When John Mueller left his grandfather's barbecue joint in Taylor Texas in 2001, John's dad, Bobby, hired Lance Kirkpatrick as a helping hand. Kirkpatrick had been a manager at Hanover's Draught Haus prior to his entry in the Taylor barbecue world.

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Ol boys with ties to Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas landed in Meridian, Texas at the National Barbecue Championships a few weeks back.

We ate like country kings during the competition and Coon-Billy Cookers was right at the top of the heap for brisket and hospitality.

Competing on the Texas barbecue circuit since 2003 the boys in the cook team have managed prestigious victories at events in places like Groves and Vidor which is how they secured an invitation to Meridian's big-deal affair.

all barbecue coverage here http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/Barbecue

John Nonmacher is sitting in the hot seat. He's got everybody all riled up over a poster that's been hanging quietly in his barbecue joint in Katy Texas for thirty years.

The poster is a mite edgy what with depicting a lynching of an Iranian by a group of men in cowboy hats and all.

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We've longed championed Mr. Black's barbecue as being the finest in Lockhart Texas. There was a time 20 or so years ago that we held Kreuz in the number 1 spot but those days have long since passed.

There's something about the Cracker Barrel nature of the new Kreuz building that puts us on edge. We don't like to eat in Wal Mart sized restaurants.

We've written about Black's quite a bit over the years and if it wasn't for R&G over in nearby McMahan then we'd go ahead and declare Black's the finest in the whole of Caldwell County.

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The counter worker has little interest in conversing. His eyes rest steadily off toward the horizon as we inquire as to what the provenance of the barbecue trailer is [Houston], who the pit boss is [a shadowy figure known only as Tony ] and what sort of wood is being burned [ oak]. It's akin to a good old fashioned tooth pulling.

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While many folks in our towns eating community assume Aaron Franklin was bitten from the thigh of Zeus the truth is he is not a Greek God, he is a mortal man who has needs and desires outside of the world of barbecue.

Not unlike a postal delivery worker, a barista or a state legislator, Franklin must bend so that he does not break. Ergo, his taking of a much needed vacation.

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We had ourselves a grand time right across the street from the Texas Monthly Barbecue Festival today October 30th 2011. Like the kid in Jukebox Hero, the epic Foreigner song from a while back we couldn't get a ticket.....it was a sold out show.

No matter, we lounged back, drank some Pearl Beer, listened to some Doug Sahm on our tape deck and ate a picnic lunch from Sam's Barbecue and it was just like being there. Just like.

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During the run up to this article we really began to wonder if we were going to be able to fill all 5 spots. Yes, there are lots of Texas barbecue blogs but we wanted high value, high signal to noise ratio websites filled with articulate writing and good quality photography.

It's a tough world when you walk down the path with all these factors in mind.

In no particular order we give you our top 5:

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We keep waiting for the hot headed John Mueller to launch a missile drop kick out of the window of his white hot barbecue trailer down in Bouldin Creek but apparently the man hasn't had his buttons pushed just right, just yet.

The new John Mueller is going to be known as the barbecue Santa Claus if he's not careful what with handing out free beer and having a "no standing in line" take out window and all.

That's fine by us. The old anxious days of standing in line at the Manor Road location and wondering whether the cranky Taylor, Texas native was going to serve us the black and fatty we requested or just level a baleful glare our way are apparently gone.

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1964 Dallas, Texas looked a lot different than the current state of one of America's great cities. Jim Crow laws were just starting to relax enough to allow Black folks entrance into business endeavors that the white community had had access to since the dawn of the Great State.

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What if he would have chosen the field of barbecue instead of fine dining?

Raymond Tatum is one of Austin's iconic chefs. When fine dining came to Austin in the 70s Tatum was the leader of the new school.

Now, nearly 40 years later Tatum is still working in the world of gourmet food, he's just doing it a mite different. Instead of presiding over the kitchen at Jeffry's or Backstage or any number of Austin's gilded halls of high dollar cuisine, he's quietly honing his chops from a trailer in East Austin.

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