One charming barbecue joint about an hour from San Antonio has executed it as soon as once more, this time making one of many high editorial lists a U.S. eatery could make: Bon Appétit’s 20 Finest New Eating places record.
Barbs B Q in Lockhart, 30 miles from Austin, was the one Texas restaurant to clinch a spot, however not the one one specializing on the smoker. It joins King Barbecue in North Charleston, South Carolina. The record was very worldwide, and particularly comprises nods to Asian cuisines.
Nevertheless, Barbs was the one spot credited with pushing its whole style ahead in its introduction: “Sticky ribs, inexperienced spaghetti, and barbecue’s subsequent wave.”
This spot garnered enormous quantities of consideration immediately when it opened in Could 2023. (For individuals who might swear it has been open for longer…we see you.) Most eating places wouldn’t try to be known as cute, however Barbs’ branding facilities round a red-and-pink shade scheme, coronary heart motifs, and diverse silliness. Nonetheless, the meals speaks for itself, and nearly instantly landed on some very severe lists together with ones by Southern Residing, Texas Month-to-month, and the New York Instances.
Because the teaser suggests, one in all Barbs’ strongest fits is an progressive menu, which incorporates the lime-forward “Molotov Pork Ribs,” fajita sausage, lamb chops, and vegan sandwiches. This brief write-up by Elazar Sontag appreciates the youthfulness not simply of the model, however of the prodigious pitmaster. The truth is, she receives the “Chef of the Second” badge, which solely goes to 1 honoree on the record.
“There’s pleasure as folks sit on coolers and talk about the 26-year-old pitmaster who’s turned the barbecue world the other way up,” writes Sontag. “Recent out of faculty and dealing at Goldee’s in Fort Value, Chuck Charnichart earned a repute as maybe the best brisket prepare dinner in Texas. At Barbs B Q, whose cheeky identify is impressed by Nicki Minaj’s fanbase (“the Barbz”), Charnichart goes past that basic lower and adopts an irreverent fashion formed by popular culture, her Mexican-American upbringing, and the flavors of South Texas.”
Sontag additionally calls out the Flamin’ Scorching Cheetos-inspired sticky pork ribs and attributes the “herby” spaghetti to the Rio Grande Valley. “The place traditionalists zig, Charnichart zags and this state’s barbecue is best for it,” he writes.
These phrases had been partially excerpted from a narrative known as “This 26-12 months-Previous Pitmaster Is Reshaping Texas Barbecue,” which was first printed in August 2024 and is linked within the September record. Bon Appetít additionally pointed readers to a recipe from Barbs B Que: a Pineapple Upside Down Cobbler utilizing crushed pineapple and bitter cherries.
Though San Antonio’s barbecue joints are extensively lauded, it seems to be like they will need to maintain ready for his or her probability within the highlight. Whereas Austin eating places have far and away been celebrated essentially the most — Este in 2023, Canje in 2022, and favorites which have made the nominees record or higher going again at the least a decade — San Antonio representatives are few and much between. Reese Bros Barbecue and San Antonio’s Carnitas Lonjas (which closed in 2023), made the longer nominee lists in 2022 and 2018, respectively, however neither made the lower for the highest 10.
The complete record from across the nation is accessible at bonappetit.com. You do not want to be a subscriber to see the record.
