la Barbecue among GQ's 25 Best Restaurants in America for 2014

People love "best" lists, and for food, there is never a shortage of them. GQ has just published its list of 25 Best Restaurants in America, 2014. Austin's la Barbecue made the cut, at #13. GQ writes,

13. La Barbecue
Austin, TX

Everything You've Heard About Texas BBQ, but Better
There are only two kinds of barbecue joints. One has been around forever and each time you visit you’re praying the pitmaster hasn’t retired and the meat gone all to hell. The other kind has just opened and you know in your heart it’s not as good as the old kind, even though everyone is talking about it. La Barbecue is the exception, new and as thrilling as Cowtown Rodeo.

It isn’t pretty, that’s for sure. It subscribes to the new school of barbecue aesthetic, which means it’s almost a dump. You enter a compound with a dirt floor and chain-link fencing,  pick up your food at a trailer, sit at a picnic table under what could be a second-hand revival tent, and hope the clouds overhead don’t spit cold rain on your ribs. All that’s missing is a junkyard dog. The barbeque is some of the best ever, as good as barbecue gets, maybe better if you’re talking brisket and beef sausage, the foundations of Texas barbecue.

That sausage, much like a knoblewurst and probably German in origin, is smoky, coarse, chewy, spicy and meaty, so good I nearly skipped the brisket, I was so full. That would have been heartbreaking. The brisket is so exquisite you can ask for it lean, usually a mistake, and it will come out soft and savory, not even close to dry. Get a slice on the fatty side and you’ll be asking yourself if this might be the greatest beef you ever ate.