Texas Pride outside of San Antonio has redefined BBQ for me.

I should say that I have always hated BBQ. Mostly because I hate sauces and condiments. All the BBQ I had tried up until I had Texas Pride's brisket relied on a special BBQ sauce to make it good. But Texas Pride relied on a rub to give the meat its special flavor (that and, of course, the long smoking process). The meat itself was succulent and flavorful and in no need of a flavor masking/improving sauce.

I think that the true sign of good BBQ is the meat plain and naked. If it needs a sauce, then the proprietor has no business in the BBQ realm. BBQ joints that pride themselves on their sauces betray their disrespect for the meat. They are saying that the meat itself can't be succulent and satisfying of its own accord. The ones that push their own bottled sauce sales are saying that there is nothing special about the meat that they serve and you can get nearly the same results at home.

So this BBQ snob always orders her meats "naked" (since she hates sauce anyway). Most of the time it is dry and lacks flavor. It's not much better than might come out of my oven at home. I have learned several things in the 7 years that I have been eating BBQ. The first is that Brisket is the hardest of all meats to get right. Second, if a place can get their brisket right, then they do most everything else well. Third, pulled pork is the easiest meat to do well (rarely is it both dry and flavorless -- dry being the greatest sin, IMO). Fourth don't bother ordering anything but the pulled pork (unless you are ordering something else along with pulled pork on a combo platter) on your first visit since if they can't get the pulled pork right, the rest of their meats will be simply dreadful.

I do give Bid Bob Gibson's BBQ a second place. I think that their ribs are very good and I hate ribs. Plus their cole slaw is awesome. It is just the way I like it.