Our critic's favorite L.A. barbecue restaurants

[It's here: The Los Angeles Times' 101 restaurants, dishes, people and ideas that define how we eat in 2020.] If you’ve been following dining culture in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic, you know about the ascent of online-based ventures...

Backyard barbecue has been an L.A. cottage industry since well before the pandemic. Now, in the COVID-19 era, you can pull up to a pair of garages on a densely populated Hollywood side street to pick up Carolina-style smoked meat. Clay Blair...

Photo by Janelle Arballo In Texas, Missouri and Tennessee, barbecue tends to happen when you least expect it. You can be driving, minding your own business, when the aroma of brisket suddenly wafts into your open window. I’ve gone to those states...

A staffer behind the counter at Slab Barbecue plunks down a mass wrapped in thick, crinkled butcher paper. He unwraps the package, his gloves now slick with grease, and lifts out a blackened lobe of brisket. Then, knife in hand, he poses a...

Barbecue may be a religion in the South, but this time of year, it is everywhere in Los Angeles -- in backyards, storefronts, suburban chains, farmers markets and barrel smokers in church parking lots. Here are a few places we like a lot. No...