BBQ Book Review - BBQ Joints

Title: BBQ Joints
Author: David Gelin
Published: 2008 by Gibbs Smith Publisher

With a similar scope to the previously reviewed America's Best BBQ, this book covers the author's 60 favorite BBQ joints in the south. New ground isn't really broken with brief histories of each joint and an attached recipe sometimes and sometimes not from the associated restaurant. The stories generally focus on the genesis of each joint, and provide a nice glimpse into their formative histories, but the author doesn't provide much back-up for why we should care about his BBQ opinions. I will give him credit for not including all of the obvious cast of characters that many feel compelled to include lest they be judged negatively by the Lockhart sycophants (which includes this reviewer), so seeing a place like Stanley's in Tyler included rather than Sonny Bryan's in Dallas is refreshing. I do look forward to trying many of his chosen few from the Lone Star State, but the book doesn't really provide enough mouthwatering detail to get me beating down doors to get started.

-BBQ Snob

For those interested Texans out there, here's a list of all the Texas BBQ joints included in the book:

Austin's BBQ, Eagle Lake
Beans N Things Bar-B-Que, Amarillo
Big O's Barbecue, Valera
City Market, Luling
Cooper's Bar-B-Q, Mason
Iron Works Barbecue, Austin
Louie Mueller Barbecue, Taylor
Sam's Bar-B-Que, Midland
Stanley's Famous Pit Bar-B-Q, Tyler