Dayne’s Craft BBQ
Having lived in North Texas off and on my entire life, I can say with absolute certainty that we have a unique climate that begs for cold drinks and slow smoked meats. As long as we have shade, or water, we know how to have a good time, and backyard barbecuing is no exception. I’m not talking about overcooked burgers on charcoal briquettes either, I’m talking about two days slow cooked brisket with a side of cold beer as you babysit the smoker, kind of barbecue. And apparently so are the crew at The Cookie Rookie, who just placed Fort Worth at the No. 2 spot under Austin when it comes to the best cities for barbecuing.
In all, Texas took up 4 of the top ten spots in this category, which includes our neighbors to the east coming in at No. 3, and Arlington coming in at No. 5.
To determine where the hotspots through the country were, The Cookie Rookie looked at weather data such as temperature, rain, sunshine, the number of barbecue joints, as well as the percentage of people associating the state with good grilling. The scores were ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Number one Austin came out at 8.04 on the grill meter with Fort Worth being graded at a 7.91 in the number two spot. No. 3 Dallas came in at 7.49.
The study read, “Fort Worth, another Texas powerhouse in BBQ culture, is close on the heels of Austin. With 5 BBQ restaurants per 100,000 people and over two-thirds rated four stars or above, Fort Worth is another Texas city with a strong BBQ presence.
“Searches are slightly lower than in Austin but still high, at 1,850 per 100,000 people. Summer temperatures here are slightly warmer, at 84.4°F, and plentiful sunshine, creating ideal conditions for BBQ enthusiasts.”
You’d think with a rating this high we might also rank in the top category of one of the cities with the most barbecue restaurants. But alas, we don’t even crack the top ten. Instead, St. Louis, Missouri comes in on top with Savannah, Georgia at No. 2, and Columbia, South Carolina at No. 3. In fact, Texas doesn’t even have a top tier ranking on this list per The Cookie Rookie’s criteria.
Another surprise in this study indicates that Texans favorite barbecue dish is chicken with 113.3 searches per 10,000 Google users. I call shenanigans on the last two rankings; however, I can live with the No. 2 spot on the top list any day.
According to this study, chicken dominates the searches in many states, like California, Hawaii, and yes, Texas. All have chicken as their top barbecue dish. California has the highest number of searches for the dish, at almost 157 per 10,000 Google users.
Also, mac and cheese is the most-searched barbecue dish in numerous states across the Midwest, Northeast, and some parts of the South. However, people in Vermont are the most interested, with over 123 searches per 10,000 Google users.
Goldee's BBQ
To calculate these findings, The Cookie Rookie used sources such as Instacart, Reddit, and YouGov to create a seed list of popular BBQ dishes, including US-specific dishes.
Next up, they used Google Ads Keyword Planner to reveal the most-searched BBQ dishes in the United States and each state. This data was then normalized per 10,000 people (using Google’s search reach in the area, based on the number of signed-in users using Google sites).
For the first list, the Cookie Rookie used census data to find the 50 most populated cities in the U.S., adding in smaller cities particularly known for BBQ culture, using articles from Food &Wine, Go World Travel, and Reddit. Next up, researchers used a YouGov survey, which included U.S. respondents aged 18 and over to find the percentage of people who think each city’s state has good BBQ.
Other methods for collecting this data included scraping info from TripAdvisor and Climate Data to conduct analysis on this specific study.
No matter the numbers, and outcome, it’s safe to say that a place known for cowboy culture is probably going to mark on the high end of things when it comes to something as sacred as barbecue. On any given day in Cowtown, we have a sundry of awesome ‘cue spots to choose from and the weather to enjoy cooking it in. And that places us at the No. 1 spot in my book, no methodology required.
