Texas, Missouri and Tennessee, USA · 2 tours
Three barbecue capitals and three arguments: beef and post oak in Central Texas, sauced burnt ends in Kansas City, dry-rub ribs and pulled pork in Memphis. Five days in Texas or ten days across all three.
Texas pit room, briskets on the smoker
Overview
Barbecue is the closest thing the United States has to a national cuisine, and nobody agrees on what it is. In Central Texas it means brisket with salt and pepper, smoked over post oak and sold by the pound on butcher paper. Kansas City cooks every kind of meat and covers it in thick, sweet sauce. Memphis is a pork town of ribs and shoulders, rubbed dry or brushed wet.
Our barbecue tours are built around pitmasters, not just restaurants: people who open their smokers before service and explain fire, wood and the long wait. Cody Alvarez, who has judged barbecue across Texas and Kansas, hosts.
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2 tours · prices per person
Kansas City · Memphis · Lockhart · Austin · Fredericksburg
BBQ & grillSpiritsMarkets
From$4,390per person, double room, most meals
View tour
Austin · Lockhart · Luling · Fredericksburg
BBQ & grillSpiritsWine
From$2,290per person, double room, most meals
View tour5 places
01
Austin is where Texas barbecue went from small-town tradition to national obsession. Some of the most famous pits started as trailers, and the city still has dozens of them alongside brick smokehouses where people line up before opening. Our groups visit a pitmaster before service to see the offset smokers, talk about wood and the stall, and then eat brisket, ribs and turkey at lunch. Austin also does the best breakfast tacos in the country, from migas to barbacoa, and our tours start the day with a taco crawl on the east side.
Best monthsMarch to May, October and November
Tours that visit Austin
02
Lockhart, a courthouse town forty-five minutes south of Austin, has served barbecue since the early 1900s, and three of its pit rooms are among the oldest in Texas. They feel like the old meat markets they grew out of: you order at the pit, meat is weighed out by the pound onto butcher paper, and sides are crackers, white bread, pickles and onions. Some still do not offer sauce. Our tours eat at several in a row, small portions at each, so you can compare brisket, shoulder clod, pork chops and sausage. Luling, fifteen minutes on, is next for a ring of hot sausage.
Best monthsOctober to May
Tours that visit Lockhart
03
West of Austin the land rises into the Texas Hill Country, a region of limestone, live oaks and rivers settled in the 1840s by German immigrants. Fredericksburg still shows it: a wide Main Street of stone buildings, bakeries selling strudel and kolaches, and sausage houses. The Hill Country is also Texas wine country, with dozens of wineries along Highway 290, and peach country, with roadside stands from May to August. Our barbecue tours end here for two quiet nights, a winery afternoon for guests 21 and over, and a farewell dinner.
Best monthsMarch to June, October and November
Tours that visit Fredericksburg and the Hill Country
04
Kansas City has more than a hundred barbecue restaurants and cooks almost everything: brisket, ribs, pork, chicken, sausage and turkey. Its signature is burnt ends, the crusty point of the brisket, cubed, sauced and caramelized, once given away free at the counter. The style is sweet and tomato-based sauce, and the classic joints in the 18th and Vine jazz district have been serving it for decades. One of the city’s best-known spots is inside a gas station. Our Great American Barbecue Trail spends three nights here, with a pitmaster session and a small distillery.
Best monthsApril, May, September and October
Tours that visit Kansas City
05
Memphis barbecue is pork. Ribs come dry, rubbed with paprika, garlic and spices and served without sauce, or wet, mopped with sauce as they cook. Pulled pork shoulder goes on a bun with coleslaw on top. Memphis also invented barbecue spaghetti and barbecue nachos, and both are better than they sound. The most famous dry-rib restaurant is down an alley in a basement downtown. Our tour spends two nights here, with a pit visit on the edge of town, a soul food lunch and an evening on Beale Street, where the blues clubs open early.
Best monthsApril, May, September to November
Tours that visit Memphis
Ways to go
01
The Texas Barbecue Trail spends two nights in Austin, a full day in the Lockhart and Luling pit rooms and two nights in Fredericksburg. The best short introduction to brisket and post oak.
02
The Great American Barbecue Trail flies from Kansas City to Memphis to Austin, with pitmasters in each city, a distillery, a soul food lunch and the Hill Country to finish.
03
Groups of six or more can run either tour on their own dates, add a cooking session at a smokehouse or start in Memphis. Grant Mosley plans private groups.
What’s included
Both tours include hotels with breakfast, every barbecue tasting and lunch in the itinerary, the listed dinners, pitmaster sessions, brewery, distillery and winery tastings for guests 21 and over, the van and airport transfers at group times and Cody or another host. The ten-day tour also includes the two flights between cities.
Not included: flights to the start city, travel insurance, the meals not listed, tips. Alcohol only for guests 21 and over, the legal drinking age in the USA. Full list
When to go
Barbecue is served all year, but Texas summers are brutal near a pit and lines in the sun are no fun, so our Texas departures run from September to May. Spring brings bluebonnets in the Hill Country, and early summer peaches in Fredericksburg. Kansas City and Memphis are best in spring and fall; Memphis hosts its big barbecue contest in May. Winter in Texas is mild and the pits are quieter, which makes November to February a good time for the five-day tour.
Before you book
Ask Lena directly
Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day, Monday to Friday.
The one in front of you. Most guests leave with a favorite, and the Great American Barbecue Trail lets you compare all three.
Rarely. Our hosts know when each pit is quiet, and some pitmasters serve our groups before opening.
Yes, with planning. Pits serve sides, and Austin has excellent vegetarian Tex-Mex, but this is a meat-heavy trip.
Tasting portions, but many of them. Most guests skip a meal a day by choice.
We do not run it from June to September for that reason. Spring and fall are comfortable.
Yes, at most pits. Your host will tell you how to pack them for the flight.
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Dates and seats
Tell us which tour, roughly when and how many of you. Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day with dates, seats, the price and how we can handle any dietary needs.
Lena, Grant and Priya, Charleston
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Please include
Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day. No payment now. A $300 deposit per person holds seats on a multi-day tour; day tours are paid when you book.
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