THE RIB RUN

We gave brisket basically all our attention a few weeks back…

Matter of fact, everyone always seems to give brisket the bulk of their attention, don’t they?

But while the brisket boys spend their nights checking the flames instead of sleeping, the fun-loving rib crowd goes on in the daytime, having the best time making a meal that’s fun to both smoke and eat…

So today, it’s time to make the case for ribs. And not just any ribs… beef ribs.

The beef rib is bigger, meatier, and more forgiving than its pork cousin, and it happens to be built for exactly this stretch of the calendar.

Think about a nice long (but not too long) cook, cooler evenings, football on, a cold one sweating beside you. You can smoke one all day and barely lift a finger.

Before summer is officially dead, we think it’s time for a rib run for inspiration...

Lucky for all of us, Food Republic just went and ranked the 14 best beef rib joints in the country, and now we know where to go to inform our own recipes.

A FEW OF THE TOP PICKS…

  • Franklin Barbecue (Austin, TX). How are these guys the best at everything? They’re simply the gold standard. Aaron Franklin turned a 2009 roadside trailer into a place where people wait three-plus hours. Franklin’s beef ribs run Friday through Sunday only.

  • Louie Mueller (Taylor, TX). Open since 1949 and nicknamed the cathedral of smoke. Salt, pepper, hours of oak, and a two-pound rib they call a steak on a bone.

  • Hometown Bar-B-Que (Brooklyn, NY). Oak-smoked, dino-sized Jurassic ribs coming out of Red Hook and holding their own against anything down south despite their urban location.

  • Heritage Barbecue (San Juan Capistrano, CA). Started on a converted oil drum and now whips up some of the best Texas-style beef on the West Coast.

  • Jack Stack (Kansas City, MO). The KC pick, smoking over hickory since the late 1950s. Ask for the crown prime beef ribs, which one fan called the holy grail of barbecue. They will even ship them to you.

But there are plenty more where that came from.

What’s the best beef rib closest to you?

And now…

A challenge for the Dead Meat Society: We all know that brisket hogs the spotlight for pitmasters like us, but the beef rib is the staple that carries us from Labor Day into the first cold snap.

Find the spot nearest you, taste the bar you are aiming for, then go home and chase it.

The great rib awakening begins here…