15 Bucket-List BBQ Joints Across America

I keep a running list in my phone of places I would happily drive half a day to eat at, and nearly all of them are barbecue joints. That is what smoke does to you. It turns a plain dot on a map into a full road trip.

Americans argue about barbecue the way they argue about football, and every region swears its own style is the gospel truth. That is the fun of it. There is no single right answer, just a country full of low-and-slow smoke and pitmasters who guard their fire like family.

Below are fifteen joints worth building a whole trip around, one from each of fifteen states, from a Texas brisket cathedral to a Kentucky mutton institution. Pack your appetite, wear stretchy pants, and toss a cooler in the trunk for the leftovers.

1. Franklin Barbecue, Texas

There is a reason people set an alarm to stand in line for barbecue, and this Austin institution is it. Aaron Franklin started with a backyard smoker and a food trailer in 2009, then turned brisket into a James Beard award-winning art form.

The brisket is the whole show, sliced to order and laid on a butcher-paper tray, its bark dark and peppery and the fat rendered soft as butter. Come early, since it sells until it sells out, usually by early afternoon.

Bring a folding chair and make friends in line, because around here the wait is half the tradition.

Where: 900 East 11th Street, Austin, Texas 78702.

2. Skylight Inn BBQ, North Carolina

Eastern North Carolina barbecue means whole hog, chopped fine and dressed in a sharp vinegar and pepper sauce, and no family has carried that torch longer than the Joneses. They have smoked pigs over hickory coals in tiny Ayden since 1947.

Order a tray and you get chopped pork with flecks of crispy skin folded in for crunch, crowned by a square of dense, griddled cornbread. Pete Jones built the reputation, and his descendants still swing the cleavers today.

Look up when you order, because the little dome on the roof is a proud nod to the U.S. Capitol.

Where: 4618 South Lee Street, Ayden, North Carolina 28513.

3. Arthur Bryant’s, Missouri

Kansas City runs on burnt ends, and this is the joint that made them famous. Writer Calvin Trillin once called it the single best restaurant in the world, and the brick building near 18th and Vine has drawn pilgrims ever since.

Those burnt ends, the caramelized tips of the brisket, come out smoky and chewy under a rust-colored sauce grainy with spice. Get them piled on white bread with pickles and a genuine mountain of fries.

Study the walls while you wait, lined with photos of the presidents and ballplayers who have made the trip.

Where: 1727 Brooklyn Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri 64127.

4. Little Miss BBQ, Arizona

Central Texas barbecue found a desert home when Scott and Bekke Holmes traded the competition circuit for a Phoenix storefront. The lines form well before the doors open, and the meat runs out fast, so this is a plan-ahead kind of lunch.

They smoke brisket low and slow over Arizona oak and pecan, and it arrives glossy and tender under a thick pepper bark. The pastrami and the green chile corn have their own devoted followings.

Go on a weekday if you can, and get there before opening to be sure you land the brisket.

Where: 4301 East University Drive, Phoenix, Arizona 85034.

5. Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous, Tennessee

Down a downtown alley, in a basement that started life as a coal chute, Charlie Vergos invented Memphis dry-rub ribs back in 1948. The room is all clanging plates, old photographs, and waiters in vests who have worked here for decades.

The ribs come charcoal-kissed and crusted in a Greek-inflected spice rub, no sauce required or wanted. Order a full slab and a side of red beans, and soak up one of the great dining rooms in the country.

Ask for the combo if you cannot decide, and let your waiter, who has likely been there thirty years, steer you.

Where: 52 South 2nd Street, Memphis, Tennessee 38103.

6. Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, Alabama

North Alabama has its own barbecue signature, and it happens to be white. Back in 1925, railroad worker Bob Gibson started dunking hickory-smoked chickens in a tangy sauce of mayonnaise, vinegar, and black pepper, and a regional legend was born.

That white sauce is the must-try, draped over a split chicken with skin gone bronze and smoky. The pork shoulder and the championship-winning ribs are more than worth the detour too.

Grab a bottle of the sauce on the way out, and your grilled chicken back home will never be plain again.

Where: 1715 6th Avenue Southeast, Decatur, Alabama 35601.

7. Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, Kansas

Yes, it really is inside a working gas station, and yes, it is one of the best barbecue stops in America. Jeff and Joy Stehney came off the competition circuit and opened here in the 1990s, and the fuel pumps never left.

The famous order is the Z-Man: smoked brisket, provolone, and crispy onion rings stacked on a kaiser roll. The ribs and pulled pork earn their own long lines snaking out the door.

It stays open later than most pits do, which makes it a rare and happy after-work option.

Where: 3002 West 47th Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas 66103.

8. Podnah’s Pit BBQ, Oregon

Texas smoke traveled all the way to the Pacific Northwest with Rodney Muirhead, who named his Portland pit for his grandfather, a butcher back in Waxahachie. Since 2006 he has cooked over oak, with nothing hiding the work.

