The Texas barbecue community was jubilant two years ago when Michelin doled out its first-ever awards in the state. Four barbecue joints—CorkScrew BBQ, in Spring, and InterStellar BBQ, La Barbecue, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, all in Austin—received Michelin stars. I was excited that any joint had earned such unprecedented praise from a famed international organization. But now that Michelin’s three-year contracts with Texas’s five largest cities and the state’s tourism division are up without any news of extensions, I wonder if the organization or its reviewers have learned anything about Texas barbecue since 2024.
Michelin made a big splash that first year with a glitzy awards presentation in Houston. Last year, it held a similar event, but the announcements were rushed in a ceremony that took about half as long as the previous year. Michelin ran a slideshow for the restaurants whose statuses hadn’t changed. All four joints retained their stars; Parish Barbecue, in Austin, received a Bib Gourmand; and J-Bar-M Barbecue, in Houston, and Reese Bros Barbecue, in San Antonio, were added to the recommended list. It was thrilling to see Chuck Charnichart of Barbs B Q, in Lockhart (whose geographic eligibility was questioned by Michelin in 2024), take the stage to accept the Young Chef Award.
When it came to this year’s announcements, Michelin mailed it in. Technically, it was an email from Michelin North America’s public relations Manager, sent two Thursdays ago at 8:32 a.m. central time. Chefs and pitmasters got to bask only in the glow of their phone screens as congratulatory texts and calls came through. The changes were striking but minimal, and the best barbecue joint in Texas somehow came up short again.
After two jaw-droppingly great meals earlier this year at Burnt Bean Co., in Seguin, I knew co-owners Ernest Servantes and Dave Kirkland would be disappointed if they didn’t receive a Michelin star. (After the announcement, some questioned the eligibility of the joint, which is not located in a major city, but that was clarified in 2024.) I planned a trip for the day of the Michelin announcement, October 8, hoping to be one of the first to eat at a newly starred barbecue joint, but instead Burnt Bean received a third Bib Gourmand. Servantes was dejected. “It stings a little bit,” he said, downplaying the obvious disappointment.
Dish after dish that morning showed Servantes’s inventiveness and Kirkland’s consistent execution. A smoked turkey wing over rice was smothered in mole and topped with a charred pineapple salsa. Peach glaze coated the smoked confit duck leg on a bed of tasso-studded white beans evocative of cassoulet, and the pastrami beef cheek is the single best barbecue item I’ve eaten this year. It was a meal that outshined even the ones that got the restaurant the top spot in our latest Top 50 BBQ list. “I don’t know what else to do,” Servantes said. I didn’t have any answers.
The identities of the Michelin inspectors are secret. Therefore, their coverage, methods, and experience are mysteries. Michelin bills this as a strength of its system, but it leaves the public and the chefs in the dark about the process while shielding reviewers from accountability. If a restaurant is left off The New York Times’s “100 Best Restaurants in New York City” list, chefs can ask its authors how they can improve. I field plenty of texts and calls asking why certain barbecue joints were left off of our Top 50, and I’m inclined to offer feedback when asked by an owner or pitmaster. Michelin simply asks that you trust the organization and its anonymous inspectors.
That trust was called into question recently by D Magazine’s Brian Reinhart, who accused the inspector(s?) of using AI to write the new reviews for recognized restaurants in Dallas. (Michelin denies this.) If 150 or so original words are too much effort, can we trust that they have adequately covered the restaurants? It’s possible that return trips to Seguin weren’t a priority, just as it’s possible that the inspectors didn’t get a similar experience to the three meals I had this year. We’ll never know.
Michelin may have chosen to limit the number of starred barbecue joints in Texas to four. Goldee’s Barbecue, in Fort Worth, moved up this year from a Bib Gourmand to a well-deserved star, while La Barbecue lost its star and was instead given recommended status. It’s easy to argue that customers don’t pay any attention to Michelin, but the day after the announcement, Goldee’s co-owner Zain Shafi told me, “it definitely got a lot busier.” Michelin’s opinion also means plenty to the chefs involved.
Ali Clem.Photograph by Daniel Vaughn
“Sometimes things are missed, and that’s just life,” La Barbecue owner Ali Clem told me. She was still wounded by the demotion when we spoke. Getting the star from Michelin in 2024 and 2025 launched the demand for her presence at international barbecue festivals, and that meant being gone from the restaurant for long stretches. “I’ve cooked brisket all over the world,” Clem said. She wonders whether her absence caused the slip, but she remains thankful for the opportunities a Michelin star provided. “I’m extremely grateful to have [had] it for two years,” she said. “That’s something that people work their entire lives for and don’t achieve.”
I visited La Barbecue for lunch the week after the announcement, and there was still a line of people waiting. I didn’t see any difference in my recent meal from the one two years before; in fact, the pork ribs were better this time. If it’s any consolation to Clem, being on the recommended list puts La Barbecue in the same category as Reese Bros Barbecue and 2M Smokehouse, both in San Antonio. I enjoyed phenomenal meals at both the same day as my October 8 Burnt Bean excursion.
The Michelin announcement wasn’t all bad news for Texas barbecue. As I mentioned, Goldee’s earned a star, though it’s still waiting for the chef’s coat that honorees receive. Shafi said the restaurant borrowed a mobile thousand-gallon smoker to meet the increased demand. “We’re pretty much maxing out what we can,” he said.
Houston’s Khói Barbecue was also new to the guide. “It’s really an honor for the team,” co-owner Don Nguyen said of its Bib Gourmand, but “it put us in the weeds immediately.” During the first weekend after the announcement, Nguyen didn’t have time to greet new customers in the dining room. “I was in the back the whole time getting my butt kicked for four hours straight,” he said, adding that these were “good problems.”
The only other changes for barbecue in Texas this year were that Michelin replaced Brisket & Rice, in Houston, with Levant BBQ, also in Houston, on its list of recommended restaurants and knocked Barbecue Station, in San Antonio, off the recommended list. If this is really where Michelin leaves Texas, that means the final star tally for Texas barbecue joints is 4; 18 have Bib Gourmands, and 9 are in the recommended category. That’s 31 barbecue joints out of the 149 restaurants Michelin recognized in Texas in 2026. La Barbecue will always have the distinction of being in the first group of American barbecue joints to ever receive a Michelin star—and the first restaurant in Texas to be demoted. “I guess I made history for that too,” Clem joked.
Burnt Bean is still trying to make history. “We’re driven to excellence, and we’re not going to back down,” Servantes said. He admits that some of the boundaries they’re pushing are meant to draw Michelin’s attention, “but at the same time, look how Texas is evolving in barbecue,” he said. From my perspective, Burnt Bean is one of the restaurants setting the standard. Despite that, Servantes said, “At the end of the day, I don’t think we’ll ever get [a star].” If Texas and its five largest cities choose not to pay for another contract, he may be right, and that’s a burn the Bean doesn’t deserve.
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