This week on This Week in Barbecue, Rasheed Philips and James Welch are back with hot news, hotter takes, and a full plate of barbecue business, food safety, and culture.

The episode starts with National Moon Day, then moves quickly into the Taco Bell and Taylor Farms lettuce outbreak, why Rasheed is washing every green himself, and the internet’s reaction to seeing beef priced at $24.99 per pound. The guys also talk about rising food costs, buying whole animals, GLP-1 medications, protein snacks, and why everything from Doritos to coffee is suddenly chasing the protein wave.

From there, they get into Miller Smokehouse receiving a $50,000 grant after fire damage, the OC Smoke Show, Food Network’s Pitmasters, cooking at elevation, and whether H-E-B’s True Texas Barbecue or Buc-ee’s brisket sandwiches count as real barbecue. The episode wraps with a look at Zavala’s running 30 straight days during the World Cup, what it says about leadership, and how barbecue businesses can take advantage when the world shows up hungry.

Listen now for barbecue news, restaurant insight, food culture, event talk, and the kind of honest conversation that keeps the smoke moving.

In this episode of This Week in Barbecue, Rasheed Philips and James Welch cover a wild mix of barbecue news, culture, business, and food-world questions. The show starts with National Mac and Cheese Day and National Nude Day before Rasheed recaps cooking live fire at Windy City Smokeout in Chicago, including jerk chicken, bourbon jerk lamb chops, outside skirt steak with jerk chimichurri, and a memorable meal with Blake at Monteverde.

The episode closes with a deeper conversation on authenticity in barbecue. Is culturally driven barbecue really a “third wave,” or is this the Sazón Era? Rasheed and James discuss Egyptian, Thai, Chinese, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Czech, German, and Southern influences, and why the barbecue platter may be one of the most culturally diverse dishes in America.

Join us as we celebrate National Social Media Day and explore its impact on the barbecue community, from building connections to market opportunities. We also dive into current industry news, health tips for Pitmasters, and hot takes on grilling essentials. Bryan also opens up about a tough month of health issues, dehydration, lack of sleep, and the reality of pushing too hard in the barbecue business.

This week’s episode looks at barbecue in motion: Ribby’s temporarily closing in Fort Worth, Broad Street Barbecue making a smart early move during World Cup traffic in Atlanta, Rodney Scott’s name being protected from lazy “comeback” narratives, and the business lessons behind how events and brands treat the talent they rely on. We also get into Missfits’ to-go strategy, the debate over limiting special menu items, the new wave of barbecue shows, and why TV, social clips, cookbooks, and self-produced series are changing who gets to tell barbecue’s story.

A clean Five Guys bag might be one of the clearest signs of where the food economy is headed. In this week’s conversation, we get into spoiled meat, grocery packages coming in underweight, and why independent barbecue restaurants get punished for the same price increases customers accept from major corporations. We also break down how one YouTube feature created an overnight rush for Misfits Barbecue, why a viral moment does not instantly create more smoker capacity, and how preorders, shoulder clod, burgers, skewers, and smarter menu planning may help barbecue businesses survive the rising cost of brisket.

We started this episode arguing about bathroom etiquette and ended up exactly where we needed to be: who gets credit in food culture, how private equity “steps on” the products you love, why scams and AI deepfakes are making trust expensive, and why small businesses get attacked for price increases while corporations get praised for layoffs. Then I break down why I pulled out of the Rocky Mountain Barbecue Classic after deposit issues, why unqualified voices keep getting platformed in barbecue commentary, whether Ozempic and GLP-1s are impacting restaurant traffic, and why shrinkflation has people shopping with their own scales.

Al Frugoni is bringing the Open Fire Meetup and the Open Fire World Championship to Memphis in May, and it’s bigger than most people realize. This episode breaks down how Open Fire started as a small influencer cook in 2021 and turned into a movement that now unites pitmasters, competition legends, and fans around live flame. We talk why open fire feels different, how the competition sold out fast, the rigs and whole-animal cooks coming to Memphis, and why you should grab your ticket early if you want to see something Memphis has never seen before.

This episode features Tiffani Perry discussing the upcoming Memphis in May barbecue event, highlighting new competitions, activities, and tips for attendees. It offers a comprehensive preview of the event's highlights, including the OpenFire World Championship, youth contests, international participation, and exclusive experiences.

We break down the full experience: over 200 teams coming into Memphis May 13–16, the VIP “red carpet” option, Kingsford Tour of Champions ticket rules, sauce wrestling, the Junior World Championship contest, Ireland as the honored country, and a multi-day scavenger hunt with prizes like grills, high-end gear, and more.

In this episode of This Week in Barbecue, Rasheed Philips and the crew break down the week in barbecue culture, food media, and the business side of what we all eat. We start with a wild Atlanta story, then get into cookbook season and the real question: do you actually have to cook to put your name on a cookbook?

From there, we unpack the changing economics of food, including “deal” meals that explode in price once delivery fees and marketplace fees hit, plus where services like DoorDash and Goldbelly fit into the conversation. We also talk Food Network’s latest barbecue news, brand optics, Traeger’s new Westwood series and “set it and forget it” tech, and the headline nobody saw coming: a three-year barbecue university program in China.

Hill City Chop House earned real recognition in Texas barbecue, but Dustin Martin made a decision most people fear: he closed the brick-and-mortar and went back to the trailer, catering, and private events. In this episode, we talk about why the economics of barbecue can make four walls feel like a trap, how a house fire pushed him into the restaurant lane in the first place, what the Texas Monthly list does and doesn’t change, and why success sometimes looks like sitting on the porch with your kids instead of chasing a dining room you can’t forecast.

"My advice: just do it. Make the jump." - Dustin Martin