Food journalist John DeMers has sought many a meal for his work over the years, but he’s likely never met a project like the one undertaken in the name of something dear to Texans: barbecue.

And not just barbecue from any old place. It’s barbecue all over the Lone Star State. DeMers traveled 14,783 miles across Texas to visit barbecue establishments in towns small and cities large.



His findings are chronicled in the book “Follow the Smoke,” out now from Bright Sky Press. Like a forest ranger, he truly was following the smoke, only for a delicious purpose.

DeMers’ “barbecue crawl” took him to more than 100 barbecue spots.

Three of his destinations were in the Texarkana area: Ramage Farms in Hooks, Smokey Joe’s in Nash and Big Jake’s Smokehouse in Texarkana.

It may have been a cold, wintry day when DeMers—from Houston and host of the food and wine radio show Delicious Mischief—motored through town, but the tastes he found here seem to have left him with a warm feeling, judging by his write-ups of local barbecue spots.

In fact, all three places offered super food, said DeMers in a recent e-mail interview.

“Barbecue styles, like cooking styles in general, wear their life stories on their sleeves. On the winter days I tasted my way through the northeast corner of Texas, I remember the warmth of the places and the people,” he said.

Of course, there’s divine barbecue all across the state. To that end, the book is organized geographically with sections on different areas of Texas: the Center, the East, the South, the North, the West.

Each destination is given a distinct review, and it’s to the book’s credit that DeMers is able to render details for each barbecue joint, along with photos. One of the handiest treats is a series of recipes for meats, sweets, sides and extras that follow the main section of the book.

DeMers thinks Texas barbecue styles “speak eloquently about the people who settled an area.” He also saw regional affinities toward barbecue.

“In South Texas, of course, barbecue is still barbecue because it’s served with warm tortillas, refried beans and pico de gallo. In Southeast Texas, barbecue is so heavily African-American that it almost shows up as soul food with smothered greens and fried okra. In Northeast Texas, there is a more complex crossroads thing going on, merging the beef-centric barbecue of Texas with the pork-centric barbecue of Arkansas,” he said.

Through it all, said DeMers, a former United Press International food editor, it was the people that kept him going during his excursions. There were also the elements of surprise and the unknown.

“I met all kinds of people over smoke coming from their pits—third- and fourth-generation barbecue guys, bankers, stock brokers and insurance salesmen who ‘got religion’ and turned to barbecue as the one true faith, even a few French-trained chefs who embraced barbecue as the perfect antidote,” said DeMers. “I’d walk into a barbecue joint, ask to speak with the owner and have absolutely no clue what kind of person would come out to greet me. That was incredibly exciting to me.”

He takes more of a storyteller’s role in “Follow the Smoke,” sketching slices of life to savor rather than adopting the role of standard reviewer.

Beyond the excitement of meeting barbecue lovers and the communities around each barbecue joint, DeMers saw firsthand the way barbecue also serves as something of a cultural force..

“Barbecue brings Texans together every single day, and it has as long as anybody can remember. Whether it’s our politicians handing out barbecue in hopes of getting elected or friends having friends over on weekends barbecue is a powerful social force,” DeMers said. “The fact that it also ignites so many arguments is a function of the passionate place it occupies in our lives. We care about barbecue, deeply in many cases. We care enough to fret over time and temperature, dry rubs versus wet sauces, beef or pork. The role it plays in our lives guarantees it a place of honor, along with a continuous, energizing edge of controversy.”

For the local barbecue joint proprietors, landing in a book like “Follow the Smoke” affords them welcome exposure.

Eric Hubbard was on hand last December at Smokey Joe’s to welcome DeMers when he sampled such delights as BBQ fries. Since that visit, Hubbard has opened a second location in Texarkana near Gander Mountain and Interstate 30.

He’d never been able to show off his barbecue skills like this until DeMers came in to his Nash restaurant.

“I enjoyed what he wrote,” said Hubbard. “It’s pretty exciting.”

He’s surely hoping travelers will stop in to taste his barbecue but barbecue isn’t the only thing they have in-store.

“We’ve got the best baked sweet potato here with the marshmallows and brown sugar, and we’ve got a cinnamon sweet butter,” said Hubbard. “It’s like a dessert.”

A distinctive aspect of Big Jake’s Smokehouse noticed by DeMers is the differences when one hops the border between Texas and Arkansas. In Arkansas, pork is king, while in Texas it’s brisket and sausage as the main draws.

Matt Palmer, co-owner of Big Jake’s with his wife, Jessica, operates the establishment in both states and said it’s a privilege to represent Texarkana in the book. He’s read a bit of the book and noticed DeMers talks about the food and people.

“Everybody has a story,” Palmer said.

“People don’t write a whole lot about the East Texas barbecue. Most of the time it’s always about Hill Country barbecue,” he said.

Brent Ramage said DeMers seemed impressed by his 7,000-pound barbecue pit that sits beside Ramage Farm.

“He spent a lot of time here,” Ramage recalled. “He was really impressed with this true barbecue pit grill, not the fancy-dancy ones.”

To Ramage, a good, seasoned pit makes for great barbecue.

“There’s not many of us left around,” he said about barbecuers using that kind of pit.

On that note, one of the central observations by DeMers in his book is that the mom-and-pop barbecue stops are facing tough times.

He thinks there’s a serious fear about such distinctive, American eateries becoming fewer and farther between as the chains wield market pressure.

“Barbecue will never go away as a culinary statement, factored already into casual chain restaurants nationwide,” DeMers said.

“The really vulnerable part is not barbecue the food but barbecue the business—those grand traditions of tiny mom-and-pop places that made a decent living but never gave you the impression they were in this to get rich,” he said.

He said “just as we’ve come to value consistency over quirkiness,” the world doesn’t really understand such people.

“Most small barbecue businesses complain about all the regulations and paperwork they have to put up with, and it’s clear that this element has grown,” DeMers reflected. “But I think the real danger is that we Texans will revere these tiny joints in our memories and imaginations but forget to patronize them.”



(”Follow the Smoke.” Publisher: Bright Sky Press of Houston and Albany, Texas. Price: $19.95. ISBN: 978-1-933979-22-9. More info: www.brightskypress.com.)