Austin's best barbecue comes with a two-hour line. You will skip every one of them.

This is a six-stop eating tour through East Austin's smokehouses, built by locals who know the pitmasters by name. You will eat brisket at a MICHELIN One Star joint, house-made sausage inside a century-old church, Middle Eastern-spiced smoked lamb from a James Beard-recognized chef, and Texas pastrami on rye baked that morning. There is a sixth stop we do not put in writing.

Between stops you ride in an air-conditioned van. No parking, no walking in the August heat, no standing in a line that formed before you woke up. Your guide fills the drive with the part you cannot taste: who taught whom, which pits still burn post oak the old way, and how these blocks have changed in ten years.

Come hungry. Six stops is a full meal and then some, and most people leave carrying a box. Non-alcoholic drinks are included throughout, or add the drink package and work through local beer and Texas spirits alongside the meat.

Groups cap at 14, so you are never eating shoulder to shoulder on a coach. Three hours, one afternoon, and you will have eaten better barbecue than most people who live here.