A Texas barbecue joint received $1 million in funding after securing a PPP loan. The restaurant is Joshua Argires’ Texas Barbecue, but the problem is that there’s no restaurant and no barbecue—and Argires might be going to jail.

Eater Austin talked with Miguel and Modesty Vidal of Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ to see how they’ve been faring in South Austin. The husband-and-wife team said that although sales are down by about a quarter, strong to-go sales have kept them afloat.

Pitmaster Derrick Walker, of Fort Worth’s Smoke-A-Holics BBQ, spoke with The Manual about his signature “Tex-Soul” style and the challenges of being a Black pitmaster. “There are so many African American pitmasters out there who don’t get the kind of press or attention they deserve,” he said.  ” … But you know, to me, I’m just a guy who cooks barbecue who happens to be African American.”

The Houston Chronicle‘s J.C. Reid explored the role of German immigrant Hugo Prove in Texas barbecue history:

Skeeter Miller, owner of Austin’s County Line BBQ, “is throwing his support behind an early draft of a bill which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ Texans in housing, employment, and public spaces.”

All is not well at the Turkey Leg Hut:

Author Robert F. Moss is revising and expanding his 2010 book, Barbecue: The History of an American Institution.

Grillmaster Steven Raichlen promises that “great ribs are surprisingly easy to make at home,” and he shares a recipe with the New York Times.

Hutchins BBQ shared some brisket tips with Texas Highways:

Would you like to make Cattleack Barbeque’s red cabbage slaw? D Magazine has the recipe.

The Advocate offers some solid barbecue joint suggestions in Dallas’s Lakewood neighborhood.

The Acres Homes neighborhood in Houston “has had an outsized influence on Houston’s contemporary barbecue scene,” writes J.C. Reid.

Writing in the Dallas Morning News, Nancy Baldwin reports that Hirsch’s Specialty Meats—Plano’s old-school butcher shop since 1992—is “thriving” during the pandemic.

The Texas restaurants you love are in danger:

Smoke BBQ restaurant in San Antonio closed its downtown location in late July, but it has reopened and is selling barbecue family packs from a new address.

New Braunfels Smokehouse will close its only restaurant permanently on Friday, but the production facility will continue to operate, and products will still be available via mail order.

After the death of Ronnie Hannah, owner of Hannah’s BBQ in Pottsboro, the food truck has found a new owner in Chris Mitchell.

Mark Gabrick has closed his Austin barbecue trailer and is now launching Texas Tang, a barbecue sauce line.

A viral tweet shows chef Eyad Abu Alhasan, who works at the Upper Galilee Butcher Shop in Kfar Qasim, Israel, shredding some extremely tender brisket:

https://twitter.com/cptnrawrpnts/status/1286102193741979649

Carlos Rosas, manager of Calumet Fisheries, an incredible smoked fish shop on the Far South Side of Chicago, has died at 41 after a fight with COVID-19.

The Wall Street Journal presents its A-Z guide to barbecue in America. Do you recognize those links?

Kansas City is enjoying yet another Texas-style barbecue joint. Chef J BBQ opened in the West Bottoms neighborhood in February.

A new line of barbecue sauces comes from an old recipe. Eudell Watts IV created the Old Arthur’s Barbecue Co. from recipes his great-great-grandfather Arthur Watts developed as an enslaved barbecue cook.

There’s a little part of us all that wishes this really happened: