3 Tennessee restaurants are among the ‘Top 100 Barbecue Spots’ in America, according to Yelp

(NEXSTAR) – Americans are suckers for meats we barely need to chew.

Whether it’s a succulent pile of pulled pork, a slice of melt-in-your-mouth brisket, or a bite of falling-off-the-bone ribs, Americans love a great plate of tender barbecued meats that — if necessary — we could tear apart with a fork and gum down our throats.

To that end, the analysts at Yelp have attempted to determine the “Top 100 Barbecue Spots” in the country, based largely on the ratings and reviews of its online community.

Perhaps as expected, many of this year’s entries are located in the South, though a fair share are scattered throughout the rest of the country. Texas boasted the most “top” barbecue joints in Yelp’s rankings with 12 in the Lone Star State alone, followed by 10 in California, eight in Florida, seven in Missouri, and seven in Arizona. The Carolinas didn’t do too shabbily either, with 10 restaurants on the list between both states. Meanwhile, Tennessee snagged three of the top 100 spots, with Delauders BBQ in Gatlinburg, Peg Leg Porker in Nashville, and Elwood’s Shack in Memphis.

The best-reviewed restaurant in the whole country, meanwhile, was determined by Yelp to be Wright’s Barbecue, an Arkansas joint with four locations in the northwest corner of the state.

“I have not had anything from this place that wasn’t top tier food,” one local Yelp user wrote in a recent five-star review.

Curious to check out other options for melt-in-your-mouth-though-not-quite-mushy meats? Take a look at Yelp’s 25 best-reviewed barbecue joints below, then head over to Yelp’s official site for the complete list of all 100 ranked restaurants.

1. Wright’s Barbecue – Johnson, Arkansas
2. Eric’s Family Barbecue – Avondale, Arizona
3. CorkScrew BBQ – Spring, Texas
4. Tyler’s Barbecue – Amarillo, Texas
5. Fox Smokehouse BBQ – Boulder City, Nevada
6. Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que – Kansas City, Kansas
7. Haywood Smokehouse – Waynesville, North Carolina
8. Firehole Bar-B-Que – West Yellowstone, Montana
9. Hot Spot Barbecue – Pensacola, Florida
10. Delauders BBQ – Gatlinburg, Tennessee
11. 888 Japanese BBQ – Las Vegas, Nevada
12. City Butcher and Barbecue – Springfield, Missouri
13. Bogart’s Smokehouse – St. Louis, Missouri
14. Miller’s Smokehouse – Belton, Texas
15. Q39 Midtown – Kansas City, Missouri
16. Tender Smokehouse – Celina, Texas
17. Calhoun’s Texas Barbecue – Murrieta, California
18. Badlands BBQ – Norco, California
19. Buckboard’s Barbecue & Brew – El Cajon, California
20. Little Miss BBQ-Sunnyslope – Phoenix, Arizona
21. Heritage Barbecue – San Juan Capistrano, California
22. Mad Jack’s Mountaintop Barbecue – Cloudcroft, New Mexico
23. Federal Hill Smokehouse – Erie, Pennsylvania
24. Watson’s BBQ – Tucumcari, New Mexico
25. PorChop & Bubba’s BBQ – Bakersfield, California

In compiling its 2024 list of the “Top 100 Barbecue Spots,” Yelp’s team limited its rankings to restaurants within the platform’s “barbecue” category, concentrating on those with reviews that frequently mentioned the word “barbecue” specifically. These eateries were then ranked based on criteria including each restaurant’s Yelp ratings and volume of reviews. Yelp’s analysts also limited the number of list entries per state to 12 for purposes of “geographic diversity,” a spokesperson for Yelp confirmed to News 2’s parent company, Nexstar.

More information, including a handy map displaying the location of all 100 restaurants, can be found at Yelp.

Editor’s Note: The full list of the 100 top barbecue spots on Yelp’s website included Elwood’s Shack in Memphis as No. 100, but for an unknown reason, the map displaying the top 100 restaurants does not include Elwood’s Shack.

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