Agreed. Montgomery Inn has to be some kind of joke. I can't even describe the awful service I had there.

Won't say I've ever seen service problems there, but the food is not memorable.

Funny, that is the one I was thinking of. I haven't been there for ages in fairness but when I was......

Best bbq in the country is in Kansas City. Arthur Bryant's, LC's BBQ, or OK Joe's. Everything else? A far cry away.

What about Smokin' Guns in North KC? Thinking about it as we will be out that way.

I would add Brobecks. It was a hit during the KC Do
http://www.brobecksbbq.com/

I also learned from that Do that Arthur Bryants is hit or miss. Some love it, some do not.

Some folks tried Big T's after LC's and loved it as well. I may try it next year
http://bigtbbq.com/

Also Slow's in Detroit should be on any list. It's delicious:
http://slowsbarbq.com/

I don't even know where to go with this list. NYC, San Francisco, what?!?

The inclusion of Jack Stack, but not LC's, Bryant's, or Joe's, makes me think they were looking for a Top 10 BBQ Restaurants You'd Take a Client Who Might Not Like BBQ for a Business Dinner. All of the photos look all, you know, clean and stuff... Corporate barbecue. No disrespect to Jack Stack - it's certainly good BBQ and probably belongs in any national Top 10 list - but I wouldn't use white linen ambiance as a means of evaluating great 'cue restaurants.

Any list that doesn't include Franklin BBQ is suspect, IMHO.

Well, except for City Market in Luling. No one who's ever eaten there would come away saying "corporate BBQ with white linen ambiance". That more aptly describes Lambert's BBQ in downtown Austin and they are mysteriously missing from the list, if indeed that is what they were shooting for.

I would add Pecan Lodge to that "list that doesn't include..".

I haven't tried Franklin but Pecan Lodge is Dallas is the best Texas Q I've tasted. I'm hoping to try Franklins later this year to compare.

Texas destroys KC in BBQ. Heck even Austin alone can beat KC With Franklin's, J Mueller, La Barbecue, Craft Meats, Freedmen's, Stiles Switch and Lambert's. If we stretched it to 100 miles around Austin...you'd then add Snow's, Louie Mueller, Kruez, Blacks, City Market Luling, Fargo's, Two Bros, The Granary, and many others that I'm forgetting about.

At least Jack Stack in KC MO is listed and it is good. It is where the KC BBQ DO usually starts for a Friday dinner.

ABSOLUTELY +1 - I have lunch there once per week. Award winning, been on the TV a few times, just a shame it is never on the KC BBQ list of to-do's ./

Hyperbolic at best.

Instead of doing a break at the Casino like last time, we should substitute it instead

Good, will try to hit it if possible

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.