This Week In Barbecue

In this episode, we explore the vibrant community of barbecue, the importance of humility and camaraderie, and the future of barbecue culture. Join us as we share insights from a recent event that brought together legendary pit masters and enthusiasts.

This week on This Week in Barbecue, Rasheed Philips and James Welch are back with hot takes, hotter news, and a full plate of barbecue business, food culture, pricing debates, and craft talk.The episode opens with Rasheed reflecting on running his first 5K, why the treadmill lies, and what the experience taught him about doing the work for real. From there, the show moves into White Chocolate Day, rising chocolate prices, brisket bandits stealing half-cooked brisket from a church charity cook in Irving, Texas, and Butler’s Barbecue pulling brisket from the menu because raw brisket costs have climbed too high.Rasheed and James also talk about creative ways to stretch brisket, including brisket ragu, the controversy around boiled ribs, what actually makes barbecue barbecue, and why the word pitmaster gets thrown around too easily. They also get into DaBaby’s No Knife Kitchen and its $45 waffle plate, Fresh Eats with a Z selling six full hotel pans for $950, catering math, portion control, and the $65 DinoRito from Bussin Q Barbecue in San Antonio.The episode closes with Carey Bringle’s reminder that barbecue is not fast food, plus a real conversation about health, mindset, checking on your people, and why the barbecue community is better with you in it.Listen now for barbecue news, restaurant insight, food culture, business lessons, and honest conversation from behind the smoke.

This week on This Week in Barbecue, Rasheed Philips and James Welch are back with a packed episode covering football season catering, holiday barbecue packages, National Biscuits and Gravy Week, Pizza Hut nostalgia, AI food creators, restaurant pivots, and a live Oreo tasting that gets way more serious than expected.The episode opens with football season and why this is the moment for barbecue businesses, pop-ups, and caterers to start promoting game day trays, tailgate packages, holiday birds, and end-of-year catering. Rasheed and James talk about retainers, deposits, bulk pricing, forecasting product, and how to avoid coming out of pocket when booking large orders.They also get into smoked pulled pork sausage gravy, Pizza Hut’s Book It memories, Rasheed’s barbecue literacy idea called Cue It, a Girl Scout-related scam involving Two Guys One Pit Barbecue, and why SOPs matter when people pull on your heartstrings.From there, the conversation turns to AI in food content, fake creators, cloned social pages, AI-generated flyers, and the growing challenge of proving that real creators are actually real. Rasheed and James also discuss Terminus City Barbecue in Atlanta, a fine dining restaurant team pivoting into barbecue, and what that says about survival in the restaurant world.The episode closes with a hot take on criticism around the Masters of Smoke event, learning from people ahead of you, and a live tasting of deep fried Oreos, banana pudding Oreos, and chicken and waffle Oreos.Listen now for barbecue news, food culture, business lessons, creator talk, and honest conversation from behind the smoke.

The episode starts with National Eat Outside Day, a follow-up to the pineapple-on-banana-split debate, and a thank-you to listeners for helping the podcast cross 5,000 followers and reach around 30,000 monthly listens. From there, Rasheed and James react to a UK article criticizing barbecue smoke, a Char-Broil electric grill recall overseas, and Sweet Smoke Barbecue announcing that it will close at the end of the year.The conversation also covers what happens when customers show up after a restaurant has already decided to close, the emotional reality of grieving a business, America’s beef supply concerns, questions around meat quality and grading, Oreo Gate, Texas Monthly Barbecue Homecoming, the Masters of Smoke Tour, and whether a restaurant can recover from damaging online allegations.

Drought, high costs, herd reductions, plant closures, and questions over meat grades could shape the next era of barbecue.In this episode, we explore the evolving landscape of barbecue and food culture, the importance of business practices, and the impact of entertainment on traditional food experiences. Our guests share insights on industry challenges, community engagement, and innovative ideas to sustain and grow barbecue businesses.