One charming barbecue joint about an hour from San Antonio has done it once again, this time making one of the top editorial lists a U.S. eatery can make: Bon Appétit's 20 Best New Restaurants list.

Barbs B Q in Lockhart, 30 miles from Austin, was the only Texas restaurant to clinch a spot, but not the only one specializing on the smoker. It joins King Barbecue in North Charleston, South Carolina. The list was very international, and especially contains nods to Asian cuisines.

However, Barbs was the only spot credited with pushing its entire genre forward in its introduction: "Sticky ribs, green spaghetti, and barbecue’s next wave."

This spot garnered huge amounts of attention right away when it opened in May 2023. (For those who could swear it's been open for longer...we see you.) Most restaurants would not strive to be called cute, but Barbs' branding centers around a red-and-pink color scheme, heart motifs, and assorted silliness. Still, the food speaks for itself, and almost immediately landed on some very serious lists including ones by Southern Living, Texas Monthly, and the New York Times.

As the teaser suggests, one of Barbs' strongest suits is an innovative menu, which includes the lime-forward "Molotov Pork Ribs," fajita sausage, lamb chops, and vegan sandwiches. This short write-up by Elazar Sontag appreciates the youthfulness not just of the brand, but of the prodigious pitmaster. In fact, she receives the "Chef of the Moment" badge, which only goes to one honoree on the list.

"There’s excitement as people sit on coolers and discuss the 26-year-old pitmaster who’s turned the barbecue world upside down," writes Sontag. "Fresh out of college and working at Goldee’s in Fort Worth, Chuck Charnichart earned a reputation as perhaps the finest brisket cook in Texas. At Barbs B Q, whose cheeky name is inspired by Nicki Minaj’s fanbase (“the Barbz”), Charnichart goes beyond that classic cut and adopts an irreverent style shaped by pop culture, her Mexican-American upbringing, and the flavors of South Texas."

Sontag also calls out the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-inspired sticky pork ribs and attributes the "herby" spaghetti to the Rio Grande Valley. "Where traditionalists zig, Charnichart zags and this state’s barbecue is better for it," he writes.

These words were partially excerpted from a story called "This 26-Year-Old Pitmaster Is Reshaping Texas Barbecue," which was first published in August 2024 and is linked in the September list. Bon Appetít also pointed readers to a recipe from Barbs B Que: a Pineapple Upside Down Cobbler using crushed pineapple and sour cherries.

Although San Antonio's barbecue joints are widely lauded, it looks like they'll have to keep waiting for their chance in the spotlight. Whereas Austin restaurants have far and away been celebrated the most — Este in 2023, Canje in 2022, and favorites that have made the nominees list or better going back at least a decade — San Antonio representatives are few and far between. Reese Bros Barbecue and San Antonio's Carnitas Lonjas (which closed in 2023), made the longer nominee lists in 2022 and 2018, respectively, but neither made the cut for the top 10.

The full list from around the country is available at bonappetit.com. You do not need to be a subscriber to see the list.