Best Barbeque Towns in Texas?

[Fat Guy]

On the one hand I guess that's a factually correct distinction: the AOC-type rules tend to apply to products not restaurant dishes. On the other hand the cultural distinction is still valid: European cuisine, especially traditional cuisine, is far more regimented than American.

One thing I noticed last time I took a barbecue road trip was that on menus the so-called outliers generally outnumbered the dishes I thought of as traditional regional ones. Even in the back woods of North Carolina I saw a lot of chicken and it was invariably described as "BBQ chicken." A totally unsentimental menu analysis, even with the sample set limited to the places with the best reputations, would likely lead to the conclusion that North Carolina barbecue includes chicken. And if you go to Memphis the ratio just falls off the cliff. To get around that I think we have to start by imagining that America is more European than it really is.

[Holly Moore]

Out of curiosity, have any of the destination BBQ joints outside of Austin opened an Austin branch?

[Kent Wang]

Nope. Though you think they would. Or open a branch in Houston or Dallas, or New York! A lot of these guys are pretty old-fashioned and just not interested in opening more locations.