The Upside to the Barbecue Bubble

Featured

Aug 22

You are probably already aware that we are experiencing a barbecue craze. Once a regional food, barbecue is appearing everywhere. Everyone has opinions about brisket rubs, and pitmasters like Rodney Scott have won the prestigious James Beard award. You can even find a Barbecue Michelin Guide. Barbecue might still be best in run-down roadside spots, but now many of those spots have lines and the food they serve has become increasingly popular nationwide.

This barbecue craze is probably best considered a bubble. Barbecue is objectively great and will continue to be so, but how many barbecue restaurants can be sustained per capita in a normal year? Texas Monthly has warned that the bursting bubble is already making it hard for some great restaurants to make a profit. Smokers will not be selling like this in five years. But even if it is a bubble, this barbecue craze is a very good cultural phenomenon. It is generating the kind of organic patriotism we can all use and that we might call “barbecue patriotism.”

In his essay “Notes on Nationalism,” George Orwell described patriotism as “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people.” There was a time when the hot new chefs and the best new restaurants were all about French cuisine. There was a time when everything was sushi. The embrace of barbecue, something distinctly American, is hopeful. Yes, “Korean barbecue” is good, but the barbecue you are thinking about when you pass a smoker on the side of the road is American food. To love barbecue is to be devoted to this place, this way of life.

Barbecue is at the heart of our American heritage. One theme in Joseph R. Haynes’s 2003 book, From Barbycu to Barbecue,is disproving the “Caribbean Origins Theory.” As much as the American and Caribbean colonies were linked, barbecue was not imported to the North American continent. Using extensive primary and secondary sources, Haynes explores its beginnings, the earliest methods of barbecuing, and the linguistic origins of its terms. Not only is barbecue from here, it has even been part of our political culture for a long time. Robert Moss’s Barbecue: The History of an American Institution (2010) describes how barbecue and free drinks were part of politics in the rough and tumble frontier days. Candidates gave out cider and slow-cooked meat while they gave their persuasive speeches. Barbecue and voter turnout go hand in hand.

Barbecue patriotism is one which can reckon with the past and its complicated history. The best pitmasters of the antebellum years were typically enslaved people. They prepared the food for parties celebrated on plantations—a barbecue was a major social event. Enjoying barbecue was not limited to slaveholders, but the huge parties with impressive numbers of cooked animals were best financed by those with means. Barbecue’s history reflects the ways in which expertise arises from everywhere in our past and the ways in which the best things in America connect more than one group. Barbecue was not, and did not become, the food only of the enslaved or of the slaveholders. Barbecue may have tangled origins, but today it is everyone’s food, continuing to cross racial and socioeconomic lines.

Barbecue patriotism makes space for local, regional, and national affiliations. Barbecue is notoriously regional. Do you like “Carolina style?” “Kansas City style?” “Texas style?” Does it have to be pork? Can it be smoked? Can it be turkey? Sauce or no sauce? Sweet sauce? These are serious, but also good-natured debates. Celebrating barbecue is celebrating our American heritage in all its glory—full of regional differences and variations. Some of us like Brunswick stew, some of us prefer bread pudding to banana pudding, but true barbecue patriots all understand the difference between a barbecue and a cookout. Barbecue is not the same everywhere, but there is a shared culinary language. Americans are not the same everywhere, but we have a shared culture. Barbecue can help us see that.

This barbecue bubble has not just helped barbecue books and seasonings sell, it has brought certain Americans into the public eye. A good example is Tootsie Tomanetz. Tootsie is a janitor who is also an incredibly hardworking pitmaster for Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas. She has been working in barbecue for a long time, but she was an obscure figure until a few years ago. She has a Wikipedia page now. People who go to Snow’s will often try to get a picture with her. Yeti made a video about her, because she represents “hard work and dedication.” In fact, Tootsie represents many of the best virtues to build a nation on. She understands vocation, appreciates effort, cares about her community, and works for more than money. She isn’t famous for being rich or beautiful, or famous for being famous, she is famous for being good and being good at what she does. This is exactly the kind of American whose name we should know and whose example we should emulate.

Consider some of the other people and restaurants elevated by the barbecue bubble. Rodney Scott is a South Carolina pitmaster who does whole hog barbecue. In his case, he is keeping alive a family tradition. He even goes out and finds the trees that become his charcoal. What could better demonstrate an appreciation of our past and our traditions? Even some of the newer barbecue places represent great aspects of American culture. Goldee’s, in Texas, is one of the newer hot spots in the country. It is owned and run by a group of friends. What would be a better example of the power of community and the ways in which personal connections undergird our civil society? Some purists might have some doubts, but KG BBQ, with its Texas style under Egyptian influence, represents the best aspects of immigration and cultural diversity in our country. Kareem El-Ghayesh enjoyed his first taste of brisket so much that he moved here from Egypt to pursue barbecue. This is devotion to a particular craft and to a particular place.

Barbecue cultivates virtue in those who appreciate it. To do it right takes time. The best places spend more days prepping than they spend days open. Even purchasing some of the best barbecue can take time and effort. At a place like Goldee’s, which is only open three days a week, people will line up hours before opening to wait for a chance to buy some brisket. Everything sells out. Snow’s is only open one day a week. Those who pursue the best barbecue are conditioned to put in time and effort for things that matter. Real barbecue patriots are not fair weather.

Even at-home barbecue embodies values we can associate with a healthy citizenry. Cooking barbecue is an investment of time and money. Have you priced a brisket lately? Have you timed a brisket lately? But where does that time and money go? Often it is spent at home, with family and/or friends, maybe with a beer, and definitely with some smoke—it is all about the virtues of the hearth. A brisket can and will feed quite a few of your family and friends, because barbecue is made to be shared. Barbecue reinforces the bonds of family and community and helps cultivate hospitality. Even if at-home pitmasters don’t all reach the level of expert, they all elevate the standard of living.

The current craze for barbecue will slow down. We cannot expect new barbecue and country music festivals every year. Some of you will stop buying up Meat Church seasonings monthly. But this is a wave worth riding. Barbecue doesn’t just represent culinary excellence, it reflects our American history. The people and practices associated with barbecue reinforce the virtues of a healthy citizenry. Barbecue patriotism is an authentic way of being devoted to our country and its way of life. Some people would prefer to argue over statues or rant about politics. But you can practice patriotism by being a patron at places that do more than stand for or against a piece of marble, places that keep our traditions alive, places that respect our complicated past and our regional differences, places that value hard work and heritage and portions that can be served “family style.” You really can turn down the television, turn down the temperature, turn up the smoke, and practice the patriotism with the best flavors.