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    Southern Smoke Wrap Up

    Up in Smoke: Food fest featuring celebrity chefs rakes in record amount to fight MS

    Eric Sandler
    Nov 7, 2016 | 1:41 pm

    Light rain and cloudy skies couldn't dampen the enthusiasm at Sunday's Southern Smoke. Now in its second year, the event, organized by Underbelly chef-owner Chris Shepherd, raises money for the National MS Foundation.

    After taking in almost $184,000 in 2015, the James Beard Award winner set a goal of $200,000 for this year's event, but Houstonians' generosity vastly exceeded those expectations. At the end of the night, Shepherd announced a total donation of $281,357.20. Adding in-kind contributions from sponsors like Pitmaker, 44 Farms, and Lexus bumped the total charitable effort to over $400,000.

    To achieve that goal, Shepherd tapped his network of celebrity chef friends from across Texas and the South. Two of the country's most acclaimed pitmasters — Aaron Franklin (Franklin Barbecue) and Rodney Scott (Scott's Bar-B-Que in Hemingway, South Carolina) — returned to serve their signature beef brisket and whole hog, respectively.

    James Beard Award winners Ryan Prewitt (Peche) and Stephen Stryjewski (Cochon) came from New Orleans with roasted oysters and boudin. Tandy Wilson, a James Beard Award winner from City House in Nashville, served smoked Vietnamese-style bologna with nuoc mam slaw. Ashley Christensen, a James Beard Award winner with seven restaurants in Raleigh, North Carolina, served beer can chicken with comeback sauce.

    The HOUBBQ Collective — a group of local chefs that includes Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan (The Pass & Provisions), Justin Yu (Oxheart), Ryan Pera (Coltivare, Revival Market), and Shepherd — served a rotating series of dishes including pizza, grilled fish tacos, gyros, and more.

    Attendees eagerly debating their favorites. Franklin and Scott attracted the longest lines, but all of the chefs saw steady traffic throughout the event. Christensen certainly made a lot of fans with her juicy, smoky chicken, and the Houston chefs' uni pizza also earned raves. An extensive selection of wine and beer from Saint Arnold Brewing Company offered plenty of choices to keep attendees refreshed.

    A number of silent auction items helped contribute $153,572 to the total. Highlights included a VIP Super Bowl package for two ($20,500), a trip to see a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and dinner for 30 prepared by the HOUBBQ Collective that netted an impressive $19,500.

    Shepherd already promised that Southern Smoke will return for 2017, and it will be interesting to see how the event evolves. Houston doesn't have a food and wine festival in the same way that cities like Austin, Aspen, and Charleston do, but Southern Smoke's combination of celebrity chefs and charitable giving certainly points the way towards what a Houston version might look like. If Southern Smoke evolves from a fundraiser with great food into a weekend-long affair that draws more of the country's best chefs to Houston, it will cement its status as Houston's premier food event.

    Aaron Franklin slices brisket.

    Southern Smoke Aaron Franklin
      
    Photo by © Michelle Watson/Catchlightgroup.com
    Aaron Franklin slices brisket.
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    What's Eric Eating Episodes 471 and 472

    Texas Monthly's BBQ Snob dishes on the magazine's new top 50 list

    CultureMap Staff
    Jun 6, 2025 | 5:41 pm
    Texas Monthly's BBQ Snob dishes on the magazine's new top 50 list
    Texas Monthly's BBQ Snob dishes on the magazine's new top 50 list
    Texas Monthly's BBQ Snob dishes on the magazine's new top 50 list

    On this week’s episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn joins CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss the magazine’s new list of the 50 best barbecue joints in Texas. Seven Houston-area restaurants made the list, led by Truth BBQ at No. 9.



    What may surprise Houstonians is which barbecue joints made Texas Monthly’s list. Familiar names like Feges BBQ, Blood Bros. BBQ, and Killen’s Barbecue have been relegated from the top 50 to an honorable mentions list. In their place are newer restaurants such as Bar-A BBQ in Montgomery, Rosemeyer Bar-B-Q in Spring, and Brisket & Rice in Cypress.

    The two writers discuss what stood about the new Houston restaurants on the list, as well as the honorable mentions. Vaughn shares that Roegels Barbecue Co. in Briargrove almost made the top 50 based on a strong meal he had there. Sandler asks Vaughn whether the magazine felt compelled to choose between Blood Bros. and Brisket & Rice, since they’re both serving an Asian-influenced take on Texas barbecue.

    “It wasn’t about two different places serving similar cuisines. With Blood Bros., the things I love about them are really not their straight up sliced brisket, pork ribs, and sausage,” Vaughn says. “In comparing those items with others in the area, it didn’t seem fair to our readers to send them there saying it’s one of the 50 best barbecue restaurants. All things considered, it’s one of the 50 restaurants I’d want to go to eat barbecue, but maybe some of the specials — the banh mi, the boudain, the pho-strami, that sandwich was an absolute revelation. Comparing the barbecue with a place like Brisket & Rice, the brisket, ribs, and sausage were just a little better than Blood Bros.”

    After a thorough discussion of the Houston newcomers, Sandler turns to a few statewide questions. Tune in to hear Vaughn’s explanation for why Snow’s BBQ in Lexington and Franklin Barbecue in Austin — arguably the two most famous Texas barbecue joints in the world — moved out of the ranked top 10 and into the alphabetized top 50. They also discuss the restaurants that made the top three: Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin, LeRoy & Lewis Barbecue in Austin, and Goldee’s Barbecue in Fort Worth.

    The conversation concludes with a look ahead to the magazine’s best new list that will be published in 2027 as well as Vaughn’s thoughts on the Houston barbecue pop-up that would have a strong shot at the top 50 if it ever begins serving food at least once per week.

    In this week’s other episode, Sandler and co-host Michael Fulmer discuss the news of the week. Since Fulmer is a co-founder of the Houston BBQ Festival, he has his own thoughts on the Texas Monthly list. He and Sandler also discuss the reopening of Cecil’s Pub.



    In the restaurants of the week segment, Fulmer and Sandler share first impressions of Silk Road, the dim sum restaurant in a West U. hotel that’s generating a lot of buzz. They conclude by talking about Doko, the new sushi restaurant in Autry Park from the chefs behind Handies Douzo and Aiko.

    -----

    Subscribe to "What's Eric Eating" on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hear it Sunday at 9 am on ESPN 97.5.

    Daniel Vaughn Texas Monthly
      

    Courtesy of Texas Monthly

    Daniel Vaughn is this week's guest.

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