Let the Arguments Begin!

[HawkerXP]

Very interesting,

[Donw]

I’d rather trust a "best" list of Thoracic Surgeons created by a discount tire site.

[Willy]

LOL! Git yer tires rotated AND yer surgery!

[Panhead John]

Free set of Michelins with every lung transplant!

[gboss]

Those surgeons are gonna have to work hard on their presentation and the "surgical experience" to earn those TireRack Stars

[Willy]

If’n ya scroll down a ways, you’ll see the "top rated" cities sell "BBQ meat" for $4.83 per pound.

In what universe?

[jlazar]

The Texas Monthly top 2 in San Antonio were closer to $28-30/lb this past month. Looking primarily at the big three - brisket, ribs and pulled pork.

[Mosca]

If’n ya scroll down a ways, you’ll see the "top rated" cities sell "BBQ meat" for $4.83 per pound.

In what universe?

About 25 years ago I was talking with someone who had just come back from traveling through Eastern Europe. And he told me about the time he was hungry, so he went into a shop. And there in the case was an array of different choices.

So he asked, "What are these?"

”Meat.”

”Yeah, I know it’s meat. But what kind of meat? What animal?”

”What difference. Meat.”

[ofelles]

Buy a candy bar and walk away!

[Uncle Bob]

We live in what's often called "The Information Age"...........lots of information..........but at what quality? More info is not necessarily better info. Some old ideas should endure. For instance; Start with a faulty assumption, you'll end up with a faulty conclusion. As with many social notions, too many over value intentions rather than value probable/predictable outcomes.

That said, based on our paying to live in this online space, and our frequent participation, to the "normals" out there we'd likely be labeled BBQ Snobs (though we probably see ourselves as highly invested students of the craft). We're not the target audience for ratings such as the subject here.

[ofelles]

Well put,

[klflowers]

Thanks Unc. I am already known as a coffee snob (what, instant? Begone peasant). Now I can add BBQ snob. I embrace my snobbery

[Steve R.]

You just described me, klflowers. I'm not a snob when it comes to most things, but those two are the big ones for me.

[klflowers]

Sounds like the reviewers didn't visit any of the cities. Based the rankings on searches done at a desk. Useless list IMO.

[Bogy]

They weren't trying to find the best Q. They were trying to find the big cities that had the most restaurants, at the best prices, and judged by people who don't necessarily have any idea what good Q should taste like. Great information for people looking for an upgraded McRib, useless for us.

[RogueCookers]

I live in San Antonio and this is complete GARBAGE. Why is the distance between BBQ spots even considered. Austin is the best in Texas, then I would say Houston primarily due to its roots, and Dallas a close third. Lockhart, The BBQ Capital of Texas, should be considered and then San Antonio. We maybe have 2 BBQ restaurants that are known (Pinkertons and 2M). If you throw in Burnt Bean in Seguin (#4 on the TX Mo Top 50 List from Ernest Servantes then we move closer to the other 4 but still don't surpass).

[Draznnl]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣! All that list deserves.

[Panhead John]

RogueCookers Thanks for chiming in! You made some great points. I guess this is my beef with those types of lists, Rename Your Damn List! Don’t call it "Best U.S. Cities For BBQ" [or whatever] and then go on to tell people that…..You can get lots of mediocre BBQ within easy driving distance of each other and it’s cheaper than Houston! That’s what they should have called that list….

I also had my doubts about San Antonio being # 1, even though there’s several quality places to choose from there, there’s no way they should have been ranked ahead of Austin and Houston. As I mentioned earlier, the only list most people care about is a ranking of cities that have the most quality BBQ spots in their town. I don’t give a darn if I go to Memphis and don’t have to go very far for "decent cheap BBQ" I wanna go hit their top spots! And I think most people would also, not just us Pit Members.

If anyone reputable out there was to make a legitimate list of top U.S. cities for BBQ, I’ll go on record as saying it would probably be Austin and Houston for the top 2 spots, everyone else, fall in line……

[ofelles]

Hey San Jose is #3............live with it!! 😜
And the next survey that ranks by unaffordable BBQ tofu will put us at #1!

[jfmorris]

No way I would put Birmingham AL at #6 on any list of BBQ cities either - most certainly not before Memphis, which is down at #11. Stupid list.

[Bkhuna]

Who puts any stock in what a real estate site says about BBQ. It's like thinking the CMA knows rats ass about country music.

[tenphases]

Two umbrella types of research typically used.Quantatative that focuses on data collection, coding, and interpertation : Very useful, gives you hard data, people love it because they feel going by numbers can eliminate bias which definetly is not true. The bias comes in how you code the data and its easy to do.It can lack heart and miss the point.

Most of your work can be done from your living room works real well on Wall St

Then there is the qualitative umbrella which relies on interviews personal accounts and field work. People like this because you can get to understand a community, understand the issue deeply, are able to tackle from multiple perspectives. Again the probem is in how the research is coded and subject to interpretationa and bias.

This type of research requires field work. Think Charles Darwin or WEB Dubois. They had to get in the field to accomplish their research

The best would be a hybrid model but Quant and Qual folks dont get along lol - This article was straight quant and I liked it but bbq has soul and needs some qual.

[Oak Smoke]

What was the old saying? There are lies, dam lies, and statistics. Finding anything with out a bias involved is difficult. I think the last time I saw that was a group handing out trophies to little league players for showing up. That worried me too.

[Livermoron]

yeah...as a proud Californian, ain't no way SJ or any CA city comes in at #3. I have huge problems with the metrics being used.

"Based on the area's typical income, buying 4 pounds of BBQ meat every month for a year costs the average resident 0.21% of their income."

Average US income; $31K (including SJ). Average SJ income: $42K

NEXT!

[tenphases]

great example

[glitchy]

Complete and total BS. Darren Warth has a BBQ restaurant here and Jethro’s is actually decent and has several locations. Just because Iowa is…well Iowa, doesn’t mean we don’t count. We gave you Darren Warth, Johnny freakin Carson, John Wayne (you dirty pilgrims), Austin Kutcher, and freakin Superman (who I went to church with…yeah Superman believes in the Almighty despite having superpowers). That didn’t even mention Superman and Jason Mamoa played soccer together in the pimple on earth’s behind that I live in…oh, wait, I just did 🤪🤪🤪🥃🐿🦫.

[Andrrr]

You forgot Tom Arnold… maybe on purpose?

[Murdy]

Those people all can run a smoker?

[glitchy]

Murdy Darren Warth has a room full of BBQ competition trophies (maybe multiple rooms). However, my post was more just joking how Des Moines probably was never even considered for the list.

[WayneT]

Was there a strong, positive correlation I missed that shows that large metro areas have the ‘best’ BBQ? A subjective ranking by a Data writer, with pretty good creds though, just doesn’t flip my interest switch. Nuff said.