A decade of barbecue mania means you can now find damn decent brisket everywhere from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. But the rebirth—which arguably peaked with Austin’s Aaron Franklin being tabbed the high priest of low-and-slow cooking—has become a renaissance. Barbecue’s getting crazier, combining technique with creativity. It’s happening in Austin, of course, the city where Texas Tradition meets Texas Weird. It’s birthed by the kids of traditionalists, by new blood, and by some chefs—yeah, chefs—introducing new cuts and influences to this smoky old terrain. You could fly down to Austin and witness it now, or wait for the movement to expand your way. That drool-inducing dish above? That’s what happens when barbecue gets cozy with Japanese cooking. It’s only the beginning of BBQ 2.0. Get ready.

Your BBQ 2.0 Cheat Sheet

Welcome to Austin—your meat tour begins now. Here’s a brief overview of the six places moving barbecue forward.

At Kemuri Tatsu-ya, above, the most eye-popping (and Instagrammable) dish is the BBQ Boat, top, packed with brisket, eel, and pork tenderloin. Cedric Angeles

1. Birdhouse BBQ

Est. 2017

A now closed pop-up farm-to-table barbecue restaurant in the back of a bar run by renowned local chef Jack Zizzo. Don’t worry, Birdhouse will re-open soon in a permanent space.

2. J. Leonardi’s Barbeque

Est. 2016

Austin native Jerome Faulkner and ex-NFL cornerback Cedric Leonard Griffin opened this trailer, with Faulkner practicing the skills he learned from his departed uncle.

3. Kemuri Tatsu-Ya

Est. 2017

The closest to barbecue fine dining you’ll get in Austin. At Kemuri, the folks behind the beloved Ramen Tatsu-ya have put a barbecue spin on Japanese izakaya.

4. LeRoy and Lewis

Est. 2017

Consider LeRoy and Lewis the next generation of Austin food trucks. Like Birdhouse, it’s using local, seasonal ingredients—but it’s also getting weird with lamb belly and quail.

5. Terry Black’s BBQ

Est. 2014

Brothers Mike and Mark Black split from their family’s business in nearby Lockhart. Even if their style is classic—oak smoking, simple sides—they’re renegades for fighting for it.

6. Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ

Est. 2013

Here, barbecue cozies up to its cousin, Tex-Mex. Just imagine pulled chicken with guacamole and brisket served with a side of chips and queso.

BBQ Goes Globe-Trotting

What happens when barbecue gets a passport? When chefs treat it less as a purist form and more as a space to experiment? Turns out, some really delicious, unexpected smoked food is what happens.

Kemuri’s chili-cheese takoyaki (fried octopus balls). Cedric Angeles Gets some Texan flair while barbecued pork and eel smoke up. Cedric Angeles

No one in the food industry likes to wear the “fusion” label, but it’s hard to avoid the term with Austin newcomer Kemuri Tatsu-ya. The typical gonzo portions of meat are small, fish gets smoked in addition to beef, and the Texas ramen features brisket.

Born in Japan and raised in Texas, chef Tatsu Aikawa is cooking from his childhood: “Growing up, I was immersed in southern hospitality, southern cooking, barbecue.” His family would smoke fish on the weekends, he says, as a “Japanese-immigrant take on adopting Texas tradition.” That ingenuity parallels the immigrant origins of Texas barbecue, which evolved out of the European smokehouses of German and Czech butchers.

Aikawa is not the only pitmaster cooking his heritage into ’cue. Opened in a trailer in 2013 by Miguel Vidal, Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ serves a mesquite-smoked, tortilla-wrapped style of barbecue that brings border flavors to Austin. It’s home to Lone Star Staters’ tastiest brisket breakfast taco, which fuses two more great things: brunch and hangovers.

We’ve Gone Way Beyond Beef

Barbecue’s not just inviting new cultures to the table, it’s started expanding what it puts on the table, too. Where old-school barbecue clung to beef and pork, we’re now seeing a zoo’s worth of animals get their turn in the smoker. At Birdhouse BBQ, owner Jack Zizzo makes ample use of his finer-dining background—he’s an alum of Austin new-American hot spot Barley Swine—by working in lamb neck, along with sausage-stuffed quail, which he calls Quail Dogs. (And which you should eat, in all their gamy glory.) At LeRoy and Lewis, smoked duck, housemade porchetta, and the invasive scourge of Texas, wild boar, all show up on the menu. The L&L duo are breaking new ground with off-cuts, too: Their signature beef cheeks are a better brisket—meatier, fattier, delicious-er. Don’t worry: Nobody’s abandoning the holy trinity of brisket, sausage, and pork rib—although LeRoy and Lewis, somewhat scandalously, serves brisket only on weekends. But the new cuts have won a cult following. “Our lamb neck is very popular,” says Zizzo, uttering a sentence no one in barbecue has said before.

Better ’Cue Deserves a Better Brew

Because this isn’t Budweiser country.

(From Left to Right)

Austin Beerworks Pearl Snap

The most popular joints have lines. This not-too-strong German pils, brewed in North Austin, is your Gatorade, with just enough zip to keep you chill while you wait your turn.

Shiner Bock

It’s not exactly a microbrew, and it’s been around for, oh, 108 years. But pitmasters swear by Shiner as the perfect barbecue pairing, and who are we to argue?

Live Oak Hefeweizen

From just outside Austin comes a cloudy hefeweizen that’s popping with clove, banana, and vanilla. That slight spicy sweetness plays nice up against fatty ’cue.

Cedric Angeles

The Number of the Best

’Cue-heads geek out over the bark (the crispy outside) on a slab of brisket as a sign of maestro-level technique. But down in Austin, there’s a new symbol that’s becoming synonymous with smoked-meat worthiness: 44.