as ranked:

1 - Snow’s - Lexington (Austin area)
2 - Franklin - Austin
3 - Cattleack - Dallas
4 - Bodacious - Longview
5 - Louie Mueller - Taylor (Austin area)
6 - Tejas Chocolate Craftory and BBQ - Tomball (Houston area)
7 - Corkscrew - Spring (Houston area)
8 - Micklethwait - Austin
9 - Evie Mae’s - Wolfforth (Lubbock area)
10 - Truth - Brenham (it’s been announced Truth will open a branch ITL in Houston by the end of 2017)

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Texas Monthly’s BBQ Joint # 51

I have to do a Texas barbecue bang bang in my lifetime . I would enjoy the real deal . Thanks .

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Awesome. Thanks for this.

I’ll be visiting Dallas in a month ish, so this is great. I’ll be staying downtown and probably won’t have too much mobility. So with that in mind, which of the Dallas BBQ do you think I should be prioritizing?

I can’t offer any personal observations about any of the three places on the list. I haven’t been to Dallas in decades and don’t follow the food scene there.

I would certainly prioritize Cattleack since it’s # 3 but it’s clearly the farthest from downtown and extremely limited hours and only 2 days a week.

Looks like Pecan Lodge is geographically closest to DT but Lockhart isn’t that much farther depending on which part of downtown you’re in. And both have much better hours.

There will be longer write-ups on all three on the TMBBQ blog itself - just click on BBQ at the top of any page on the TM website and use the search function. I’m not familiar with other reviewers in Dallas but I’m sure there are reviews in the Dallas Morning News, whatever the Dallas alternative paper is, bloggers,and Yelp. You definitely need to look into wait times and the best way to minimize them any place you decide to go. Also look into whether they have issues with running out of things to serve long before the posted closing time.

@President_Mochi Pecan Lodge is by far the best I had in Dallas circa a couple yrs ago. Others worth checking out

Lockhart Smokehouse
Hutchins (a hike from downtown though)

Rest in Dallas on a prior year TM50 list were very disappointing, glad too see they have been removed.

Had not heard about Cattleack, looks like a relatively new place, probably worth a look.

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Thanks, @brucesw & @Sgee! Appreciate the additional info. Looking forward to trying some of these out.