From Fairhope to Fort Worth: a pilgrimage to Texas Monthly’s best barbecue joint
When a Fairhope writer decided his nephew in Fort Worth needed a visit rather than a phone call — some life conversations are better had across a table than down a line — the trip came with a built-in itinerary. Thai food, Italian, cowboy Chinese, taquerias. And, pinned to the list on a Post-It note from his brother-in-law: a barbecue joint. A little googling revealed the lunch plan was no casual stop. The place on the note was Goldee’s Bar-B-Q in Fort Worth, named the number one barbecue joint in Texas by Texas Monthly in 2021 — a title that draws pilgrims from across state lines to spend hours on a dusty parking lot porch.
They arrived at 9:32 the next morning, a comfortable margin before the 11 o’clock opening, behind a line already some forty deep. Navigation mishaps and road construction had cost a few minutes, a lesson in never trusting lunch plans to a mapping app. The wait is part of the experience. Goldee’s runs what regulars call the long-wait method: the meat is smoked the day and night before, rested long, and the customers wait even longer. That is why, oddly, there is almost no smoke in the morning air — the wood stacks are there, but the smoke comes later in the day, as a fellow traveler on a barbecue tour of America cheerfully explained.
The line as a social institution
Waiting at a destination barbecue joint is its own culture. Complimentary water — and on lucky days beer — sat in a cooler nearby. A wooden bin of beat-up camping chairs dared patrons to borrow them; the first arrivals, some of whom had camped out since the previous day, used them as makeshift beds against the wall. Conversations drifted up and down the line about smoke rings, bark texture, and first-timer status. Names of barbecue royalty were invoked. A man from Denver discussed a famous falling-out between two pitmasters. A traveler from Boston studied for a medical exam he had flown in to take, having come straight from the airport. He did not stop at the hotel. Regulars understand why.
Strategy talk intensified as the hour approached — order plans debated the way families debate Thanksgiving seating charts. A near-dispute over pork belly versus pork ribs was resolved, as most good food arguments are, with the healing power of “and.”
The order
At the counter, under a sign featuring a wiener dog and the words “No Meanies,” the plan of “let’s get everything” held almost completely. The haul: one pound of beef brisket served in equal portions of fatty and lean, a single beef rib, pork belly, pork ribs, all three of the day’s sausage selections, slaw, cheese grits, borracho beans, potato salad, banana pudding, and the shop’s homemade white bread. Only the pulled pork and turkey were skipped — a calculated omission by two men who knew their limits.
The verdict, delivered by text back home to friends in Fairhope before the platter was finished: hands-down the best barbecue ever tasted, and the best barbecue experience ever had. No joke intended.
What actually made the meal
Here is the part worth taking home to the Eastern Shore, and it is not about Texas. The best meal of the year was not really about the meat. It was about who was across the table — an uncle and a nephew, trading stories for hours in a parking lot line before breaking bread together over a famous lunch. The same uncle tradition that produced lake-house career advice and Christmas Eve phone calls now had a new chapter, written in brisket.
Back home in Fairhope, the lesson is simple enough to act on: the people who matter are worth a visit, not a call. And the call is worth making anyway, the same day, ideally with a plan for the next trip already taking shape.
Goldee’s Bar-B-Q is in Fort Worth, Texas, and remains, for line-waiting barbecue pilgrims, exactly what Texas Monthly said it was. For everyone else, there is a nephew, a niece, a sibling or an old friend within driving distance — and a conversation that should not wait for a holiday.