Bessinger’s BBQ Competitors

Famous Dave’s of America, Inc. develops, owns, operates and franchises Famous Dave’s Barbeque restaurants, an award-winning BBQ chain with roughly 150 locations across the country. Our success is the result of a commitment to the finest food and the best dining experience known to barbeque. Every customer is treated as though they were a "guest" at one of Dave’s famous backyard barbeques. The menu features hickory-smoked ribs and barbequed meats, smokin' sandwiches, mouthwatering burgers, tasty salads and homestyle desserts. Having won over 650 awards for everything from “Best Sauce” to “Best Ribs” to “Best Cookbook”, Famous Dave’s has received wide acclaim from customers and critics alike.

Since 1988, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (Dino BBQ) has been serving up mouth-watering food and serious suds to thousands of hungry diners craving some of the most authentic Southern barbeque and regional craft brews this side of the Mason Dixon Line. Dino BBQ continues to be a recognized leader in the world of barbecue restaurants with a brand that currently includes six locations (New York – Syracuse, Rochester, Hamburg, Troy, Harlem, and Brooklyn). Co-founder and owner John Stage started Dino BBQ by feeding bikers at various events and festivals along the East Coast and has built his operation as a nationally known brand, which includes a catering division, a line of BBQ sauces and rubs and a successful cookbook, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: An American Roadhouse (Ten Speed Press; 2001). Stage’s menus are firmly rooted in the traditions of southern barbecue and influenced by flavors that give Dino BBQ’s dishes their own distinctive character. “That’s one of the secrets of great barbecue,” says Stage, “staying committed to tradition, but finding your own stamp and signature.”

Bill Miller Bar-B-Q is a family restaurant In 1950, on a $500 loan from his father, Bill Miller opened a small poultry and egg business. Three years later Bill Miller Bar-B-Q began as a small fried chicken-to-go restaurant. Fried chicken led to hamburgers and then to barbecue. The second restaurant opened in February of 1963. Today there are 75 Bill Miller Bar-B-Q restaurants and 6 Laguna Madre Seafood Co. restaurants. Bill-osophy Bill Miller Bar-B-Q’s concept of serving barbecued meats and fresh pies and breads on a daily basis from a central commissary is unique to its industry. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q offers a quality catering service, serving groups as small as 100 to as large as 10,000. Our barbecued brisket is a truly unique product. All of our barbecue is cooked with 100% hill country live oak wood in a brick pit. Natural gas or electric heat is never used to cook our barbecue, only wood, heat and smoke. Bill Miller designed the original barbecue pits he used in the 1950 ‘s and the large industrial sized ones used today — that will cook up to 2,500 pounds of brisket at one time in 18 to 20 hours. We Commit with No Quit Bill Miller advocated a central kitchen concept. This provided economical purchasing and preparation. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q operates a commissary, sausage kitchen, bakery, laundry service and warehouse. The plant is built according to Federal meat-packing guidelines and is inspected by the City of San Antonio and The State of Texas. The ultra modern commissary kitchen specializes in the barbecue of USDA grade beef, cooked over Hill Country Live Oak fires. The bakery specializes in baking bread and pies daily. Bill Miller Bar-B-Q presently operates 75 restaurants in the San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Austin markets, primarily selling specially prepared barbecued meats and fried chicken. The restaurants have dining rooms and food-to-go service.