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HOUBBQ News & Info

2026 Houston Barbecue Festival

Announcing the 2026 Houston Barbecue Festival

January 6, 2026 No Comments

The Houston Barbecue Festival returns on Sunday, April 12, 2026, for its 13th year, celebrating everything that makes Houston barbecue unlike anywhere else in the world. The festival is presented by Goodstock by Nolan Ryan. With its sheer number of barbecue joints and an unmatched diversity of styles, the greater Houston area has quietly become one of America’s great barbecue cities. The Houston Barbecue Festival is the only event that brings together the full spectrum of that scene – legendary institutions, neighborhood favorites, and the city’s most exciting rising stars – all in one place, at one time, for one price.

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Sonny Bryan's 24/7 barbecue

Why aren’t there more 24/7 barbecue joints in Texas?

January 3, 2026 No Comments

By many measures, barbecue joints should be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After all, most joints have staff on site all day, either cooking, prepping or serving. Why not just keep the doors open continuously and if someone wanders in in the middle of the night, have the pit team do double duty and serve them a basic menu of chopped beef sandwiches or a rib or sausage plate. Genius business idea, right? Surprisingly, though, there are very few barbecue operations serving smoked meats around the clock.

You might include Buc-ee’s in the list, as there are some locations open 24 hours. But I’ve never been to a Buc-ee’s at 3 a.m. to check if they still have pre-wrapped chopped beef sandwiches in the warming cabinet.

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Deckle & Hide

Announcing the 2025 BBQ Block Party: The New Houston ‘Q

June 23, 2025 No Comments

The Houston Barbecue Festival, Goodstock by Nolan Ryan, and Saint Arnold Brewing Company announce the 2025 BBQ Block Party: The New Houston ‘Q celebrating a new generation of pitmasters that will continue greater Houston’s reign as the best and most creative city for barbecue in the state. Like the old saying goes, Houston is an hour away from Houston. It’s a big place to cover for barbecue fans searching for the latest and greatest smoked meats.

Fortunately, the team at HOUBBQ has put in the research and the miles to discover the next wave of Houston-area barbecue talent and will bring them together on July 20th for barbecue aficionados to taste their wares and meet these rising stars in person.

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Brisket at Brett's BBQ Shop

A brief history of brisket in Houston

April 24, 2025 No Comments

A brief history of brisket in Houston. One of the few certainties of life in Texas is finding brisket on a barbecue menu. This was not always the case. Brisket only became a regular menu item in the 1960s, when Midwest meatpackers made them readily available by shipping them pre-butchered in boxes to restaurants across the country. “Boxed beef” helped brisket to overthrow beef shoulder (clod) as the quintessential Texas barbecue joint menu offering. But brisket as a cut of beef certainly existed before the 1960s. A history of commercially-available brisket in Houston, as documented in the pages of the Houston Chronicle, goes back to early 1900s, and often paralleled

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Sheet cake at Tin Roof BBQ

Why Texas sheet cake is the unsung hero of barbecue desserts

April 9, 2025 No Comments

Why Texas sheet cake is the unsung hero of barbecue desserts. Texas barbecue is, by and large, about tradition. One of its enduring and endearing characteristics is that it delivers comfort in both food and experience. Though many barbecue joints are branching out when it comes to new menu items, we’ll never get our Texas card revoked for ordering brisket, pork ribs, sausage, coleslaw and banana pudding. Still, lingering on the periphery of many menus are items that are either lesser-known or are a regional specialty. For instance, only in recent years have Central Texas joints acknowledged Southeast Texas as a legitimate barbecue region by accepting smoked boudin as a

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Ripper hot dog at Blood Bros. BBQ

Hot dogs are finding a home on Texas barbecue-joint menus

March 18, 2025 No Comments

Hot dogs are finding a home on Texas barbecue-joint menus. Barbecue menus are expanding with new items, including tacos, burgers, fried chicken and enchiladas. More recently, another culinary staple is popping up: hot dogs. Of course, hot dogs are ubiquitous in any city’s restaurant landscape. Houstonians of all ages can recall their first visit to James Coney Island, or JCI Grill as it is now called. A visit to New York City isn’t complete without a trip to a hot dog stand, where the classic boiled hot dog covered in yellow mustard and sauerkraut will set you back about seven bucks when you throw in a can of soda. Heading

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