Serious Eats
Serious Eats Father's Day Mail-Order 'Cue
With barbecue joints opening all over the country, even in barbecue wildernesses like New York, I decided my Father's Day Mail-Order 'Cue list should focus on smoked items that are hard to find outside their place of origin.
Southside Market's smoked hot beef sausage is so juicy, so delicious, and so reasonably priced it's worth ordering it in bulk and freezing what you don't use. That way your dad can be enjoying his Father's Day present for a long time. If you insist on getting Texas-style beef brisket, try Saltlick or Kreuz Market. But order the brisket and not the clod (beef shoulder). It's juicier.
At Alabama's Dreamland BBQ the ribs are porky, meaty and subtly smoked. Dreamland claims that there "ain't nothing like 'em nowhere," and they might be right. I don't think you'll need the sauce that comes with the ribs, but you can mop it up with the Sunbeam white bread that comes with your order.
No barbecue tour of the country would be complete without a stop in Kansas City, Missouri, and the best mail-order Kansas City barbecue I know comes from Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue. Their smoked brisket-laced beans are phenomenal, and its ribs and pork burnt ends are pretty damn fine.