ST. LOUIS — St. Louis is no stranger to good barbecue, so it should come as no surprise that two St. Louis-area barbecue restaurants appear on Thrillist's new 33 Best BBQ Joints in America list.
One of those spots is Beast Craft Barbecue in Belleville, from pitmaster David Sandusky.
"Although of course they offer the traditional combo plate fair, the most popular orders are rarer finds: a reverse seared pork steak and Brussels sprouts," the list said of David Sandusky's Beast Craft Barbecue.
Sandusky this summer opened Beast Butcher & Block in The Grove neighborhood. The restaurant features seating for 95 guests inside the dining room and 25 on the patio. Inside the restaurant are two unique concepts, The Butchery and The Skullery. The Butchery is a small, full-service butcher shop where customers can buy raw, never-frozen meats and prepared meals, and featuring an exterior courtyard with a fire pit and additional seating. The Skullery offers a "fire-to-table" concept where guests can be seated right in front of house-butchered meats and vegetables cooked on hot coals and carved on a custom block.
Sandusky this summer opened Beast Butcher & Block in The Grove neighborhood. The restaurant features seating for 95 guests inside the dining room and 25 on the patio. Inside the restaurant are two unique concepts, The Butchery and The Skullery. The Butchery is a small, full-service butcher shop where customers can buy raw, never-frozen meats and prepared meals, and featuring an exterior courtyard with a fire pit and additional seating. The Skullery offers a "fire-to-table" concept where guests can be seated right in front of house-butchered meats and vegetables cooked on hot coals and carved on a custom block.
The second St. Louis-area barbecue joint appearing on the list is none other than Pappy's Smokehouse.
"In 2008, Mike Emerson and company wowed St. Louis with a Memphis-channeling barbecue joint that could make even a Tennessee transplant nod his head in begrudging approval before asking for another slab of ribs," the list said.
A third spot, not in the immediate St. Louis metro area, but known to many in St. Louis, is 17th Street Barbecue in Murphysboro, Illinois, from Mike Mills and his daughter Amy.
"People travel from across the country to the small town of Murphysboro to devour them (baby back ribs), and budding pitmasters can leave with more than just leftovers thanks to a series of cooking workshops from Mike and business classes from his daughter, who also recently penned a tell-all book," Thrillist said in its ranking.
Thrillist writer Nicole Taylor worked with writer Adrian Miller, pitmaster Howard Conyers, food writer Keia Mastrianni, editor-in-chief of 435 Magazine Martin Cizmar, and food writer Matthew Korfhage to compile the list.
