As we get further into spring, my meat-and-fire loving alter ego, Joey Deckle, comes to life ravenously craving barbecue. Specifically: cooking, eating and competing. Of course Joey and I aren't alone in our seasonal 'cue cravings.USA Today recently asked Karen Adler, author of The BBQ Queens' Big Book of Barbecue, to select 10 of America's top barbecue joints. The most difficult thing about coming up with the list was narrowing it down to 10, she says. The roster ranges from such roadhouses as Dreamland Drive-In Bar-B-Cue (pictured), which limits its menu to ribs and white bread, to huge operations like Kreuz Market that specializes in shoulder clod and serves up its delicacies on butcher paper. For the most part, the list is made up of old-school Southern or Kansas City barbecue eateries. There is one notable exception: R.U.B., in New York City. Well shoot, seems like we Yankees can make good barbecue.
Here's the full lineup: Dreamland Drive-In Bar-B-Cue, Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, Decatur, Ala.; Hickory Hollow BBQ, Ellenton, Fla.; R.U.B., New York; Wilber's Barbecue, Goldsboro, N.C.; Goode Co. Bar.B.Q., Houston; Kreuz Market, Lockhart, Texas; The Bar-B-Q Shop, Memphis; Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue, Kansas City, Mo.; and BB's Lawnside Bar-B-Q, Kansas City, Mo.
[photo: Southern Living]
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