Want the quick rundown before you dig in?
BBQ Fandom is the weekly Texas BBQ newsletter from ExploringBBQ.com.
Quick rundown: How long can a favorite Texas BBQ stop sit in the someday category before the chance is gone? In our latest directory review, 42 additional listings could no longer remain open. This issue looks at why return visits matter, celebrates San Antonio’s 2M Smokehouse, notes a Houston institution entering its final month, and puts several Texas BBQ events on the calendar.
“Someday is not always a plan”
There is a particular kind of Texas BBQ regret that has nothing to do with ordering the wrong thing.
It is realizing the place you meant to get back to is gone.
Maybe you stopped once on a road trip. Maybe someone brought home a link of sausage you still talk about. Maybe the joint has been sitting on your list for years, waiting for the right weekend.
In ExploringBBQ’s most recent directory review, we updated 42 additional Texas BBQ listings to closed status. That brings the number of listings currently marked closed in our directory to 174 out of 2,103 total BBQ-joint records.
That is not a statewide closure count, and it does not explain why any individual restaurant closed. It is the current status of the places we have researched and maintain.
But it is a reminder that Texas BBQ fans are good at saving places for later. We add them to lists, talk about the drive we need to make, and wait for the right opportunity.
Sometimes the best way to support a joint you care about is simple: put the return visit on the calendar while you still can.
The full ExploringBBQ article looks at why a maintained directory matters, and why coming back is different from merely checking a place off.
Texas BBQ Joints Are Worth Coming Back To
Now it’s your turn
Most of us have a Texas BBQ stop we keep meaning to get back to.
What Texas BBQ joint do you need to revisit, and what is the first thing you would order when you get there?
Maybe it is a road-trip stop, a hometown favorite, or a place you have been promising to take someone. Tell us the joint and the order that would make the return visit complete.
Have a take on this? Share Issue #25 on Facebook and see what Texas BBQ joint your crowd keeps meaning to visit again.
Until next week, keep chasing the smoke,
Mike
BBQ Fandom | ExploringBBQ.com
Texas BBQ is making news in very different ways this week: a San Antonio team takes home a national title, a Houston institution enters its final month, and an East Texas smokehouse brings its community together for a holiday-weekend celebration.
2M Smokehouse Wins Food Network’s Pitmasters
A BBQ Fandom reader sent this story our way, and it is a good one.
Esaul and Grecia Ramos of San Antonio’s 2M Smokehouse won the inaugural season of Food Network’s Pitmasters, earning the title and a $30,000 prize.
Their finale menu moved well beyond a standard BBQ tray: grilled oysters, duck carnitas, smoked shrimp aguachile, ribeye, and a smoked concha with café de olla. It was a national-TV win, but it also put more attention on the creativity San Antonio BBQ has been building for years.
For Texas BBQ fans, the best follow-up is not just watching the finale. It is making the local visit.
San Antonio Report | August 31, 2026 | Free
Houston’s Lenox Barbecue Prepares to Close After 80 Years
Lenox Barbecue, one of Houston’s oldest barbecue restaurants, plans to close September 30 after 80 years in the city’s East End.
The original Lenox Cafe opened in 1946, and Leonard McNeill later turned it into Lenox Barbecue. Current owner Erik Mrok did not give a detailed reason for the decision, so the story should stay with what is known: a long-running Houston BBQ institution is entering its final month.
For anyone who has a Lenox visit in the “someday” category, September is the time to move it onto the calendar.
Chron | September 1, 2026 | Free
Bear Creek Smokehouse Sets Fourth Annual BBQ & Balloon Festival
Bear Creek Smokehouse near Marshall will host its fourth annual BBQ & Balloon Festival on Saturday, September 5, weather permitting.
The event puts one of East Texas’s longstanding smokehouse names at the center of a community gathering built around barbecue and hot-air balloons. It is the kind of local story that can be easy to miss outside the region, but it gives BBQ Fandom a reason to look beyond the usual Central Texas conversation.
Longview News-Journal | August 29, 2026 | Subscriber access
If this issue made you think of a Texas BBQ joint you have been meaning to revisit, forward it to the friend who would make the drive with you. Pick a place, show up hungry, and do not leave it on the someday list.
