Monk: Chuck Charnicart is a veteran of current Texas Monthly #1 Goldee’s Barbecue who struck out on her own in 2023 to start Barbs B Q in Lockhart. Within a year, Barbs had been named a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, named a best new restaurant by Food & Wine, and named one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants.
In the below video from the Smoke Point video series from Eater, they shadow Chuck as she goes through a typical day opening Barbs. Just another day in the life of one of the best new barbecue restaurants in Texas.
Description: 25-year-old Chuck Charnichart’s restaurant Barbs B Q in Lockhart, Texas, earned a James Beard nomination and Eater Best New Restaurant award within a year of opening in 2023. At the Barbs counter, customers can have their pick of pork ribs, turkey, fajita sausage, pork stew — and even choco pudding for dessert — as well as its famous brisket, coated in Mexican spices and smoked for over 12 hours.
Monk: Goldee’s Barbecue skyrocketed to the top of every barbecue pilgrim’s list when it was named Texas Monthly’s Top Barbecue Joint in 2021. In the below video, Eater’s Smoke Point series follows the prep routine over a Thursday and Friday of the three friends who are owners and pitmasters at Goldee’s, Jalen Heard, Johnny White, and Lane Milne, as well as their newest venture Ribee’s.
Of note for me was the fact that they bake all of the bread they serve, whether its the sliced bread or the rolls for the sandwiches. That kind of attention to detail is why they earned the coveted top spot from Texas Monthly.
Description: Customers line up as early as 6 a.m. to get Goldee’s award-winning barbecue. Since winning the No. 1 spot of the “Texas Monthly” list of best barbecue joints, the Fort Worth restaurant increased its output from 12 to 150 briskets per week to feed crowds of customers who visit from across the country. At the counter, you’ll find the classics, including brisket, ribs, turkey, and sausage that can be ordered with hot honey, sweet, or with their signature sauce.
Name: Matt’s BBQ Date: 9/13/24 Address: 4233 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97217 Order: Two pounds brisket, two pounds of pork spare ribs, 2 jalapeno cheddar sausages, 2 original sausages, mac and cheese, slices of Dos Hermanos potato bread (link) Pricing: $$
Monk: It’s that time of the year again: the annual gathering of our group of friends who graduated from High Point Central High School (this year was the 18th iteration). And with that gathering, for better or for worse there is usually barbecue. To wit, last year us Barbecue Bros forced the rest of the HPC Bros to check out Wilson County Barbecue in Portland, Maine, which was a great representation of NC whole hog.
This year, we found ourselves in the Portland located on the other coast, and after consulting Daniel Vaughn’s recent Top 50 Texas Joints Outside of Texas list after a morning hike at Wahkeena Falls, we pointed our GPS towards Matt’s BBQ and made our way towards the food truck park off N. Mississippi Avenue.
Little did we know that our lunch at Matt’s would lead to the biggest disagreement on rating to date for the Barbecue Bros. Will we survive? Ok, that’s probably overstating our disagreement on ratings but read and find out…
Speedy: Let’s start with the atmosphere. Matt’s BBQ is situated in the middle of a food truck park, with lots of picnic tables, other food trucks, and most importantly, a beer truck. I thought this was a super cool area, especially with the perfect weather we had. Certainly a cool spot to hang out, have some food, and get your grub on.
Rudy: I thought the brisket was really well done, especially for being that far away from Texas. There was plenty of fat (well rendered) that kept it from drying out. It was easy to pull apart (good for sharing) but was not a bunch of mush. The best bites were at the ends, which led to Speedy’s upcoming complaint about consistency of seasoning.
Speedy: The ribs were quite big and meaty, and cooked well, but unfortunately I thought they were inconsistently seasoned, which I also thought was true of this brisket. While there were certainly some good bites, I want to taste the salt and pepper seasoning in every bite, with full permeation of the seasoning throughout the meat. So, good quality meat cooked well, but could have been better seasoned and probably could have gotten a little more smoke on the meat.
Monk: Personally, I found no issues or inconsistencies with the brisket or ribs being under seasoned, so I was on the more positive end of the spectrum. I was on the other end of the table for our group of 8 and there was nothing but positive vibes there. And if I am recalling correctly, we finished everything on the two platters. That may be on account of my precise ordering abilities, though…
We ordered two of each of the sausages, of course accommodating Speedy’s lack of tolerance for dairy. Both beef sausages came pre-sliced which made it nice for our group but made it hard to gauge the snap in the sausage. Regardless, I felt like it was a well executed beef sausage on both fronts.
Rudy: I loved the jalapeno cheddar sausage and thought there was a good amount of spice (but not overwhelming) and plenty of creaminess from the cheddar. I thought the heat from the jalapenos did not overwhelm the flavor of the sausage but complimented it.
The sides were also tasty and there was a big variety of options to order. However, my favorite thing of the entire experience was the pickled onions. If I had told you going into a barbecue restaurant that the best thing you’d eat would be the pickled onions, that would pretty much be a huge insult to the meat but that was not the case with Matt’s. The flavor and crunch that they added to each bite (and also by themselves) was great. The acidity of them really cut through the savory fat of the meat and added to the experience.
Speedy: Personally, I went into Matt’s with super high expectations, as I’ve been to several of the joints on the top 50 list referenced above, and left all full and happy. So while I thought the barbecue was good (and would visit Matt’s again), I was not blown away, which is my expectation for the top 50. That may not be fair, as Portland is not exactly known for barbecue, and sans list (and expectations), I would have probably been pretty happy. That said, Monk, Rudy and the other guys really enjoyed it, so I’m open to the possibility that my taste buds were just a little off that day. Hopefully, I’ll find myself in Portland again to give Matt’s another try.
Monk: After over 200 episodes of Tales from the Pits, in this episode we get to know the guys behind the podcast a little better. And what better way for that to happen than for them to interview each other? Andrew and Bryan each pose 10 questions to each other that neither was aware of before hitting record.
The questions start off predictably around barbecue before delving into more personal stories about celebrity encounters and favorite concerts, which is where there listener gets an even better sense of them as people outside the context of barbecue.
While technically this is the first time they’ve done a podcast in this format, I do feel like that its along the lines of the conversations they’ve been having over the past seven year. And that’s not a bad thing by any means.
Description: In this episode we do something we’ve never done: interview each other. We chose ten random questions to ask one another with neither of us having any indication as to what the questions would be before recording.
This is a fun one that goes off on some tangents and includes a challenge we hope Daniel Vaughn takes us up on!
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