Even after 10+ years of selling spices and developing seasonings, the barbecue section has consistently received the most attention—from both our customers and me. Even with all of the attention I’ve given it, it’s clear that our customers are still salivating for even more BBQ flavor combinations.
So, in 2016, I decided an exploration into American regional barbecue was in order.
Through my research, I learned that (the consensus is) eight specific regions make up the family tree of American barbecue:
- Central Texas
- East Texas
- Memphis
- Alabama
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- North Carolina
- Kansas City
So I set a course with these eight areas as my primary targets—but not an itinerary so rigid that I might miss the opportunity to visit a barbecue joint that wasn’t originally on my radar.
"On August 14, 2015, I packed my bags, loaded up my truck, hitched up my camper, and headed south on I-25 to begin 'Chasing BBQ.'"
The "Chasing BBQ" Plan
My original plan was very aggressive: eat at 76 BBQ joints within 38 days.
While I liked the idea of hitting only 2 stops a day (I figured I could easily eat barbecue twice a day), I didn’t love the idea of doing it without any breaks. Plus, my route would have had me driving past trout rivers that I knew I would want to cast a few flies into.
With that in mind, I revised my plan. I would leave Denver on August 14th and return on September 25th—just in time to host a barbecue party at my home on the 26th.
That gave me a total of 43 days on the road. With those extra days, I could take a two-day break every couple of weeks to do some fishing and catch up on some veggies…or so I thought.
Before leaving on the trip, I had a few concerns about what all that barbecue feasting might do to me:
- Would eating barbecue multiple times a day kill my love for it?
- Would I gain so much weight that I’d need to buy “fat pants” just to finish the trip?
- Could my cholesterol spike—and would I even know if it did?
- What about “meat sweats”…whatever those are?
- And worst of all—might I drop dead of a barbecue-overload-induced heart attack? (Though, death by BBQ might not be the worst way to go.)
Obviously, the last one didn’t happen, and none of the others did either…at least not to me!
BBQ Road Trip by the Numbers
On August 14, 2015, I packed my bags, loaded up my truck, hitched up my camper, and headed south on I-25 to begin my "Chasing BBQ" journey.
Over the course of the trip, I:
- Drove more than 7,000 miles without a flat tire or speeding ticket
- Caught and released 50+ fish
- Visited 88 barbecue joints in 14 different states
- Made it home by the evening of September 25th
- And still hosted and cooked up BBQ for my golf league friends on the 26th
Oh—and the swag I managed to bring home with me: 66 barbecue tees and 21 hats.
The Eating Strategy
Believe it or not, even in the later days of the trip, I was always excited for the first stop of the day. It was the second, third—and sometimes fourth or fifth—that got challenging.
Most days, I ended up hitting three BBQ joints at three different times of the day:
- Early lunch around 11am
- Late lunch around 2pm
- Dinner around 6pm
That didn’t leave much digestion time, so I quickly realized I needed to develop an eating strategy.
If you followed the trip on Facebook while I was live-blogging it, you probably saw photos of massive amounts of barbecue. The reason I ordered so much (aside from wanting to share an impressive photo) was to get the best possible representation of what each of these regional BBQ aficionados had to offer.
I would take a single bite of each item on the plate, then allow myself two or three additional bites of my favorites. If they had barbecue sauces, I’d use those extra bites to try each one.
I didn’t just try their ‘cue—I was also on the hunt for information on regional differences in sides and desserts.
I tried to apply the same strategy there, but desserts didn’t always make it easy. You try walking away from fried pie filled with warm peaches, or a cup of creamy banana pudding packed with vanilla wafers.
Conversations from the Road
Trying all that ‘cue without having conversations with the pitmasters who made it would have been a missed opportunity. So every day, I tried to be the most extroverted version of myself.
If you know me personally, you know that I tend to lean introvert. After all, I have an extroverted crutch I can lean on—my wife Janet. She has opened doors and started conversations that make our lives much more interesting, and I’m grateful to her for that.
But she wasn’t up for eating barbecue every day for more than a month. So if I wanted to gather the best information, I needed to “man up,” put a smile on my face, and engage. And engage I did.
The People Who Made it Unforgettable
By itself, 43 days and 88 BBQ joints makes for a great road trip.
But, the people I met along the way made it the road trip of a lifetime. I had the chance to hang out, talk barbecue, and gather tips from three legendary Barbecue Hall of Famers: Pat Burke, Mike Mills, and Paul Kirk.
Pat Burke has won more barbecue titles and championships than any living person. His triumphs include three Grand World Championships, five Memphis in May titles, and The Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational.
