How Daniel Vaughn, the BBQ Snob, turned himself into the hottest brand in smoked meat

Daniel Vaughn bites into a rib at the Baby Back Shak in 2009. (Photo by David Woo/The Dallas Morning News)

(Note: Rebecca LaFlure is a Texas native, long-time barbecue fan and journalism graduate student at Northwestern University. Prior to attending Northwestern, she worked as a reporter for media outlets in Killeen and Austin. She currently covers national security as a fellow at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington D.C. The following article was initially written as a research paper for a 21st Century Media course at Northwestern.)

By Rebecca LaFlure

On March 21, Texas Monthly announced it hired someone for “what may be the most coveted job” in the Lone Star State: the magazine’s first barbecue editor. News of the unusual title spread fast. New York Times writer Manny Fernandez called the new hire “a walking milestone in the history of Texas barbecue.”

I mentioned the newly created position to my friend Matt Goodman, a digital producer for an ABC affiliate in Dallas, Texas. “Let me guess,” he said. “They hired Daniel Vaughn.”

Goodman guessed right. Vaughn managed to turn his love for barbecue into a career. He left his job as a Dallas architect to become the country’s only barbecue editor. Vaughn joined Texas Monthly’s barbecue franchise, which, according to its website, includes a Joint Finder smart phone application, annual barbecue festival and a Top 50 list published every five years. Vaughn regularly produces a mix of barbecue reviews, news articles, interviews and weekly columns for the magazine’s barbecue website, TMBBQ.com.

Vaughn didn’t get the job by chance. He developed a brand as a barbecue expert through a blog he started in 2008 called Full Custom Gospel Barbecue, where Vaughn posted reviews of the hundreds of barbecue joints he visited. “At the time, nobody had done that before,” said R.J. Hinkle, a Dallas-area photographer for QuadGraphics who’s attended barbecue tours with a group called the Texas BBQ Posse. “Not only did he create a brand, but he created a genre and a market.”

'Bikes, Blues, and Barbecues,' about a father and son bicycle tour through Texas, now available as an e-book

Robby Landauer rides between Lockhart and Bastrop, on the way to Giddings. This was the longest day of their tour.

You may remember the father and son -- Tim and Robby Landauer -- who made the bicycle barbecue tour through the Central Texas heartland.

We published an item about them in March after Robby sent us a copy of an unpublished manuscript he had written about the trip titled "Bikes, Blues, and Barbecues: Me, my dad and our three favorite things."

Now, Robby Landauer has turned his manuscript into an e-book, available both through Amazon and Google Play.

"You don't need a Kindle to read the Amazon copy," proud father Tim informed us in an email. "Amazon has free apps for reading it on any computer, smartphone, or tablet.  With Google Play, I think it's just a PDF, so even easier."

Dallas BBQ history made at Daniel Vaughn's book party with the first briskets ever cooked in Big D by Aaron Franklin

Aaron Franklin, center, works the serving line while Justin Fourton works his smoker "Lurlene." (Jim Rossman photo)

Friday was an historic night in Dallas barbecue.

The book party for Daniel Vaughn's Prophets of Smoked Meat at the home of Steve and Anne Stodghill brought together four of Texas' best pitmasters: Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Justin Fourton of Pecan Lodge in Dallas, Tim Byres of Smoke in Dallas and Will Fleischman of Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas.

Will Texas Monthly's Top 5 BBQ joints be same as those named by its new BBQ editor?

During our live online barbecue chat Monday on DallasNews.com, a reader asked us to predict the Top 5 ranked joints in Texas Monthly's 2013 BBQ issue, which should be available soon.

There was considerable agreement among the four Posse members participating. We each put Franklin Barbecue in Austin No. 1. The next three spots were occupied by the same three joints, although the orders differed: Snow's BBQ in Lexington, La Barbecue in Austin and Pecan Lodge in Dallas.

The fifth spot, depending upon the Posse member, went to either Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor or Kreuz Market in Lockhart.

A few hours after the chat ended, I was finally able to get a copy of Daniel's Vaughn's new book, The Prophets of Smoked Meat, which is due out in a couple of weeks.

Vaughn of course is the celebrated blogger -- Full Custom Gospel BBQ -- who recently became BBQ editor of Texas Monthly.

In his book, Vaughn lists his Top 5, not in any designated order: Fargo's Pit BBQ in Bryan, Louie Mueller, Pecan Lodge, Vera's Backyard Bar-B-Que in Brownsville and Franklin.

"In a region where barbacoa is worshipped, a trip to Vera's can double as Sunday mass," Vaughn writes. "Vera's is the only joint in the state still cooking beef heads with wood smoke..."

It will be interesting to see how Vaughn's Top 5 mimic -- or don't -- Texas Monthly's.