Parade Magazine Announces: American Barbecue Is Better than Ever

NEW YORK, July 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Parade, the most widely read magazine in the country, celebrates barbecue this Sunday—and announces that after falling out of favor in the 1980s, American BBQ is back and better than ever.  Writer John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi, charts the phenomenon, which he credits to Americans' growing respect for traditional food. And nothing is more traditional than barbecue—cooking whole animals over smoldering coals predates our republic, probably originating in the Caribbean, where the Spanish encountered it and called it barbacoa. As the technique moved north, the Native American and Caribbean methods were refined by African-Americans. Virginia became an early hot spot.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130718/NY49097)

George Washington himself was a fan. Our first president wrote in a 1769 diary entry that he "went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night." He probably partook of a whole hog, cooked over hardwood coals.

Parade visits one of the most wildly popular American barbecue joints: Franklin's Barbecue in Austin, Tex., where hundreds of hungry BBQ lovers line up daily and greet the 11 a.m. opening with cheers. The magazine asked food critics across the country to name their favorite new places, resulting in our list of the 17 best new barbecue restaurants in the U.S.  For details, go to http://www.parade.com/54779/parade/best-of-the-new-school-restaurant-critics-favorite-new-barbeque-joints/

Atlanta — Heirloom Market BBQ
Baltimore — Kloby's Smokehouse
Birmingham, Ala. — Saw's Soul Kitchen
Boston — Sweet Cheeks Q
Charlotte, N.C. — Bobbee O's BBQ
Chicago — Lillie's Q
Dallas — Lockhart Smokehouse
Cleveland — Old Carolina Barbecue
Denver — Russell's Smokehouse
Houston — CorkScrew BBQ
Kansas City, Mo. — Jon Russell's Kansas City Barbeque
Los Angeles — Bludso's BBQ
Miami — Sparky's Roadside Barbecue
Portland, Ore. — Podnah's Pit
San Diego — Coop's West Texas BBQ
Seattle — Maximus/Minimus
Washington, D.C. — The Garden District

SOURCE Parade Magazine