7 Women Pitmasters Firing Up the Future of Texas BBQ

I will happily argue with anyone who thinks Texas barbecue peaked with the old guard. For generations the pit was painted as a man’s world, all beards and tongs and secret rubs handed down from father to son.

That version of the story was always only half true. Today some of the best smoke in the state is coming from women who run their own fires, and I could not be happier about it.

You will find them on famous town squares and in sleepy coastal towns, in food trailers and in dining rooms that sell out by lunch. What they share is fire, skill, and a refusal to wait for anyone’s permission.

All across Texas they are winning the awards, drawing the longest lines, and rewriting what a pitmaster looks like with some seriously exciting live-fire cooking. Below, meet seven women turning brisket, sausage, and smoke into the future of the craft.

1. Barbs B Q in Lockhart

Lockhart brands itself the barbecue capital of Texas, so opening a brand new joint a stone’s throw from the old legends takes real nerve. Chuck Charnichart had plenty of it.

She fired up Barbs B Q in 2023 with a mostly female crew and a clear point of view about where the smoke should go next. From day one it drew crowds who wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Her menu folds her deep South Texas roots into Central Texas tradition. The brisket is the anchor, dark and peppery and pull-apart tender, and it holds its own against anything in this famous little town.

The sides are where her personality really shows. Think esquites and sausages laced with chile and cheese, the kind of thing that makes you rethink what belongs on a barbecue tray in the first place.

There is a real sense of joy to the whole place, from the hand-painted sign out front to the way the line buzzes on a Saturday morning. It feels like a joint run by someone who genuinely loves feeding people, because it is.

In 2025 the Michelin Guide named her Texas’s Young Chef of the Year. That is no small nod, and it tells you the wider food world is watching Lockhart’s newest pit boss very closely.

Where: 102 E Market St, Lockhart, TX 78644. Barbs cooks on weekends, so get there early before the brisket sells out.

2. LaVaca BBQ in Port Lavaca

Kelli Nevarez was teaching first grade when her family opened LaVaca BBQ in 2019, right across the street from her old elementary school. I love a good origin story, and this one is a beauty.

Within a year she had traded the classroom for the pit room, becoming one of the very few full-time female pitmasters in the entire state. That is a career pivot worth standing up and applauding.

Her cooking marries Central Texas smoke with the Mexican American flavors she grew up eating. That blend gives the whole menu a personality you will not find at the big-name joints up the highway.

The payoff has been real recognition. This little coastal joint landed a spot on Texas Monthly’s Top 50, something that almost never happens for a town this far off the interstate.

Order the brisket, add a few of the family recipes on the board, and then quietly thank yourself for making the drive all the way down to the Gulf.

Port Lavaca is a quiet fishing town most road trippers blow right past, which makes stumbling onto a Top 50 pit here feel like finding buried treasure. Kelli has quietly put her hometown on the barbecue map.

Where: 532 N Virginia St, Port Lavaca, TX 77979.

3. Goldee’s Barbecue in Fort Worth

Goldee’s opened in 2020 and almost immediately got crowned the number one barbecue joint in Texas by Texas Monthly. That is a rocket ride by any measure.

Cecilia Guerrero is the pitmaster tending its fires. She reads the smoke by feel, cooking after the crew pulled the thermostats off the smokers entirely.

That means every brisket she turns out is guided by instinct rather than a dial. I love that detail. It is old-school craft wrapped inside a very modern success story.

It is also the kind of confidence you only earn by putting in real years at the pit, learning what the fire wants long before a gauge could tell you.

The whole crew came up together in the Central Texas tradition, and you can taste that discipline in a single bite of the peppery bark. Getting a tray here has become a genuine pilgrimage for barbecue lovers from all over the country.

The lines form early and the meat sells out fast, usually before noon. She has said men still wander into her pit room to explain barbecue to her, which only makes the quality of her cooking taste sweeter.

Where: 4645 Dick Price Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76140. Weekends only, and plan to line up well before the doors open.

4. Schoepf’s BBQ in Belton

Some pitmasters are building something brand new. Staci Schoepf is carrying something old proudly forward, and doing it beautifully.

She and her husband Ronnie bought Schoepf’s from his parents in 2007, a joint that first lit its pits in 1993, and reshaped it into one of Central Texas’s most respected names.

She runs the operation with the steady hand of someone who knows exactly what her regulars want. The prime brisket is the star, smoky and rich and worth every mile of the trip.

