The Best Barbecue in Longview, Texas

Texas Monthly put Sunbird on its Top 50 BBQ Joints list for 2025, two years after naming it to the Top 25 New BBQ Joints in 2023. That is the only statewide ranking any barbecue joint inside the Longview city limits currently holds.

Bryan Bingham, Kimmy Bingham and David Segovia opened it in 2021 and came up through Bodacious before going out on their own. They cook on an offset smoker with mesquite and oak. The trailer roved the Piney Woods for a couple of years before they landed the dining room on North High Street, which is why longtime residents still think of Sunbird as a pop-up.

Roland and Nancy Lindsey opened this building in 1968 and Roland ran it for 50 years until he died in 2018. Every other Bodacious in East Texas traces back to this address. Texas Time Travel lists it as a Texas Treasure Business, designated in 2022.

It has not been continuously open. Nancy closed the doors three times in the last decade rather than hand the pit to the wrong cook. Spencer Halling, who is married to her granddaughter Madilynne Lindsey-Halling, reopened it in June 2022, and Texas Monthly went back out to write that the original Bodacious is a gem again.

This building was a Bodacious in 1986. A new owner took it over in 1994 and renamed it Carter's, and the Longview News-Journal profiled it in 2012 under the line that the place promises fair portions and happiness. It is the barbecue winner in the Locals Love Us Longview guide.

It is a counter, a few tables and a short menu. The brisket sandwich and the meat plate are what the regulars order, and the portions are the reason people keep voting for it.

Boxcar is family owned and run, and the thing that separates it from the rest of this list is that the kitchen work does not stop at the smoker. The sides, the sauce and the desserts are made in house rather than bought in, which is not the norm at this price point.

It has been in the Texas Monthly restaurant directory since 2013 and it is a Locals Love Us barbecue winner alongside Carter's, so it has held its audience on the northwest side of town for over a decade.

The Longview Chamber of Commerce lists this one in its member directory, and it is the store to use when Mobberly is closed or has sold out. Brisket, house-made sausage, pork shoulder and baby back ribs are the core of the menu.

Owner Shannon Fell has run the kitchen for decades. The Longview News-Journal covered the Sixth Street store's reopening in 2021, which is worth knowing because the Bodacious stores around East Texas change hands and hours independently of each other.

Rickey and Laura Cox bought this from founders Gary and Janie Adams, having worked for the Adamses on and off for years before taking it over. That continuity is the pitch, and it is why the ribs taste the way regulars remember.

The three-meat plate with mac and cheese and baked beans is the standard order. Note that an older Adams Rib address on West Marshall Avenue is closed, so navigate to Jet Drive in south Longview rather than trusting an old listing.

Fat Boyzzz smokes brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken and sausage, but the menu keeps going into hamburger steak, a ribeye Philly and seafood. That is why review sites file it under American or Southern rather than barbecue, and why it gets missed by people searching only for BBQ.

It is the smallest operation here and the hours reflect that. The weekday window is roughly 11 to 2, so treat it as a lunch stop rather than something you can build a dinner around.