The Business of Barbecue Media: Shows, Cookbooks, Events, and Brand Power

There is a difference between barbecue growing and barbecue getting used.

That’s the thought I kept coming back to during this episode. We started where we always start, cutting up, checking on each other, letting James take us into National Detroit Style Pizza Day like it was a church announcement for the big back congregation. But somewhere between the sauce stripes, Ribby’s closing temporarily, a new barbecue spot opening in South Downtown Atlanta, and another wave of barbecue shows hitting screens, the bigger picture started to settle in.

Barbecue is moving. Fast.

And when something moves fast, somebody is always trying to figure out how to make money from it.

Bryan brought up Ribby’s in Fort Worth having to close temporarily because a new landlord wanted to do something different with the building. That part hurt because it’s the kind of reminder that a restaurant is never just about the food. You can have the skill, the audience, the name, the respect, and still be at the mercy of rent, property owners, timing, and the pieces of the business that never make the highlight reel. Then, almost in the same breath, we talked about Broad Street Barbecue opening in South Downtown Atlanta from the team behind Sammy’s ATL. They are not fully open yet, but they opened enough to serve takeout during the World Cup, and I loved that. That’s smart business. That’s seeing the city fill up with people and saying, “We might not be all the way ready, but we’re ready enough to get in the game.”

I respect that kind of move because barbecue needs more people thinking like operators, not just cooks. That idea came back around when I talked about the Home Depot experience I had just been part of. They covered the travel, lodging, transportation, schedule, gear, food, drinks, and gave us the tools to actually create content while we were there. Custom FIFA jerseys, chargers, microphones, everything thought through. There was nothing you had to guess about.

That’s how you invite people into your world if you want them to show up and represent it well.

Then I compared that to another event where the details were missing, costs were being pushed back on the talent, and it started feeling like hustle in reverse. I’ve said this before, but it keeps being true: if you want people to promote your event, feed your event, film your event, and bring their audience into your event, then treat them like partners. Don’t make them pay to help you look good.

That’s not how this works anymore.

And speaking of brands needing to understand how this works, I had to get that Milwaukee Tools rant off my chest. Not the city. The tools. I watched someone who had promoted their products and moved serious attention toward them be told they don’t really support “doers,” only “pros.” That’s wild to me. Everybody uses tools. The people making videos, teaching folks, building projects, showing real use cases, those are the people helping move units, too.

If a brand can benefit from a community but won’t support that community, then what are we doing?

That same conversation about respect carried into Rodney Scott. I keep seeing headlines trying to frame it like Rodney is “back.” Rodney never left. Let’s be clear about that. Bryan said it best: Rodney is one of the best people in barbecue, and almost every time he was in Charleston, Rodney was in that pit room. If Rodney knew everything going on, he would have made things right himself, but he wasn’t in control of everything happening around his name.

That matters.

Because names matter in barbecue. Your name is your work. It’s your smoke. It’s your time. It’s your reputation. So when the narrative gets sloppy, we have to clean it up. Rodney didn’t disappear from barbecue. He’s still Rodney. Still moving. Still cooking. Still heading places like New Zealand, which had all of us half joking, half serious, wondering how we could sneak onto that trip as knife sharpeners, cutting board oilers, or emotional support pitmen.

Then the episode took a wild turn into the former owner of Turkey Hut being convicted for setting a competitor’s restaurant on fire. And look, the jokes came because that is what we do, but the real part is not funny. That is someone else’s business. Someone else’s employees. Someone else’s livelihood. There are a lot of ways to compete. Burn better. Serve better. Market better. Build community better. But lighting somebody’s place on fire is not competition. That’s destruction.

That’s also ego losing the fight with common sense.

The business side showed up again when Bryan broke down Misfits’ decision to stop packaging to-go orders themselves. They still provide the containers, but customers pack their own. That might sound small until you hear the numbers. A to-go order can take three to four times longer than plating food on a tray. For a four-man team trying to move a long line, that time adds up fast.

I liked that move. Not because it’s cute, but because it’s practical. If it gets people through the line faster and keeps the service moving, it makes sense. Barbecue already asks too much from small crews. Every extra step has a cost.

Then we got into the “deep cut” debate, and this is where Bryan and I did not agree. Misfits is limiting that tray to one per customer because they only have a small number of items like sliced beef cheek medallions and pork steak. Bryan’s position is that more people get a chance to try the special. My position is simple: if I got there first and waited, let me buy what I came for.

James saw both sides, which is probably the most honest place to land. It is a delicate balance. You want to sell out. You want to make money. You want as many people as possible to experience the food. But you also train your customers by how you run the line. I don’t think there is a clean answer, but I do think it is the kind of conversation barbecue needs to have out loud.

Because this isn’t just food anymore. It’s media. It’s logistics. It’s demand. It’s perception.

That’s why the new wave of barbecue shows matters. Food Network is rolling out Pitmasters, and from what we can see, it looks like a paired-up competition with some serious names attached. Al, Yoder, Susie, Matt Groark, Esau, Big Mo, Jess, Ernie, and more. My question was whether this is truly a competition play or a marketing play. Because when you stack that many audiences together, the network doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting. The talent brings the reach.

James made a fair point: if the participants are smart, they can use that same machine to build their own brands too.

That’s the reality now. TV is not just TV. Clips, shorts, reels, recaps, and social media carry the show further than the broadcast. Tuffy launching his own travel show, Susie dropping Backyard Barbecue Hero on Tastemade, Pops returning with his Tastemade show, Chuck Flavortrain sending over his cookbook, all of that points to the same thing.

Barbecue is not waiting on one gatekeeper anymore.

The question is whether the people building it can keep ownership of what they’re creating.

That’s where I’ll leave it.

Barbecue is growing, but growth by itself is not the win. The win is making sure the cooks, creators, pit builders, small restaurants, pop-ups, authors, and community voices don’t get left holding the smoke while somebody else cashes the check.

So I want to hear from you.

When barbecue hits the bigger stages, TV, festivals, brands, books, and national attention, how do we make sure the people doing the real work still get protected?