Burnt Bean – Seguin, Texas
Legend has it that shortly after the horrendous mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Burnt Bean pitmaster and co-owner Ernest Servantes was asked to serve barbecue to law enforcement officials in Uvalde. According to sources, Servantes, himself an Uvalde native, refused to serve anything to the milksops whose cowardly inaction resulted in the fatal shooting of 19 students and 2 teachers, and the injuring of 17 others. Servantes wasn’t around when my new friend and dining companion Melinda Martinez and I finally completed our time in the purgatory of a queue that snaked to the end of the block. We asked one of the restaurant’s servers, but he was unable to either confirm or refute the story. At any regard, it’s a good story that endeared me to a pitmaster whose reputation places him in a heroic pantheon. There are several certifiable, irrefutable truths about Servantes and his partner Dave Kirkland that transcend legend. In 2022, less than two years after its launch (during the Cabrona Virus), Burnt Bean garnered the number four spot in Texas Monthly’s 50 Best Barbecue joints. Cognoscenti consider “best in Texas” synonymous with best in the universe. Fourth best means it’s on the Mount Rushmore of…