About CorkScrew BBQ
Michelin inspectors do not typically drive 30 miles north of Houston to a converted food truck operation on Keith Street in Spring, Texas. They did. They came back. They awarded the star. In 2024, CorkScrew BBQ became the only traditional barbecue joint in America to hold a Michelin star, a fact that tells you more about the quality of Will and Nichole Buckman's brisket than any review could.
Will Buckman started competing in barbecue competitions before opening CorkScrew in 2011. The methodology is Texas classic — 18-hour oak smokes, USDA prime brisket selected and trimmed by hand, beef ribs that have become a regional pilgrimage item. But what sets CorkScrew apart from the dozens of competent Texas BBQ operations is the consistency. The brisket that comes off at 11am on a Wednesday has the same bark-to-fat-to-smoke ratio as the brisket that won competitions. This is not an accident. It is the product of a chef-level obsession with a technique that most people treat as instinct.
The operation is resolutely unpretentious. You stand in line. You order by weight — brisket, beef short ribs, pork ribs, pulled pork, garlic sausage. You choose your sides: pinto beans that have been cooking since before you woke up, loaded baked potatoes, jalapeño coleslaw. You sit at a picnic table. The Michelin star is conspicuously absent from the signage. Will Buckman does not appear to care. That, too, is Texas.
The sell-out is real. Arrive at 10:30am for the 11am opening, or accept that what you want may not exist by the time you reach the counter. The beef short ribs — enormous, bark-crusted, melting — sell out first. Yelp rated CorkScrew the number two restaurant in the United States. Texas Monthly's Top 50 BBQ list has featured it multiple times. None of these credentials are on the sign. Only the smoke tells you something remarkable is happening here.
Why Team Dinner
CorkScrew is the team dinner you bring people to when you want to show them something real about Texas. Not the Galleria, not a hotel restaurant — the actual, definitive, Michelin-starred expression of what this state does better than anywhere else on earth. The experience creates instant camaraderie: the communal line, the shared excitement of watching the brisket being carved, the cold beer, the picnic tables. No one is checking their phone. A team that eats brisket together at CorkScrew leaves closer than when they arrived. This is not complicated. This is just Texas working exactly as advertised.