#1 FLORES BARBECUE - BBQ Blooms in Small Town Texas

UPDATE: 1/24/19 Flores Barbecue announced it will be closing its Whitney restaurant to open a new location in Ft. Worth. More details to come.

Small town Texans know how to find the best BBQ in Texas.  Maybe it's because their options tend to be dominated by Dairy Queens and convenience stores, but when they find a keeper, they quickly make it their own.  If you see pickup trucks of every shape and size parked shoulder to shoulder in a restaurant parking lot, you know you need to stop in.


Based on the number of pickups claiming every inch of available dirt outside, Flores Barbecue is very, very popular. 

Flores Barbecue is in Whitney, Texas, population 2,087, give or take a few people.  The owner, Michael Wyont, got his start selling BBQ from a trailer in San Marcos.  It was a challenging market, so when he moved his family to Whitney he set up his trailer again.  Flores Barbecue is now so popular they've outgrown the trailer and moved into new digs. 

Flores Barbecue's new place...not a trailer

Inside Flores Barbecue...and a peek inside my teenage bedroom.

Besides terrific BBQ, there are a few words that come to mind when I think of Flores Barbecue.

Unpretentious.  Laid back.  Paneled. 

In fact, the walls of Flores have enough wood paneling to build an ark.  What is it with wood paneling anyway?  My parents live south of Dallas in a house where wood paneling was the dominant décor.  If anyone asked what the color of our interior was, my reply would be, "Wood."

I'm waiting for an industrious pitmaster to find a way to use vintage wood paneling to smoke brisket. There's an unlimited supply of it in Texas, and I'm sure the taste of smoked varnish and sepia-toned memories of the 70s would be a welcome addition to every plate.

But I digress.
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2-meat plate with beans and potato salad

Wyont has hired some people to help him out and on the day I was there they were working out the kinks. Admittedly, the service was pretty kinky -- the line was long, the check out was slow -- but this can be excused.  Wyont is in the early stages of making BBQ a full-time job, and that's awesome and admirable. He is living the dream of every red-blooded American male who wants to open a bar, or a brewery, or an honest-to-goodness BBQ joint.

The brisket and sausage were outstanding.  The brisket was very moist with a good bark, top notch 'cue although the bark didn't bite enough for my taste.  The jalapeno cheese sausage was the star on my plate...lean and juicy, spiced just right.  Should have bought a whole link but the line was too long...order disorder had reared its ugly head.

After my meal, I went outside to hang with the boys in the smoking lounge. Big piles of wood and huge smokers fire me up.  So do creative uses of large tanks like the one below.

Thanks for the great grub, Flores Barbecue, and thanks Whitney, TX for letting me bump up your population for a few hours. Well worth the trip.