Category: Barbecue

BarbecueMissouriRating: OutstandingUnited States

Super Smokers – Eureka, Missouri (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:57 AM

The Super Smokers BBQ team has finished in the top ten in nine of twelve years competing at the World Barbecue Championship at Memphis in May, including a 2000 first place finish in the “whole hog” competition. Nicknamed “The Super Bowl of Swine,” Memphis in May is the largest pork barbecue event of its kind with more than 240 teams from all over the world participating. Meeting and exceeding the lofty quality standards and unwavering consistency required to win at the World Barbecue Championships has influenced the way Super Smokers conduct business at their St. Louis area restaurant. The competition…

BarbecueIllinoisRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Weber Grill – Wheeling, Illinois

Gil Garduno4:48 AM

In 1952, George Stephen invented the original Weber kettle grill and with his innovative design, sparked a backyard revolution. As a result, the XY chromosome compliment was no longer a handicap (or more accurately, an excuse) for men throughout the world when it came to preparing meals for their families. Since the discovery of fire, man has viewed his domain as the outdoors from where he and his fellow hunters brought home the day’s victuals for early woman to prepare. Throughout the centuries, the descendents of troglodytic man (many of whom haven’t evolved much) have perceived cooking as a feminine…

AmericanBarbecueClosed in 2012Food Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Embudo Station – Embudo, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:33 AM

Few things in life are as romantic as dining on the banks of the slowly trickling, mocha-colored Rio Grande on a crisp early autumn night with only a hint of moonlight to illuminate your partner’s visage–unless maybe it’s dining by that same river as it rages murkily, carrying off the Sangre De Cristo’s winter ablutions during its spring runoff. Located 25 miles south of Taos and 41 miles north of Santa Fe on Highway 68, the Embudo Station offers patio dining with unforgettable vistas and memorable meals. The Embudo Station is steeped in history, having served as a narrow gauge…

BarbecueClosed in 2009Gone But Not ForgottenIllinoisUnited States

Bobby Q’s – Arlington Heights, Illinois (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:48 PM

I first read about Bobby Q’s on Chowhound’s Chicago board in November, 2003. A newcomer to the Chicago area barbecue scene launched in July, 2003, it was immediately embraced by barbecue aficionados who tend to dismiss most interlopers as pretenders and frauds. Within months, the restaurant named for the owners’ toddler’s pronunciation of “barbecue” was earning accolades and honors in a specialized area which tends to be cynical and unwelcoming. The house sauces, a spicy Cajun sauce and a sweet Texas sauce have both been accorded with national recognition–20th best barbecue sauce in the entire country and a third place…

ArizonaBarbecueClosed in 2025Gone But Not ForgottenUnited States

Hap’s Pit Barbecue – Phoenix, Arizona (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:29 PM

Good barbecue in Arizona? You’d better believe it! Hap’s Pit Barbecue is one happening barbecue joint, one that its proponents believe its name is short for “happiness because that’s what it elicits from its diners–that and audible exclamations of “wow” and “yum.” Hap’s is a perennial listing on Phoenix magazine’s coveted best restaurant list and the only Phoenix barbecue establishment to earn a five star designation from the Arizona Republic newspaper. If you’re looking for national credentials, it’s been raved about on USA Today. Despite those impressive plaudits and accolades, what it took to get me to Hap’s was a…

BarbecueClosed in 2015Gone But Not ForgottenNevadaUnited States

Memphis Championship Barbecue – Las Vegas, Nevada (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:02 AM

To barbecue fanatics, a restaurant named Memphis Championship Barbecue is as intriguing as Memphis in May, the annual world barbecue championships in Memphis, Tennessee, an event which has been called the “Superbowl of Swine.” With a name like that, the restaurant has got to be great! Proprietor Mike “The Legend” Mills is an unprecedented three-time world champion of that esteemed event (Memphis in May, not the Superbowl). He was called “the competition crushing, restaurant-owning Grand Pooh-Bah of barbecue” in the July, 2006 edition of Bon Appetit magazine and authored a definitive guide to barbecue appropriately named “Peace, Love and Barbecue.”…