Just in time for Father's Day - Here's an updated list of our favorites

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Dallas Morning News food and travel editor Cathy Barber, who I work with as a photo editor at the paper.

The dallasnews.com web team was looking for Father's Day content and wanted to rerun our list of favorite joints that ran in the DMN travel section and online last fall.

"Do you think this story is still pretty solid, or have you guys changed your mind about some of them?," Cathy asked.

Our original list of 12 joints had stirred up a little dust in the BBQ blogosphere. We had intended this to be a travel story,  not necessarily the best meats in Texas, but a list of our favorite BBQ places to hang out. Some folks didn't read the fine print.

There were a couple of non-traditional picks on the list, like Pat Gee's in Tyler and Taylor Cafe. Both places are definitely past their prime when it comes to being a top-10 meat producer. However, they are still pretty good and are both magical places to go and soak in the religion of Texas barbecue.

I told Cathy we would have to update the list, we had some additions since we had been on several tours since then. We now have 4,000 miles and 11 Texas BBQ tours under our belt. Our original 12 picks would stay on the list.

We had a Houston BBQ tour coming up that weekend and wanted to wait to see how joints there measured up. We hoped to add a Houston joint or two to the list. After visiting four of the top-rated places in Houston, that didn't happen. Much to the chagrin of at least one blogger down there, I might add.

We ended up adding City Market in Luling, Fargo's Pit BBQ in Bryan, JMueller BBQ in Austin and Miler's Smokehouse in Belton. Now the list of our favorites totals 16 and we hope to add on as we continue searching for the greatest smoked meats throughout the state.

Click here to see our Posse favorites list on dallasnews.com.

On a barbecue tour, Facebook is your friend

From the accompanying video, it would appear that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a barbecue fan. Though it's hard to think that Silicon Valley's apparent taste for fish eyes would ever catch on in Texas.

Anyway, real barbecue aficionado or not, the Posse wants to thank Zuck for developing the best tool ever for keeping barbecue fans informed and connected, especially when they are on a tour.

Witness our recent 700-mile, 35-hour run to the Texas Gulf Coast and back.

Posse co-founder and ace photographer Chris Wilkins regularly posted photos and updates to the Posse's Facebook page, keeping our friends informed of our progress.

When Posse member Jim Rossman decided to go rogue Saturday morning and head off on his own to Lockhart and Luling, he posted a photo of his delicious looking breakfast at City Market. We were envious.

Rossman, by the way, absolutely refused to drive an hour or so to Galveston with the main body of the Posse. Too far. So, instead, he drives over two hours to Lockhart. Go figure.

About 11 a.m. Saturday, someone posted a photo of the long line of people waiting for the Pecan Lodge to open in Dallas. The Pecan Lodge is one of our favorite places and this was the first Saturday since the Lodge appeared on the Food Network's popular Diners, Drive-ins and Dives show. From the photo, the line appeared absolutely Franklin-esque.

And, later that day, our friend and Oregon radio host Bruce Bjorkman -- Mr. BBQ -- caught up with our travels. He Facebooked Wilkins asking him to talk on the show that afternoon.

So, at about 4:30 p.m. Texas Barbecue Time, as we're cruising home to Dallas on I-45, Wilkins dialed Portland from his cell phone.

On the air, Bjorkman asked what we had discovered during our tour. You can hear the interview around 21 minutes into the show.

"I have to say that we feel pretty good about ourselves and our Dallas BBQ scene after what we've had this weekend," Wilkins said. Then he pronounced Houston barbecue "average" to "very disappointing."

Posse members are never short of strong opinions.

So, Zuck, thanks again for your great innovation. And if you're ever in Texas and want to taste real barbecue, just holler.

Houston BBQ king Jerry Pizzitola's epiphany: His brisket isn't in the same league as Snow's

WARNING: This post contains some gloating, but we hope it stops well short of excessive celebration.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about our latest BBQ tour, in search of good smoked meat in Houston.

We didn't find any. And we quoted Houston Chronicle photographer Smiley Pool, who shared a Pulitzer Prize while at The Dallas Morning News, saying if you wanted good BBQ in Houston, then you had to get in a car and drive two hours.

Several readers chided our taste and challenged our BBQ expertise. One even took at shot at the beer we drank. That's low. Really low.

Now comes a story out of Houston about Jerry Pizzitola, owner of Pizzitola's Bar-B-Cue on Shepherd Drive, one of the places we visited. We found the history of his joint better than the barbecue.

It seems that Pizzitola had an epiphany while eating at Snow's in Lexington early this year. After tasting Snow's brisket, Pizzitola realized that the brisket he served wasn't in the same league.

