The Complete Barbecue Lineup for the Texas Monthly BBQ Fest Is Here

— Tickets for the annual Texas Monthly’s barbecue festival are now on sale, bringing together 30 barbecue joints that appear on barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn’s list of the best barbecue places in the state. Waco barbecue spot Guess Family Barbecue and pitmaster/owner Reid Guess is cooking at the festival for the time time too. Austin is being repped by La Barbecue, Micklethwait Craft Meats, Stiles Switch, and Terry Black’s Barbecue. Notably, Franklin Barbecue isn’t cooking at the main event. And since Freedmen’s is no longer open, its festival slot is being replaced by Baker Boys BBQ from Gonzales. Scope out the full lineup below.

Adult general admission tickets to the grand barbecue event, taking place on Sunday, November 4 at the Long Center are $80 and VIP tickets (which include early-access) are $165.

Auxiliary events on Saturday, November 3 include the barbecue educational class at Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew with Vaughn and instructors from the Texas A&M University animal science department, and the first-time event at Franklin Barbecue with Sam Jones BBQ’s Sam Jones and LeRoy & Lewis’ Evan LeRoy (both of which are sold out already).

— Speaking of barbecue, Southern Living published its best barbecue restaurants of the South for the year (not to be confused with its readers-generated list, which explains the Austin contender a lot). Barbecue editor Robert Moss Austin picks include Micklethwait Craft Meats (#35), Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ (#18), and Franklin Barbecue (#7). Other Texas places include City Market in Luling, Corkscrew BBQ in Spring, Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Cattleack Barbeque in Dallas, Tejas Chocolate Craftory in Tomball, Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, and Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor in the #2 slot. The number one pick went to South Carolina’s Scott’s Bar-B-Que.

— And in more barbecue news, there’s a new digital documentary series covering smoked meats in Texas from Beef Loving Texans, the consumer brand of nonprofit Texas Beef Council, hosted by Kelsey Pribilski. The first episode of BBQuest highlights Austin, with meat expert Jess Pryles visiting LeRoy & Lewis, Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ, and Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que.

— For Annual Peace Day’s 11 Days of Global Unity, all locations of Amy’s Ice Creams are offering a special flavor through Friday, September 21. The Peace Day consists of Mexican vanilla ice cream with Reese’s Pieces mix-ins.

— Vegan ice cream shop NadaMoo is now offering coffee and lattes that are all plant-based and gluten-free. Coffee concoctions include the Treaty Oak-salted bourbon caramel latte, brown burnt cinnamon horchata, and the cereal m*lk latte. The coffee menu is being overseen by Jesse Garcia, who worked on drinks at Halcyon, Beer Plant, and Paramour in San Antonio.

— South by Southwest’s initial keynote and feature speaker lineup is here, and it includes award-winning food writer and author Michael Pollan. SXSW takes place from Friday, March 8 through Sunday, March 17, 2019

Texas Monthly BBQ Festival 2018 Lineup

• 2M Smokehouse (San Antonio)
• Bodacious Bar-B-Q Mobberly (Longview)
• Cattleack Barbeque (Dallas)
• Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que (Llano)
• Evie Mae’s Pit Barbecue (Wolfforth)
• Flores Barbecue (Whitney)
• Baker Boys BBQ (Gonzales)
• Guess Family Barbecue (Waco)
• Hays Co. Bar-B-Que (San Marcos)
• Heim Barbecue (Fort Worth)
• Hutchins BBQ (Frisco/McKinney)
• Killen’s Barbecue (Pearland)
• la Barbecue (Austin)
• Lockhart Smokehouse (Dallas)
• Louie Mueller Barbecue (Taylor)
• Micklethwait Craft Meats (Austin)
• Miller’s Smokehouse (Belton)
• Pody’s BBQ (Pecos)
• Roegels Barbecue Co. (Houston)
• Smolik’s Smokehouse (Mathis)
• Snow’s BBQ (Lexington)
• Stanley’s Famous Pit BBQ (Tyler)
• Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew (Austin)
• Stillwater Barbeque (Abilene)
• Tejas Chocolate Craftory (Tomball)
• Terry Black’s Barbecue (Austin)
• Top 5 BBQ (DeSoto)
• Truth BBQ (Brenham)
• Tyler’s Barbeque (Amarillo)
• Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ (Austin)

This article has been updated to reflect that Freedmen’s was replaced by Baker Boys BBQ.