Local BBQ Joints BBQ Bucket List Orbit

Walk into any neighborhood barbecue spot in Chicago, and you will notice something right away. The smoke hits you before the door swings open. The sound of a knife scraping against a cutting board, the low hum of conversation, the smell of wood and rendered fat hanging in the air. These are not just restaurants. They are community anchors, places where pitmasters have spent decades figuring out exactly how to make a rib tip snap clean or a sausage snap in your mouth. For any