A line of customers waits for Snow's BBQ to open its doors at 8 a.m. in Lexington.

One of the most enduring clichés in Texas barbecue lore is this: If you’re driving down a dusty backroad and stumble upon a weathered, rickety barbecue shack, you’ve found smoked-meat nirvana.

But as someone who has spent the better part of 15 years crisscrossing the Lone Star State in search of great barbecue, I must report – with no small amount of disappointment – that this romantic notion often falls short of reality.

GUIDE: Houston's best barbecue joints

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There are exceptions. Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, for instance, is a shrine to outstanding Texas barbecue. Its ramshackle collection of wood-and-metal buildings, anchored by an open-air pit room, is the very image of what people envision when they think of an authentic Texas barbecue experience.

So why don’t big cities like Houston have barbecue joints that look like Snow’s? The answer lies in how health and building........

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