The brisket and the pork ribs are the anchors here, smoky and clean, and the weekend brings a special plate of lamb. Save a little room for the buttermilk biscuits, which sell out just as fast.

Sunday means a Texas-style brunch, so build the visit around it if your timing allows.

Where: 1625 Northeast Killingsworth Street, Portland, Oregon 97211.

9. Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn, Kentucky

Owensboro is the mutton capital of the world, and the Bosley family has run its most famous table since 1963. Mutton, which is smoked mature sheep, is a taste you will not find on many American menus, and here it is a birthright.

The move is the buffet: pit-smoked mutton chopped or sliced, plus pork, chicken, and burgoo, the thick regional stew. It is a warm, unhurried Kentucky welcome served on a groaning plate.

Come hungry and pace yourself, because the burgoo alone is worth its own trip through the line.

Where: 2840 West Parrish Avenue, Owensboro, Kentucky 42301.

10. Lewis Barbecue, South Carolina

John Lewis helped build the Austin barbecue boom, then hauled his custom-welded smokers east to Charleston. His brisket is sliced right in front of you at the counter, and it is some of the finest Texas-style beef anywhere near the Atlantic.

Get the brisket by the pound, tender to near collapse, plus the smoked prime rib he calls the El Sancho. The green chile corn pudding is a cult side for very good reason.

Order at the counter, grab a house margarita, and settle in at a picnic table on the big open patio.

Where: 464 North Nassau Street, Charleston, South Carolina 29403.

11. The Shed Barbeque, Mississippi

Part barbecue joint, part blues venue, this gloriously ramshackle spot near the Gulf Coast was built by siblings Brad and Brooke Orrison in 2001. It grew from a tiny takeout shack into a world-champion pit that ships nationwide.

Baby back ribs are the calling card, slow-smoked and slathered until they pull clean off the bone. Come for the pork, stay for a live band and a porch full of well-worn picnic tables.

Check the music calendar before you go, since a good blues set can turn lunch into a whole afternoon.

Where: 7501 Highway 57, Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39565.

12. Bludso’s BBQ, California

Kevin Bludso learned Texas barbecue from his aunt in Corsicana, then carried it home to Southern California. What began as a humble Compton takeout window is now one of Los Angeles’s most celebrated smokehouses.

The brisket is the headliner, fatty and dark-barked, standing next to beef ribs roughly the size of your forearm. Order the rib tips and the collard greens, and settle in with something cold.

The giant beef rib tends to be a weekend special, so aim for a Saturday if that is your prize.

Where: 609 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90036.

13. Jones Bar-B-Q Diner, Arkansas

This tiny Delta diner is a genuine piece of American history. The James Beard Foundation named it an America’s Classic in 2012, and it counts among the oldest Black-owned restaurants in the entire South.

There is essentially one thing on the menu, and it is perfect: chopped pork shoulder, smoked overnight, tucked into white bread with a thin vinegar sauce. Get there early, because when the pork is gone, the day is done.

There are only a couple of tables and the hours are short, so treat an early arrival as part of the plan.

Where: 219 West Louisiana Street, Marianna, Arkansas 72360.

14. Smoque BBQ, Illinois

Five friends pooled their shared obsession and opened this Old Irving Park favorite in 2006, and Chicago has been lining up ever since. It blends Texas and Memphis traditions comfortably under one tidy roof.

The brisket is beautifully smoky, and the ribs wear a Memphis-style dry rub over oak and sweet applewood. Grab the pulled pork too, and leave room for a warm cup of peach cobbler.

It is order-at-the-counter and family-easy, which makes it a fine first stop for a barbecue road trip.

Where: 3800 North Pulaski Road, Chicago, Illinois 60641.

15. Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q, Georgia

Twin brothers Jonathan and Justin Fox missed their native Texas, so they built a piece of it in Atlanta in 2007. The result is a beloved smokehouse that moves thousands of pounds of brisket and pork every single week.

Texas-style brisket and pork are the backbone, but the signature move is the Fox burger, a smoked-brisket patty hiding under pimento cheese. The Frito pie and the brunswick stew round the whole thing out.

Come with an appetite for that towering burger, and the loaded tots if you are feeling ambitious.

Where: 1238 Dekalb Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, Georgia 30307.

Hit the Road and the Pits

Here is the honest truth about a barbecue bucket list: you will never settle the argument, and that is the entire point. Every one of these joints is somebody’s hometown gospel, and eating your way between them is the best kind of American road trip.

So pick a region, map a couple of these pits into one loop, and show up hungry. Bring a cooler for the leftovers, tip your pitmaster, and let the smoke lead the way to the next one.

Featured image: @ Franklin Barbecue