Shots Fired! Online rating service ranks South’s Top Q

Special to Grillax

National Barbecue Day is May 16, and in anticipation of one made-up holiday that’s well worth celebrating, Yelp has released its list of the top-10 U.S. barbecue cities. This list of the South’s Top Q (and beyond) is a source of contention for well-known BBQ towns, including Nashville.

According to the restaurant ranking engine, Yelp’s Top 10 BBQ Cities in the U.S. features “the ultimate itinerary of the top-rated cities for smoked meats and mouthwatering barbecue sauces across the country.”

Austin made No. 1 on the list of the South’s Top Q with San Antonio not far behind, and it’s no surprise. According to Yelp, with domestic travel on the rise and food increasingly at the center of this year’s summer travel plans, online searches for “Texas BBQ” trended up 63 percent from early 2024 for Top BBQ to the first quarter of this year.

Here’s the rub

Those two cities are followed by Kansas City and then Memphis, which, again, is nothing revelatory. But Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, at No. 7 and 8, respectively, aren’t exactly shoe-ins for Top BBQ.

Unsurprisingly, Honolulu’s barbecue traditions reflect its multicultural influences. Flavors there meander from traditional American to Korean-style ‘cue and often include tropical flavors from the region.

For its part, Tulsa blends Oklahoma-style barbecue with Texas influences. It’s home to lesser-known barbecue gems such as Burn Co Barbeque, which turns out a “Fatty” — a bacon-wrapped smoked sausage concoction.

Nashville’s barbecue is considered a melting pot of flavor, borrowing from the West Tennessee traditions at Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint and Texas-style sausages and brisket at Shotgun Willie’s. Some restaurants are perhaps better defined by their pitmasters than their Top BBQ style, such as at Carey Bringle’s Peg Leg Porker.

Nashville HOT chicken still a top BBQ fave among customers.

Nashville HOT still a Top BBQ fave

Other enterprising barbecue entrepreneurs have learned to bring a little hot chicken into their smoked meats, as is the case at Edley’s Bar-B-Que, which serves Nashville hot links with spicy pimento cheese and a Nashville-style hot-pork platter where pork gets marinated in habanero mash before it’s slow-smoked and served with spicy slaw and hot pepper-infused barbecue sauce.

From Gannett Media. Mackensy Lunsford is the senior dining reporter at The Tennessean. Reach her at mlunsford@tennessean.com.