I can appreciate that. I used to live in a neighborhood with a decent takeout BBQ restaurant. I tend to eat late, so it wasn't unusual for me to order something at 9:30-10PM and find that they were all out of everything but one or two dishes (they closed at 10:30). Pretty sure at least once I went there and they were completely out of meat and were only selling side dishes.
Where I'm from in Oregon, there are a few places, but they're few and far between, and I doubt the quality measures up to areas where there is more knowledge and competition between establishments. Indeed, I have to admit to having had absolutely no clue about real barbecue growing up.
I think it's pretty cool that it's such a local thing, in an age when so much of life is so homogeneous in the US.
Just wanted to comment to say that the book you mentioned is great, as are most of the other things that economist, Tyler Cowen, has written. He and a colleague have a blog, http://marginalrevolution.com/, that many HN readers will probably enjoy.
I'll plug my friend's blog here. For years now he's been blogging about visits to BBQ places all over the Southeast, and he's hit a good number of them. A lot of these are the roadside, cinder block building kinda places.
My brother runs a BBQ place in Flagstaff, of all places, and he's done a lot of traveling to sample BBQ around the country. It really is amazing how much regional variation there is, and how proud each region is of their own style.
I've been traveling for a while, and it's pretty surprising how regional most freshly-prepared foods are. Pizza, bagels, barbecue, baguettes, pastries, breads, even produce — all vary drastically in quality depending on the region. Something about having a concentrated pool of talent and competition in one area, I suppose.
Barbecue's a real microcosm in the food world. I'm a pretty learned foodie, but I had no idea just how widely barbecue techniques were spread around the world until I started looking into it a few years ago.
I think the US can legitimately claim to be the barbecue kings of the world, but there are some really interesting barbecue traditions elsewhere, from Japan to Brazil. (I've since become somewhat addicted to Brasilian barbecue, which fits very nicely with a Paleo diet.)
I, meanwhile, come from the UK. We love our barbecue. We're also, natively - and weirdly for a food-loving nation - absolutely terrible at it.
Method #1 BY FAR produces the most fanfare.
Notable #1 is LA-Barbeque, and Franklin BBQ in Austin and the wait is typically 2-5 hours and all of the BBQ is sold out before lunch.