Mike Mills has won four World Championships, three Memphis in May titles, The Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational, and Jack Daniel’s Sauce Championship.
Paul Kirk has won more than 500 cooking and barbecue awards including seven World Championships highlighted by wins in the American Royal World Series of Barbecue Open Contest, the American Royal Invitational, The Jack Daniel’s Invitational, and let’s not forget his 12 cookbooks and that he is a founding member of the Kansas City Barbecue Society.
I also met and had BBQ convos with some of the most fascinating people in the business.
In Texas, that included Big Ern Servantes, the winner of Chopped Grill Masters; Roy Perez, the pitmaster for 28+ years at the historic Kreuz Market in the “Mecca of Barbecue,” Lockhart, Texas; Tootsie Tomanetz, the original female pitmaster (still womanning the pits at 80+ years old!); John Mueller, the bad boy of Texas barbecue (his barbecue family tree includes grandfather Louie, father Bobby, brother Wayne, sister LeAnn, and assorted other rising pitmasters in and around Texas); and Daniel Vaughn, aka "The Barbecue Snob," the barbecue editor for Texas Monthly (the publication annually determines the top 50 barbecue joints in Texas).
In Memphis, the conversational ‘cue highlights included Craig Blondis, co-founder of Central BBQ; Eric Vernon, whose family operates the number one barbecue joint in the country according to Food Network; and Bobby Bradley of Cozy Corner BBQ, whose family has been serving up a barbecue original, Cornish hens, since 1977.
In Alabama, I sat down and talked ‘cue with Miss Lulu Hatcher, who was 12 when her mother Lannie opened their family joint in 1942—Lannie’s BBQ in Selma; I also talked to Don McLemore, a barbecue champion in some of the biggest events in our country and the grandson of Big Bob Gibson, who invented the famous Alabama white barbecue sauce 91 years ago.
In the Carolinas, I talked with whole hog barbecue specialists Rodney Scott, of Scott’s in Hemingway, SC; Sam Jones, of Skylight Inn and Sam Jones BBQ, whose family has been serving up barbecue in North Carolina since the mid-1800s; and James Beard award nominee Elliot Moss, who recently shifted his culinary focus to barbecue by opening his new joint, Buxton Hall BBQ in Asheville, NC.
In Kentucky, I tracked down the notoriously cranky Oscar Hill, the 79-year-old oil man turned pitmaster who is famous for ‘cueing up double cut pork chops.
In St. Louis, it was Mike “Pappy” Emerson of Pappy’s Smokehouse who shared some of his knowledge with me.
In Kansas City, brothers Joe and Mike Pearce of Slap’s (Squeal Like A Pig) gave me some of their time; as did 81 year old LC Richardson of LC’s BBQ.
While this list is long, it actually represents fewer than a third of the barbecue pros I was lucky enough to speak with while "Chasing BBQ."
Before I share the questions I asked, I want to call out one more person. Without this man’s assistance there is no way my trip would have been as successful. So, I want to say a huge thank you to Christopher Prieto, owner of Prime BBQ, author of Southern Living Ultimate Book of BBQ, Savory Spice customer, and all around great guy.
Not only did he go out of his way to contact his friends in barbecue to tell them about my trip and get me access, but he also hosted me for an unforgettable day of barbecue in North Carolina.
What I Learned About BBQ
At each BBQ joint stop, I asked every pro I met on this trip a few questions.
- What defines your region's barbecue?
- Are there spices that are critical to your BBQ style?
- What pro-tip would you give the backyard BBQ cook or pitmaster?
From their answers, I gathered a lot of interesting and helpful information.
Perhaps surprisingly, the spices used across regions aren’t all that different.
Texas stands out for its simplicity, relying primarily on kosher salt and extra coarse black pepper—used generously.
In most other regions, it’s the usual suspects: salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, onion, mustard, cumin, celery, chiles, and chili powders in varying combinations. Kansas City and Memphis tend to incorporate more sugar into their rubs.
Where I found more striking differences was in the sauces.
Some barbecue purists say sauce isn’t part of authentic BBQ—but that wasn’t my experience. Of the 88 joints I visited, only one didn’t offer any sauce. Most offered their regional specialty along with two or three additional options.
What Came Next
Following the trip, we dove deeper into the specific regional differences I discovered—exploring sauces, spices, fuels, proteins, and all the pro-tips gathered along the way. If you’ve read our "Chasing BBQ" series, you’ve seen those insights come to life across each region.
And if not—there’s plenty more to explore.
