Methodology
Chicago Smoked is the most complete guide to finding BBQ in Chicago and the suburbs. The directory pulls together data from Google, social media, business websites, and Reddit reviews so you can compare BBQ spots without rankings, paid placement, or house opinions.
What we cover
We track the full spectrum of BBQ styles found in Chicagoland. That includesCentral Texas (salt-and-pepper rub, no sauce), East Texas (sweeter, more sauce), South Texas (barbacoa influence), Hill Country (German-Czech sausage tradition),Kansas City, Memphis, Carolina,Korean BBQ, and fusion styles. Each spot is labeled by the style it actually serves, not what we wish it served.
How a listing gets in
We import candidates from Google Places using BBQ-specific queries, then check each one. Spots that clearly serve BBQ get source-backed listing data:
- Menu extraction. We scrape the restaurant's own website and parse menu items, prices, and descriptions.
- Photo gallery. Customer-attributed photos from Google Places (not just staged marketing shots).
- Social links. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok pulled from the website.
- Reddit signal. We search r/chicago, r/chicagofood, r/bbq, and r/smoking for mentions, then a human reviews each one before it goes live with a direct link to the original thread.
- Summary. A grounded summary from the actual source material, never invented.
What we don't do (yet)
- Delivery-app price comparison. GrubHub and DoorDash markups are real, but their data is not reliable enough yet. We'll add this once we have a workflow.
- Hot takes from random Yelpers. We use Google ratings as the rating baseline because they're the most consistent.
Coverage
Phase one is Chicago and the suburbs. We'll expand coverage as the directory grows.