Snow's BBQ in Lexington, Texas

"Barbecue" in America, as a verb, means different things than it does in other places. In America, there are two methods of cooking meat that are generally designated "barbecuing". Proponents of one method call the other method--where meat is placed on a grate over hot coals--simply grilling; while "grilling-as-barbecue" folks call the other-to-their method--where meat is placed in a chamber away from direct heat and cooked by means of hot smoke--simply smoking the meat.

Probably could have made that more confusing...Method 1 for American Barbecue: meat on a grate over hot coals; Method 2 for American Barbecue: southern style--in a chamber being slowly cooked by smoke and other vapors.

With this post, I'll be focusing on Method 2, mainly because where we live now Method 1 is considered "simply grilling", and these folks take their barbecue serious.

Now, in the world of what I call Method 2 barbecue there are different regional variations; Memphis: mostly pork ribs and pulled shoulder, sweet/spicy tomato based sauce; Carolinas: pork mainly also, dry rub, but vinegar sauce used while in smoking chamber; Kansas City: variation on the meats, but the main identifier is the sauce, based on tomato and molasses, what you normally think of as "bbq sauce" comes from KC.

Then there's Texas. Texas barbecue, by BBQ heads, is considered something else apart from the rest of the barbecue south. Texas BBQ itself is broken up into regions, but one characteristic of Texas barbecue is it is heavier on beef than most other southern barbecue styles. Brisket is one of the most famous cuts of meat that get used here, but they also do pork ribs and half chickens.

I'm not sure if the contest is held every year, or every other year, but, as you might be able to guess where this is going, a winner was declared. The magazine "Texas Monthly" holds the contests, and I remember reading an article about the Best BBQ in Tx contest in "The New Yorker" a while back...both the TM and the NYer articles have had the effect of blowing the winner up from a local secret to an institution.

The most recent winner was a small place called Snow's in a less-than-1200 person town called Lexington. Lucky for us, Lexington is about an hour away from where we live. We decided to make the trip while Tony was still here--we thought it would help with our motivation. Motivation needed to be piqued since Snow's, while relatively close, is only opened on Saturdays, from 8 am until they run out of meat, which can be anywhere from 11 to 12:30...

So, maybe this becomes clearer...up and out of the house early on a Saturday morning, driving for not too long, then eating a bunch of meat for breakfast. You had to be committed to the idea of getting the best barbecue in Texas just to consider this plan. But we did it...and we got Rachel to come along as well...

I'll post some pictures, but first let me say that the brisket was outta this world, the pork ribs were just okay, but the pork sausage was also fantastic. The experience alone was worth it. When we got there, there was one lady in front of us, she finished up, and I started our group's ordering. I remember asking, "I thought there'd be a line?" mostly to myself, but once we sat down outside, we looked back, and of course, a twenty person line had formed that never dissipated during our entire time eating up until we left. We just happened to get there at the exact right second.

Here's a shot of the exterior of Snow's BBQ, along Main Street, between 2nd and 3rd:



Here's the back seating area...eagle eye's can see Tony and Rachel sitting on the left side of the frame, and even more honed eyes can see way in the back, on of the pit workers holding his Miller Lite...remember, it's about five minutes after 11...



Here's three of us chowing down...I love the sauce in the water bottle:



Here's Corrie by the sign. She posed as we were leaving.