The sprawling covered patio has become a genuine gathering spot for the whole Belton area, the kind of place where families settle in for the afternoon over trays of meat and cold sweet tea.

More than thirty years in, the place still feels personal rather than corporate. Staci has kept the soul of a small family joint intact even as the accolades and the crowds have grown far beyond little Belton.

In 2026 Schoepf’s landed the very top spot on Texas BBQ Online Magazine’s list of the state’s fifty best. Staci called the honor emotional, and a second location is now on the way in Georgetown.

Where: 702 E Central Ave, Belton, TX 76513.

5. Feral Smoke & Fire in Kerrville

Rita Olsen runs the most nomadic operation on this list, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.

She launched Feral Smoke & Fire in 2024 as a live-fire pop-up, cooking native Texas flavors over open flame at farmers markets and food truck parks around the Hill Country and San Antonio.

Her specialties lean straight into the borderland pantry. Picture live-fire al pastor, smoked brisket tamales, and pork ribs kissed by real wood smoke. This is barbecue that simply refuses to sit still.

Right now she is hunting for a permanent home in the Kerrville area, so half the fun is chasing down wherever she has parked next.

There is something wonderfully honest about food cooked entirely over live fire, no shortcuts and nowhere to hide. Rita leans all the way into the smoke and the char, and every plate tastes like it was made by someone paying close attention.

Following a great pitmaster around the map is a wonderful excuse for a Hill Country day trip. Check her schedule, point the car west, and let your nose do the rest.

Where: Catch Feral Smoke & Fire at the Heart of the Hills Farmers Market on Water Street in Kerrville, plus rotating pop-ups around San Antonio. Check her page for the current schedule.

6. Helberg Barbecue in Woodway

Yvette Helberg co-founded Helberg Barbecue with her husband Phillip, and together they have grown it from a 2018 food trailer into a Texas Monthly Top 50 destination just outside Waco.

She is a driving force behind the whole operation, and the community clearly adores her for it. Great barbecue is a team sport, and this team runs on her energy.

The couple rebuilt after a fire tore through the place in 2023, and the comeback only deepened their loyal local following. That kind of grit tells you everything about the people behind the pit.

The pork steak is a quiet favorite that regulars swear by, and the brisket keeps the awards rolling in year after year.

They started small, like so many of the great ones do, slinging brisket out of a trailer and building a following one perfectly smoked pound at a time. That underdog spirit still runs through everything they serve.

This is family barbecue with real ambition behind it, the sort of spot Waco locals proudly send every out-of-town guest to first. Bring a hungry crowd.

Where: 7809 N State Hwy 6, Woodway, TX 76712.

7. B’tween Sandwich Co. in Houston

Michelle Wallace came up under Houston barbecue royalty, spending six years honing her craft alongside pitmaster Greg Gatlin before striking out on her own.

In 2023 she launched B’tween Sandwich Co., where serious smoked meats meet inventive, genuinely craveable sandwiches. It is a fresh spin on a very old Texas love affair with smoke.

Houston already knew her name, and then the whole country did too. She reached the top six on Bravo’s Top Chef in 2024 and took home the Fan Favorite award.

That win surprised nobody who had tasted her food first. She cooks with the kind of precision that makes even a simple sandwich feel like an event.

Houston is one of the most exciting food cities in the country, and Michelle fits right into its restless, boundary-pushing spirit. She takes the flavors of a classic Texas smokehouse and makes them feel brand new again.

Her cooking is proof that great barbecue does not have to stay on a butcher paper tray. Sometimes the smartest home for perfectly smoked meat is tucked between two slices of soft, pillowy bread.

Where: B’tween Sandwich Co. runs as a pop-up around Houston, TX. Check btween.us for upcoming locations and events.

Fire Up Your Own Texas BBQ Road Trip

What ties these seven women together is not a gimmick or a clever story. It is craft, patience, and a stubborn willingness to stand over a scorching pit at four in the morning simply because they love it.

They are pulling Texas barbecue somewhere genuinely new while honoring everything that made it great in the first place. That balance is much harder to pull off than they make it look.

So pick a name off this list, plot a route, and go taste what the future of Texas barbecue actually looks like. Bring your appetite and a little patience for the line, because you will want a bit of everything on the board.

Your next great plate of brisket is out there right now, waiting on you. All you have to do is show up hungry and let one of these women do the rest.

Featured image: @ Goldee’s Barbecue