Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

I am standing atop an eighty-foot-tall synthetic lung made of metal and plastic. In its scale and ambition, it’s unlike anything else in Texas, or the Western Hemisphere, for that matter. Its existence leads me to feel something rare in the world of energy and climate: optimism.The machine is a key component of Occidental Petroleum’s nearly complete $1.3 billion direct air capture facility called Stratos. When it’s turned on, in mid-2025, it will suck in industrial mouthfuls of air and strip out the carbon dioxide. That gas, a driving force behind climate change, will get diverted into pipelines and then pumped some five thousand feet into the earth to be buried within porous rocks. The transformed air it exhales into the atmosphere will have as…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The name David Zychek is likely not a familiar one to the world at large. For denizens of the Central Texas music scene, however—especially those who were around from the seventies to the nineties and even beyond—Zychek is synonymous with raucous electric guitar. And though the rock and roll hero died a mostly unsung legend of the genre eight years ago at the age of 64, a new documentary film by two fellow Wacoans aims to ensure that his legacy will live on.Z: The Story of David Zychek, by Anna and Troy Shaw, offers a celebration of Zychek’s life by shining a deserving spotlight on the virtuosic talents he possessed with the guitar, but also by giving a nod to his lasting impact on the…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Ronnie Dunn’s name doesn’t always get to shine on its own. It’s usually trailing that of his longtime bandmate Kix Brooks. As Brooks & Dunn, the two men make up one of country music’s most iconic duos. They’ve sold tens of millions of records, released twenty number one singles, and racked up dozens of Grammy, Country Music Association, and Academy of Country Music awards since they joined forces in the early nineties. Their 1992 single “Neon Moon,” which Dunn penned on his own, is often cited as one of the best country songs of all time.  Dunn was born in Coleman, a small town about an hour southeast of Abilene, and moved around frequently as a kid before graduating from high school in Port Isabel.…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

In the seventeenth century, the government of New Spain established a network of trails based on Indigenous trade routes that it called El Camino Real de los Tejanos, in part to prevent the French from moving beyond Louisiana’s western border. But the French have finally succeeded in invading Texas, and they’ve brought with them their opinions on our dining scene.On July 16 Michelin, the French tire company whose restaurant guides are vaunted the world over, announced it was coming to the Lone Star State. At that point, its anonymous inspectors were already on the ground eating in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio, and, as Michelin’s press release stated, they were as interested in evaluating barbecue, seafood, and Tex-Mex restaurants as they were…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

The only American-style barbecue joints in the world with a Michelin star are in Texas. CorkScrew BBQ, in Spring, and Interstellar BBQ, La Barbecue, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, all in Austin, each received a star during the Michelin Guide’s inaugural Texas awards ceremony held at the 713 Music Hall in Houston last night. In addition to these four joints, 24 barbecue restaurants were recognized in other categories, including Michelin recommended and Bib Gourmand.The Michelin organizers sprinkled in some drama during their onstage announcements. Emcees Java Ingram and Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, called the restaurant names alphabetically as they were awarded, causing some pitmasters in the crowd to think they were being skipped over. “I thought I was going home without anything,”…

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