20 years of BBQ, today!

It was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band....  Wait, no.  It was 20 years ago today that Scott and I started driving around Texas to eat BBQ.  Scott is out of the country this week so we celebrated the last couple of weeks with 10 straight days of BBQ.  

Here's a few numbers from the first 20 years.  I have made 714 posts to this BBQ blog, most with photos. Lots of photos.  We have visited at least 164 different BBQ joints, some many times.  We attended 52 different BBQ Festivals or cookoffs which had more than 743 restaurants or teams represented.  It is probably way more than that, because I didn't count the places at 16 different events.  Probably well over 1000 samples in total.  Now of course, at festivals and cookoffs, there is a lot of duplication because many joints appeared at many different festivals.  Still, that's a lot of BBQ.

The most blogged about restaurant in those 20 years has been Green's Texas Bar-B-Que in Euless, Texas.  They have never made Texas Monthly's top 50, or even top 100 list.  I sort of have mixed feelings about that.  On the one hand, I wish Don Green would get the recognition he deserves.  His food is every bit as good as the top joints in Texas.  On the other hand, I don't want to have to start waiting in line at 6 am to get some of his great food.  I suspect he really doesn't want any more business than he has now, anyway.  He sells out every Saturday.

After Green's, the most blogged about joints include Black's and Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Pecan Lodge in Dallas, City Market in Luling, Dayne's 3 different locations in Fort Worth and Aledo, and The Original Roy Hutchin's in Trophy Club.  Roy's is a fairly recent addition, but they have a big advantage being just 15 minutes from my house and open 7 days a week until 9 pm.  Oh, and Roy's BBQ is also excellent.

Over the years, we have seen many other BBQ blogs come and go.  We don't do nearly as much BBQ travelling as we used to. The VIP prices for festivals has also caused us to drop off the festival trail.  For $165, I can get a whole brisket from some really great joints.   That beats the heck out of 30 small sample boats of food.  We have done all of the major fests, some many times.  They were all fun, but I have come to the conclusion sampling individual restaurants in their native habitat is the better way to go. 

It has been a fun ride and we have no plans to stop anytime soon.  We are not done travelling or sampling.  There are just too many great places here in north Texas to keep us full and happy.  There's so much good BBQ out there and we want try it all.  Let's eat!