The Posse tells you how Texas barbecue is different from the rest

A father & son wait on their order at Gonzales Food Market. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

(Note: This item was written as a guest post for the blog at FoodyDirect, a Posse advertiser, and is being republished here.)

As the popularity of Texas-style smoked meat spreads across the country, one of the great philosophical questions of our time is emerging. What makes Texas barbecue different from other barbecue?

The answers are many and can lead to intense debates: Beef vs. pork. Dry rubs vs. sauce. Wood vs. charcoal. Indirect heat vs. direct. Austin vs. Memphis or Kansas City or Carolina.

At the Posse, obviously, we’re partial to Texas-style, though we occasionally stray. A pulled pork sandwich sprinkled lightly with vinegar sauce and topped with coleslaw. Yum. Chicken coated with an Alabama white sauce. Tasty and memorable.

Because this is such an important question, I asked some Posse members for help in answering.

See the photos: Good times at the Red Dirt BBQ & Music Festival in Tyler

Lockhart Smokehouse pitmaster Damien Avila slices brisket at the Red Dirt BBQ & Music Festival. (Photo by Phil Lamb)

Several Posse members headed over to Tyler on Saturday for the first annual Red Dirt BBQ & Music Festival. Fifteen of the best barbecue restaurants in the state were represented, along with great Texas music all afternoon and evening. The event was held on Tyler's historic downtown square.

Click here to see a list of the 15 All-Star BBQ joints that served attendees of the festival. Judging from what we saw, it was a huge success.

Though the event was sold out, the crowds were treated to a spacious layout of BBQ restaurants, vendors and a large music stage on the square. We never waited in line more than one or two minutes to get the samples, some of which were almost a meal in themselves. I didn't have a bad bite of meat all day. The beer was ice cold and the weather was beautiful as well.

Given the apparent success of year one, we're hoping the Red Dirt BBQ Festival is here to stay. Along with Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ Fest, this can quickly become one of the premier yearly events in Texas barbecue.

Samples await festival goers at Louie Mueller Barbecue's tent. (Photo by Phil Lamb)

Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew pitmaster Lance Kirkpatrick unloads his smoker. (Photo by Chris Wilkins)

Sample tray of brisket, sausage & burnt ends from La Barbecue. (Photo by Phil Lamb)

Louie Mueller Barbecue owner & pitmaster Wayne Mueller preps sample trays. (Photo by Chris Wilkins)

Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew pitmaster Lance Kirkpatrick shows a beef rib hot off the pit. (Photo by Chris Wilkins)

Slow Bone BBQ owner & pitmaster Jack Perkins slices brisket. (Photo by Chris Wilkins)

Sliced brisket from Lockhart Smokehouse. (Photo by Phil Lamb)

Festival goers try samples at La Barbecue's tent, set up on the brick streets of Tyler's square. (Photo by Jim Rossman)

Future Posse member has his first-ever taste of brisket at Pat Gee's BBQ in Tyler

My daughter Ashley Montgomery and grandson James at Pat Gee's Barbecue. (Photo ©Chris WIlkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

For every Texas barbecue fanatic, there are smoked meat moments that will always be remembered. I was lucky enough to have another of those great memories on Saturday at Pat Gee's Barbecue outside of Tyler.

I remember the first time eating brisket for breakfast with friends at Snow's BBQ on a foggy Saturday morning in November 2009. That experience forever changed our view of what barbecue could be and led to the birth of Texas BBQ Posse. Every Central Texas BBQ tour we've had since then always begins at Snow's on a Saturday morning.

According to family lore, my first exposure to barbecue was in the mid-1960's at Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q, as a child growing up in Tyler. I'm pretty sure it involved a chopped beef sandwich and a Big Red. And Stanley's is still around, better than ever, a mainstay on Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ list.

Pat Gee's Barbecue pictured in the 1977. (Photo by Tom Hackim)

My next great barbecue memory was going to Pat Gee's, located under tall pine trees in the countryside east of Tyler. We began eating there in high school in the late 1970's. Pitmaster Pat Gee was larger than life, producing some of the best BBQ to ever come out of East Texas. He was overshadowed only by his wife Vida, who ran the counter and knew all their customers by name.

After Pat died in 1999, she continued to run the historic BBQ joint with her sons Arthur and Billy. I would always drop by to say hi whenever in town visiting family and introduced my daughter Ashley & son Tyler when we moved back to Texas in 2001. Vida Gee passed away in 2009, but Arthur and Billy continue to run the joint to this day.

Fast forward to last Saturday, when we headed to Tyler to introduce my six-month-old grandson James to several family members. James was born on Sept. 24th last year, my first grandchild. Weighing in at almost nine pounds, I was pretty sure he would join his grandfather on Texas Posse BBQ tours one day.

After visiting with family, Ashley, James & I took a slight detour east to pick up a couple of pounds of Pat's chopped brisket to take back to Dallas. It's a family tradition. As Arthur Gee worked the cutting board, a light bulb came on. The time had come for baby James to try his first bite of brisket.

My father James has been a regular at Pat Gee's for over 30 years and son Tyler and I have eaten there every chance we've had since moving back to DFW. James would be the fourth generation of our family to eat the legendary chopped beef at Pat's.

Long story short, he loved it and had several bites before reaching out for the whole bowl of chopped brisket. We stopped him there, but I expect there will be many more visits to Pat's and other great Texas BBQ joints in his future.

Pat Gee's Barbecue, 17547 Jamestown Rd., Tyler, 903-534-0265. Open Fri-Sun 11 am-until the meat runs out.

James Montgomery tries his first-ever bite of brisket and goes back for more. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Arthur Gee, center, and his brother Billy, left, have run Pat Gee's since their mom died in 2009. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins)

Hipster pitmasters? Young guns of BBQ? Resurgence of Texas tradition? There's a BBQ revolution happening and we don't know what to call it

Pecan Lodge pitmaster Justin Fourton and his infamous "Slim Pickins" sign. (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves)

As Posse member Jim Rossman and I ate at Pecan Lunch Thursday, we talked about how to characterize what's happening now in Texas barbecue. Something big is going on and it needs a name.

We had just heard BBQ Snob and new Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn call it a "resurgence." He referred to young pitmasters, like Justin Fourton at Pecan Lodge, adopting the old school ways and using only wood to cook for a new generation of barbecue fans.

(Note: To hold our place, Rossman arrived at 10:45 a.m., 15 minutes before opening, and was about 40th in line. Vaughn, by coincidence, was about 10 people ahead. So, we chatted.)

Previously, in Posse circles, we've talked about the new "young guns" of barbecue redefining how we eat the national food of Texas. Nice term.  Good for headlines. But does it really describe what's happening?

Then Rossman said: "Hipster pitmasters."