Daniel Vaughn

6 days ago | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

Nothing much happens on the barbecue front in Del Rio. My full-time job is to travel all over the state looking for the next great barbecue joint. Until recently, I hadn’t been to Del Rio since I started this job twelve years ago because there was no reason to go. This year is different. After Hot Pit B-B-Q closed for good after operating for more than fifty years, a trio of Del Rio natives held the grand opening of their new restaurant, Humo Prime Barbecue.

2 months ago | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

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Feb 12, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

When Josh Jennings was planning his high school graduation party, in 2017, he asked his dad, Gary, to cook some barbecue for the crowd. Gary had dabbled in smoking meat with an offset he bought from a big-box store. He also had a 250-gallon propane tank he was slowly converting into an offset smoker, using plans from Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto. With the party coming up, he had the motivation he needed to finish the project.

Feb 7, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

“Everybody said I was making this too nice,” Robert Williamson told me of the design for Smokesmith. After he and his wife, Laurie, remodeled the building, it is unrecognizable from the former service station that had sat vacant for years. Williamson used distressed wood, decorative concrete blocks, and large sheets of salvaged glass to emphasize the entry. Inside, he built a bar wrapped with tin tiles.

Jan 31, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

Whenever Texas Monthly publishes a new list of the best barbecue joints, there’s usually a social media commenter ready to remind us that the best stuff comes from some unknown guy on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. The comment doesn’t include specifics, of course. The mystery of this phantom pitmaster is the point, and after so many bad meals from similar cooks, I consider this person to be more of an allegory than a reality.