'High expectations': Lockhart's Barbs B Q reflects on successes as prestigious rankings revealed ...Middle East

In Texas’ state-designated BBQ capital, two legendary Lockhart families run the town’s most iconic barbecue joints as a rising star joins the scene — and all vie for coveted spots on the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ list. Explore our project online now and watch the documentary June 5 at 7 p.m. on the KXAN+ smart TV app.

LOCKHART, Texas (KXAN) — A popular Lockhart restaurant is anticipated to land on one of Texas barbecue’s most prestigious lists after generating chatter in the industry for years. 

Barbs B Q, led by Chuck Charnichart, a South Texas native and University of Texas alumna, is known for its modern twist on barbecue and integration of flavors from the Rio Grande Valley.

It's expected that the restaurant will rank on the 2025 edition of Texas Monthly's Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints, which only comes out every four years. It's set to be released Tuesday.

We spoke with Charnichart in summer 2024, about a year after Barbs B Q opened its doors, to learn how the joint was started. She said barbecue and owning a restaurant weren’t her original plans. 

While attending UT Austin, she worked at the famous Franklin Barbecue, where she got her first taste of the industry. While working there in 2017, Texas Monthly named Franklin the No. 1 barbecue joint in the state.

Charnichart graduated during the pandemic and had a choice to make.

“I had to make a tough decision of, should I pursue my technical career, which was going to be somewhat AI design, or should I pursue this thing that keeps scratching my brain,” she said.

She ended up joining the Goldee’s BBQ team near Fort Worth after graduating. During her time there, Goldee’s BBQ was also named the No. 1 barbecue joint on Texas Monthly’s 2021 list. Charnichart described their staff as supportive, pushing her to do her own thing. 

“I think with me, they just saw that I was deeply in it and such a nerd about it,” Charnichart said.

While hosting a few pop-up events to serve her barbecue, she found Lockhart — the Barbecue Capital of Texas — to be open and welcoming, leading her to acquire Barbs B Q’s future building right on the town square.

‘High expectations from the start’

Barbs B Q opened in May 2023. Just two months later, the New York Times named it one of the best Texas barbecue restaurants of the new generation. The restaurant is Michelin Guide-recommended and was a 2024 James Beard Award nominee. 

Barbs has also been on Texas Monthly’s radar since it opened, getting a feature article in July 2023 and ranking on the magazine's "25 Best New and Improved BBQ Joints in Texas" list in September 2023.

“They had to deal with those high expectations from the start without really any sort of runway to get things going and to get comfortable,” Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn told KXAN during a September 2024 interview.

Something that also drew media attention is that Barbs is run by almost all women. Charnichart said this dynamic helps them openly learn from their mistakes and push each other. 

“The typical pitmaster five, eight years ago was just like an older, 30 to 40-year-old man, real big, real tattooed, and just like real, real macho,” Charnichart said. “Now it's very different.” 

Mom’s (green) spaghetti 

Charnichart's upbringing in the Rio Grande Valley inspired her to incorporate nontraditional menu items and flavors into her barbecue, most apparent in the molotov pork ribs and signature side dish of green spaghetti. 

Fire-roasted poblanos, some jalapeños, dairy and spices intermingle to become a “slurpable green sauce with noodles” — her mom’s recipe. 

“When I realized that it wasn't a common dish in Central Texas or just in general outside of the Valley, outside of Mexico… I was just so lucky and just so perfect that no one had really put that on their barbecue menu yet,” Charnichart said. 

Growing up, Charnichart said they had weekly family cookouts, complete with carne asada tacos, sausage, Mexican rice, charro beans, guacamole, different salsas and more. She knew she wanted those “inviting, comforting flavors, a little spicy, a little acidic” at Barbs.

“I think Barbs really symbolizes modern Texas barbecue and a new way of looking at barbecue,” Vaughn said. 

‘Push above and beyond’

Not only does the Rio Grande Valley inspire Barbs B Q’s menu and flavors, but it’s also shaped Charnichart's mindset as a young business owner in her late 20s. 

“I know people in the Valley are nurtured from very young to work really hard, because a lot of the population there are first generation, and we sort of have this collective mentality to push above and beyond,” Charnichart said. 

Her parents moved from Mexico to the U.S. in the late 90s, working minimum wage jobs to support a family of four, according to Charnichart. She said being the first person in her family to be born in the U.S. gave her a deeper perspective, since she didn’t have as many barriers as other family members. 

“Being the first one born here sort of established another layer of realizing that I have an advantage over my sisters to make something bigger, because my sisters were restricted in everything that they did,” Charnichart explained. 

Now, she said she’s able to share her successes with her whole family, including her mom and dad. 

“It starts off with them and helping them have a nice, happy life because they spent their life trying to make ours livable,” Charnichart said.

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