Originally Posted by
swag
I'll agree with the assessments of Sonny Bryan's, but my understanding is that it used to be much better. I didn't eat at the original Inwood location until the late 90's, and was disappointed, but maybe it really was much better back in the 60's? In any case, the article called it "iconic", not "great", and was talking about "most of the twentieth century".
You can disagree with some of the specifics, but I do think the general points he's making are hard to dispute: that there's been a recent a statewide resurgence in places serving great BBQ, and that the new great places are much more likely to be found in high-population areas compared to decades past.
But it's a shoddy point. Dallas, for example, has Lockhart, Cooper's, County Line, Salt Lick, Rudy's, etc. that are satellite locations of the real thing. There aren't a lot of great "born and bred" options in the city. Pecan Lodge is an exception to that rule. The same goes for San Antonio and Houston. The iconic places are opening up locations in the big cities during expansion. The author makes it sound as though you could swing a dead cat and find a decent mom and pops cue joint, which simply isn't true. Sonny Bryan's is iconic for those that don't know what good BBQ is supposed to taste like and it's longevity in the city.
Austin, however, I would agree with. Franklin and J Mueller's are solid places. Before that, they still had Ironworks, Stubb's, Ruby's and other homegrown non-mass produced places that were passable. But I ascertain that to the fact that Austin is a much better locally supported food scene than the bigger Texas cities will ever be. It's just the culture of the state.