This week’s picks look at Texas BBQ beyond the standard tray: one turns smoked turkey into a serious deli sandwich, and the other brings Texas weather, brisket, and budget barbecue into the conversation.
Wilsons BBQ: Turned Texas BBQ Into an Insane DELI Sandwich! | W Chuds BBQ
Video | August 29, 2026 | YouTube, Wilsons BBQ
Wilsons BBQ heads to Chuds BBQ to smoke a turkey breast, chill and slice it deli-thin, then build an oversized sandwich around it. The useful idea is not simply “make a giant sandwich.” It is seeing Texas BBQ technique applied to a different format, with attention to smoke, texture, slicing, bread, and condiments.
Meat Church Podcast: Bourbon, Brisket, And Texas Heat
Podcast video | August 31, 2026 | YouTube, Meat Church BBQ
Matt Pittman sits down with WFAA chief meteorologist Pete Delkus for a wide-ranging Texas conversation that moves from heat and drought to bourbon, barbecue, and the weather realities behind an outdoor cook. The most useful BBQ stretch begins at 31:59, where Delkus shares his Mexican brisket method and taco-night approach. At 35:20, the conversation turns to pork steaks as a budget-friendly barbecue option.
Labor Day weekend is almost here, and Texas BBQ events keep moving through September. Here are a few cook-offs, pop-ups, and gatherings worth having on your radar.
KG BBQ at Axelrad: Axeltonk Honky Tonk Night
September 5 | Houston, Texas
KG BBQ comes from Austin to Axelrad for a one-day pop-up, serving from noon until sold out. The evening shifts into Axeltonk, with live music, a mechanical bull, and two-step instruction. The music portion is free, with 21+ entry after 8 p.m.
This is a short-notice Labor Day-weekend play, but that is part of the appeal. If you are in Houston and have wanted to try Kareem El-Ghayesh’s Egyptian-Texas barbecue, get there early.
2026 HOU BBQ Throwdown
September 20 | Houston, Texas
HOU BBQ’s annual Throwdown returns to Saint Arnold Brewing Company, where 14 Houston barbecue joints compete with original dishes for judges and the crowd. It is one of the better ways to sample the breadth of Houston barbecue in one afternoon, rather than trying to build a long, multi-stop route on your own.
Back to the Ranch: The LBJ BBQ Returns
September 26 | Stonewall, Texas
The Friends of Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park are bringing back the spirit of the historic LBJ Ranch barbecues with an evening at the Showbarn. The fundraiser includes barbecue, live music from Two Tons of Steel, dancing, and a silent auction, with proceeds supporting preservation and education at the national historical park.
Want the full September calendar?
BBQ on the Banks of the Guadalupe [BBQ cook-off] [community event]
September 4–5, 2026, Labor Day weekend | New Braunfels, Texas
BBQ on the Banks of the Guadalupe brings a competition weekend to New Braunfels, giving visitors the opportunity to combine barbecue, the Guadalupe River area, and an I-35 or Hill Country route.
There’s always another way to explore Texas BBQ. This week, start with the practical question: how much should you order? Use the calculator to build the tray, then use the ExploringBBQ directory to find the next stop worth making.
Texas BBQ Portion Calculator: How Much BBQ Per Person?
Planning a Texas BBQ order for a group is harder than it sounds. Brisket, sausage links, ribs, sides, and different appetites can add up fast at the counter.
The new Texas BBQ Portion Calculator gives you a practical starting point for a restaurant tray or takeout order. Choose your group size, appetite, meats, ribs or links, and sides, then adjust around the joint’s specialties and the portions in front of you. It estimates finished food to order from a BBQ restaurant, not raw meat for a backyard cook.
For the next BBQ run
Supporting Texas BBQ does not always mean ordering the biggest tray on the menu. Sometimes it means showing up, bringing someone with you, and keeping the places you care about in the rotation. Gear up for the next BBQ run.
Know about a BBQ event, new opening, road-trip stop, or story worth following? Send a note to [email protected].
We read every message and may feature reader tips in a future issue. BBQ Fandom follows the people, places, and moments that make barbecue worth following.
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