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Reputation is no protection. Even Texas Monthly's No. 1 barbecue joint, Ernest Servantes's Burnt Bean Co. in the south-central Texas town of Seguin, is struggling. Burnt Bean routinely has a line out the door and a three-hour wait for the barbacoa, beef ribs and brisket that earned it a Michelin Bib Gourmand rating.
"There's always been price increases, but there's always been relief and it's gone down," said Servantes, 47. But now, he said, "we don't see any end in sight, and it's going to get scary here. … We've been in survival mode for the past year."
Servantes recently raised prices for brisket by a dollar, to $38 a pound, and may soon limit brisket to one day a week to keep the restaurant and its 28 employees afloat.
"Just because we're making a lot of brisket doesn't mean we're making a lot of money. It's kind of a write-off. We make our money off pork, sides. People say 'brisket' and I cringe," he said.
Servantes blames the "big four" meatpackers for setting the price paid to ranchers too low even as feed costs have risen.
"It's not the rancher. It's not us. It's the guys in the middle," he said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/05/25/some-texass-oldest-barbecue-joints-close-meat-prices-skyrocket/
