Southern barbecue: This year’s top three

When it comes to picking the best barbecue throughout the South, “you have to go with your gut,” said Robert F. Moss in Southern Living. Two years after I last ranked a top 50, a newcomer has taken the No. 1 slot, pushing two established greats down one notch each. But change is to be expected. Every year, some old favorites close or lose their edge, and “there’s been no shortage of ambitious players entering the business and making a splash.”

City Limits Barbeque

West Columbia, South Carolina

The brisket, hot links, and beef ribs at this two-year-old weekend-only spot are “as good as any east of the Mississippi,” and City Limits “shines even brighter” when pitmaster Robbie Robinson focuses on such local treats as pork shoulders cooked “burn-barrel style.” While a “dizzying” array of contemporary fusions adds more joy, “what really pushes City Limits to the front of the pack are the Saturday spareribs.”

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Snow’s BBQ

Lexington, Texas

A visit to Snow’s is “an adventure no barbecue fan should miss.” Operating since 2003 and only on Saturdays, it opens at an “egregiously early” 8 a.m., creating hours-long queues. But free beer and Bloody Marys “take the edge off,” and you might glimpse 90-year-old pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz as you pass the open pit houses. “The payoff comes” when you reach a little red building and load up on brisket, spareribs, and “best of all, tender, juicy pork shoulder steaks with mahogany-hued bark.”

Fresh Air Bar-B-Que

Jackson, Georgia

In Georgia, chopped pork is the game, and “no restaurant better represents the state’s distinctive style” than this 96-year-old institution. Fresh hams are cooked over hickory and oak, and the finished pork is chopped into shreds and dressed in a “thin, tangy” red sauce.