Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew

Located in a mostly residential North Austin area, Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew looks and functions like a typical restaurant: It’s decked out with simple, trendy wooden tables, has a pint-house feel (make sure to grab a “kraft” beer while you’re there) and cooks enough food to make sure everyone who visits within operating hours gets fed. But the care of pitmaster Lance Kirkpatrick makes the difference. With 15 years of cooking under his belt, Taylor, a Texas native, ensures that the traditional Central Texas-style elements—salt and pepper rub, post oak-wood smoking and homemade everything—translate to spectacular quality, down to the last slice (all the brisket is upper 2/3 choice cuts, dubbed “German Reserve”). A few extra ingredients—New Mexico chili powder and a hint of citrus—make for some of the  more standout BBQ flavors in the city. Add to that the freshest-tasting potato salad in town, a sweet-and-creamy cornbread casserole and a peach cobbler that’s a certified gobbler—resistance is futile even if you’re about to pop. Kirkpatrick says that, in particular, it’s the quality of the beef rib that may set Stiles Switch apart from other local haunts: “We’re doing a four-bone chuck rib—the last part of the chuck and the first part of the ribeye—as opposed to those dinosaur three-bone ribs As novel and cool as those look on Instagram, we don’t want to kill our customer with a $30 rib.”