The 16 Best BBQ Joints in Nashville, According to Local Experts

When it comes to barbecue, Nashville isn’t Memphis, and that’s okay. The fact that three major interstates cross within a mile of each other in Downtown means that Nashville’s food scene features smoked meat specialties that are native to the regions at each end of those highways: St. Louis-style ribs, Alabama white sauce smoked chicken, tangy Carolina vinegar and tomato sauces, and yes, Memphis dry ribs.

Local pitmaster Carey Bringle, known as the Peg Leg Porker after losing a leg to cancer in high school, is right proud of his dry-rubbed ribs, and he thinks Music City is a fine spot for barbecue, even if there is no prototypical “Nashville style” of ‘cue. “The current state of Nashville barbecue is great!” he says. “We have many great options to choose from, and newer players that have entered the market have done so with very good, quality barbecue. We have a great barbecue community and most everyone gets along, which is in sync with the barbecue community as a whole.”

Bringle believes that people spend way too much time arguing about who has the “best” barbecue. “I strongly believe in the statement that I printed on the cups in my restaurant. It’s not a requirement for you to hate someone else’s BBQ in order to love mine. Over the last 10 years, the Nashville BBQ market has proven to be among the best in the country. BBQ fans can rejoice that they now have about as many options and styles to choose from as they could ever want!” Here are our suggestions for some of those excellent choices, plus expert commentary from Nashville BBQ aficionado Steve Cavendish, who has written about Music City food, sports, and news for media outlets ranging from the New York Times to the Nashville Scene to the Nashville City Paper. He is currently bringing community-supported journalism back to Nashville with the return of the Nashville Banner.