LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

Evan LeRoy opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue opens state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar in South Austin.

It’s been almost ten years since I first encountered the creative barbecue cooked by chef and pitmaster Evan LeRoy in Austin. In the summer of 2015, I visited Freedmen’s Bar, where LeRoy was the resident smoked-meat guru in this wood-paneled speakeasy where bourbon and whiskey flowed freely.

These were still the early days of the craft barbecue movement in which the benchmark of any ambitious pitmaster was world-class brisket, and LeRoy delivered on that.

But other, unexpected........

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