Evan LeRoy

Today

Pit work was the first discipline to define Evan LeRoy’s barbecue style. Starting in 2012 as pitmaster at Freedmen's Bar in Austin, Texas, the role put the fundamentals in place: control of heat, patience over time, and the ability to build depth from wood and flame. By 2017, LeRoy had moved into the role of chef and pitmaster of LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, where that foundation widened into a more fully articulated point of view. The shift was less about changing craft than extending it — keeping barbecue grounded in the pit while allowing room for a sharper, more flexible expression. At LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue, the partnership implied in the name matches the cooking: tradition held in one hand, invention in the other.

Signature

Evan LeRoy’s signature dishes include cauliflower burnt ends, beef cheeks, bacon ribs, smoked banana pudding, and smoked jalapeño cheese spread. The lineup shows barbecue used as a framework rather than a narrow script. Cauliflower burnt ends push richness through a vegetable form, while beef cheeks and bacon ribs stay close to the core pleasures of pit cooking. Smoked banana pudding and smoked jalapeño cheese spread widen the register again, moving between sweet, heat, and smoke without treating those shifts as departures. Together, the dishes point to a cook working with contrast, texture, and flavor range as part of the same craft.

In Their Words The line reads as an acknowledgment of place, but it also fits a barbecue practice shaped by audience and city as much as by pit and fire. For Evan LeRoy, Austin is part of the context the cooking answers to. “I can cook anything to perfection on any grill.” It is a direct statement of control over heat and equipment, the kind of confidence that comes from repetition at the fire. It also describes range: a working belief that technique can hold across different grills and still land with precision.