Daniel Vaughn

Dallas

Barbecue Editor at Texas Monthly

Barbecue Editor @TexasMonthly, also tweeting as @tmbbq. Author of @ThePOSM.

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Articles

Pea Salad Should Be the Hot New Barbecue Side- Texas Monthly

2 months ago | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

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The Jennings & Co BBQ Owners Are Working for the Weekend

2 months ago | 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.
The Folks Behind Famed Rancho Loma Inn Have Opened a BBQ Joint

2 months ago | 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.
This Pitmaster Gave Up Hopping Trains to Run a BBQ Truck

2 months ago | 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.
An Abilene BBQ Joint Blends Its Dance Hall Roots With a “Mild to Wild” Menu

2 months ago | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

William Crane spent 22 years in the U.S. Army. The five that he spent in Iraq were the toughest. “Coming back, as a soldier, you start looking for ways to cope,” he said of his return to the U.S. in 2009.
A Pitmaster Returns to West Texas to Continue His Great-Uncle’s Barbecue Legacy

Jan 17, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

“It was almost decided for us that we were going to do barbecue,” Jason Dominguez told me. He and his wife, Simone, never imagined themselves in the business when they made arrangements to move to Texas four years ago, but in 2023, they opened Rock N Raul’s Smokehouse. The building sits at the northern tip of Fort Davis, a small, historic town in the Big Bend region, where Dominguez’s family has deep roots.
Micklethwait Barbecue Converts a Church For Its New Location

Jan 16, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

Micklethwait Craft Meats in Austin has a new home and a new name. Tom Micklethwait debuted the business in an East Austin food truck way back in 2012. I say way back because nearly twelve years is a long run of winters and summers to endure in a food truck. Micklethwait and co-owner Ren Garcia kicked off 2025 with the first service in their renovated building on January 3.
How My Road Trip Debacle Led to an Impromptu BBQ Tour of Cincinnati

Jan 10, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

The rear wheel became detached from our family SUV about an hour south of Cincinnati. The vehicle sat on the narrow shoulder of Interstate 71, hazard lights brightening the night sky, until a Kentucky state trooper arrived. After getting my family across the highway barrier—and out of immediate danger—I surveyed the sheared-off lugs and retrieved the wheel and tire, which had rolled several yards away.
A West Texas BBQ Joint Worth Stopping for off Interstate 10

Jan 9, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

Before Mike Baker opened Salt Creek BBQ in Iraan with his wife, Katherine, in 2023, he did his barbecue research on the road. Baker was a tow truck driver covering a wide swath of West Texas and beyond. “We went all over the States, and I would stop at barbecue places,” he said. Sure, there were plenty of local towing needs, but the idea of “local” is stretched out on the hundred-mile span of Interstate 10 between Ozona and Fort Stockton.
My Favorite BBQ Bites Outside Texas in 2024

Dec 30, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Daniel Vaughn

Last week, I gave you my favorite barbecue dishes of the year from Texas. Now I’m expanding my horizons to include the whole country. For a majority of the year, I crisscrossed America for “The United States of Texas Barbecue,” a project Texas Monthly published in August. All told, I visited 149 joints across 37 states. It was such a fruitful journey that I had enough leftovers to produce this additional list of delicious dishes.