REPORT: Birmingham is the 4th Best BBQ City in the U.S

ByPat Byington
LAST UPDATED08/03/23

Reviewed by: Nathan Watson

Reading time: 2 minutes

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BBQ — Saw’s BBQ never lets us down. (Matthew Niblett / Bham Now)

Birmingham is the 4th Best BBQ City in America, according to the good folks at Clever, a real estate data company.

The Magic City jumped two spots from last year’s report. If you are wondering about your community (I can already hear complaints coming from Decatur to Mobile), the ranking only considers the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S.

Austin tops list

Topping the poll in 2023 is Austin, Texas, followed by Memphis and San Antonio.

How did Clever come up with their rankings?

Here are the categories:

BBQ Restaurants per 100,000 people
Average YELP Rating
Average cost for a pound of BBQ meat
BBQ Trucks per 100,000
BBQ Passion Score (Using Google Trends)

Want to see the numbers? Follow this link: The Best BBQ Cities in America: 2023 Data

Passion & Barbeque Everywhere

Miss Myra — Far & Wide named Miss Myra’s Bar-B-Q’s BBQ Chicken Sandwich with White Sauce as “top pick”. (Pat Byington/ Bham Now)

One category that was not a surprise on the list was Birmingham’s passion for BBQ. We ranked #2 on the list behind St. Louis.

Other notable stats:

Birmingham has 4.04 BBQ restaurants per 100,000 residents compared to Miami, which has the fewest BBQ restaurants at 0.7 per 100,000 residents.
BBQ restaurants in Birmingham have an average Yelp rating of 3.69 compared to the city with the lowest average score in our study, Detroit (3.32).
BBQ meats in Birmingham cost an average of $5.29 per pound. The study found that BBQ meats are the most expensive in Western cities such as Los Angeles, Portland, and Denver, where they average $5.86 per pound.

BBQ joints – a list of stories

Does this story make you hungry for some Birmingham BBQ?

Below are some Bham Now featured stories about The Magic City’s love affair with BBQ

These 19 Birmingham BBQ joints are the ultimate Memorial Day pitstop

We tried some of the most popular BBQ in Birmingham & picked our favorites [VIDEO]

2 Birmingham BBQ joints featured on “The Ultimate Road Trip for America’s Best BBQ

And do checkout our taste test video:

What are your thoughts about Clever’s study? Did they get it right? Tell us on social media by tagging us in the comment section at @bhamnow

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Pat Byington

Longtime conservationist. Former Executive Director at the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Publisher of the Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in the creation of Alabama's Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preservation of special places throughout the East through the Wilderness Society and the strengthening (making more stringent) the state of Alabama's cancer risk and mercury standards.