Pardner, How Do You Take Your BBQ? Grubhub Reveals Austin Orders

AUSTIN, TX — There are key characteristics that make one truly Texan: You covet shady parking spots in the summer with uncommon intensity, you can't stand still at the sound of a fiddle and you always have flour tortillas in the house. Another key bona fide: You love your barbecue, and cannot imagine life without this meat.

And yet, according to a new study, the varieties and combinations on how we order our barbecue are as numerous as the million-plus Mexican-tailed bats that dwell under the Congress Avenue bridge or the seemingly countless bluebonnets covering the Hill Country each spring.

Still, our collective love of barbecue is part of our shared DNA encoding, so don't be a hater against your fellow barbecue lover in assessing the findings.

We good? Okay let's move on.

To celebrate National BBQ Day on May 16, Grubhub pored over its customers' ordering data since the beginning of the year to discover Austinites' preferred ways of consuming this quintessentially Texan staple — compiling the most popular varieties, side dishes and sauces ordered this year.

Austin’s favorite barbecue platter is grilled Korean barbecue beef, doused in Kansas City barbecue sauce with fries, potato salad and a side of ranch for dipping, according to the Grubhub data. Who woulda thunk it, right?

Some more fun — and interesting — facts based on Grubhub's findings:

The top five most popular barbecue orders in 2019 (the most popular orders this year in Austin compared to the rest of the country) in descending order:

• Grilled Korean barbecue beef was 371 more popular in Austin than in the rest of the U.S.;
• Barbecue rib, 232 percent more popular;
• Barbecue pork lo mein, 188 percent more popular;
• Barbecue brisket sandwich, 177 percent more popular;
• Honey barbecue chicken salad, 118 percent more popular.

More fun facts:

• Fries, potato salad and coleslaw are the most popular sides ordered with barbecue in Austin.
• The most popular barbecue sauces in Austin are Kansas City, Memphis and Chipotle.
• Austin orders ranch three times more often than they order blue cheese.
• America’s favorite barbecue order are barbecue brisket sliders.

So there you have it, fellow Texans. Do with the information what you will. But don't get us started about whether it's ever appropriate to add beans to the chili. Cuz them there's fightin' words, and that there is a culinary line we shall not cross.