The Posse agrees. We think Snow's brisket is great. Only two other places in the state -- Franklin's in Austin and Fargo's in Bryan -- are equal or better.

Since seeing the light, Pizzitola and his pitmasters have been experimenting with different sizes of brisket, different cooking times, temperatures and wrapping techniques.

"It's better," Pizzitola told the Web site 29-25.com last week, "but it's not where we want it to be. Not now. Not yet."

We applaud Pizzitola's honesty and wish him luck in his quest. Better brisket is a noble goal.

And, we have to thank him for supporting our original judgment about Houston.

Indeed, good barbecue there is still two hours away.

Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

History more interesting than BBQ at Pizzitola's in Houston

Pizzitola's. Great name for a pizza joint.

And that's exactly what what some potential customers mistakenly thought until the place changed its signs several years ago, adding references to barbecue, said manager Lexie Moore.

"Everyone thanked us for bringing barbecue to the neighborhood," Moore said. "We had it all the time."

We arrived at Pizzitola's Bar-B-Cue on Shepherd Drive in Houston about an hour or so before closing on a Friday night.

The joint touts itself as "Houston's Home for Spareribs" and they weren't bad. Neither was the sausage. But the brisket was closer to roast beef, dry and without much taste.

The real story of Pizzitola's, though, is its history rather than its smoked meats.

The joint's lineage traces to the 1930s and pitmaster John Davis, who ran Shepherd Drive Bar-B-Q. "John P. Davis, World's Greatest Barbecue Man," says one sign on Pizzitola's wall.

According to a 1988 Houston Post article that also hangs on the wall, Davis, who was black, segregated his customers. Blacks in the front and whites in the back.

Jerry Pizzitola, who played football for the Texas Aggies in the early 1960s, took over operations from the Davis family in the early 1980s and changed the name. He retained the original wood-fired brick pits, which are still used.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the two 12 foot-by-6 foot pits are examples of "traditional open pit barbecue that can't be found anywhere else in Houston."

Moore said retaining that history comes with some limitations. Pizzitola's can't make major changes to its building.

"If we do, we lose our grandfather clause on the pits," he said as he gave us a tour of the place.

That would be a shame.




Photos ©Philip Lamb (top) & Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

If you want good BBQ in Houston, get in a car and drive 2 hours

Gatlin's BBQ, located just a few miles from downtown Houston, might have the best motto we've ever run into on our barbecue tours.

"Welcome to Gatlin's," the sign said. "Where love is the secret ingredient."

And if you want to experience the reality of life in a no-zoning, anything-goes big city, this is the place.

Next door is a garden expo that looks like a nursery. Directly across the street are an engine repair business, a house where people live and an automotive sales building.

Welcome to Houston.

Gatlin's gets rave reviews from some, but the Posse was underwhelmed.

"If this is the best Houston has to offer, we've kicked their ass," Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins said, referring to the Dallas area.

Houston photographer Smiley Pool, who sandwiched a tour of duty at The Dallas Morning News between working at the Houston Chronicle, joined the Posse on this stop.

In Houston, Pool observed, "everyone says that if you want good barbecue you pile in a car and take a two-hour drive." He referred to the great joints in Central Texas.

The Posse agrees. At Gatlin's, we ordered brisket, ribs and chicken. To begin with, the service was excruciatingly slow. Then, the brisket was moist, but bland. And the ribs and chicken were just O.K.

"It's a lot of O.K.," Posse member Jim Rossman said.

Of course, you might want to discount Rossman's opinion just a bit. On a solo run to City Market in Luling that morning, he had what he called the best rib he had ever eaten.

"Moist, creamy, crunchy perfection," Rossman said.

Yes, the best barbecue in Houston is two hours away.


Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse

The Posse takes a beach break in Galveston

For me, a little beach goes a long way.

So, during the Posse's 45-minute beach break in Galveston last weekend, midway through a 700-mile, 35-hour barbecue tour, I mainly watched the pelicans dive-bombing for fish. At times, I'd swear those big birds were flying in attack formation.

Phil Lamb, an attorney and also the wheelman on the tour in his Chevy Tahoe, fished from a rocky breakwater nearby. He caught one small mullet and 15 pounds of seaweed.

Chris Wilkins, a photo editor at The Dallas Morning News, shucked his shoes and walked into the surf for a while.

Then he did what he always does. He started taking photographs ... of Lamb and other fisherman...of the buildings just across the road from the seawall ... and of me, watching the birds.

All in all, it was a nice way to spend part of a Saturday morning as we waited for Leon O'Neal to open the doors of his joint -- Leon's World's Finest In and Out B-B-Q -- just a few minutes away.


Photos ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse