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Los Angeles stumbles toward barbecue stardom

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Barbecue sampler at Ray's BBQ, Huntington Park, Calif.
Barbecue sampler at Ray's BBQ, Huntington Park, Calif.J.C. Reid

There was a faint fragrance of smoke at Pearl's BBQ, in a gritty warehouse district just east of downtown Los Angeles.

Despite the locale, Pearl's has the look and feel of a cooler-than-thou Austin barbecue trailer. A giant Texas flag hangs from one end of a spacious metal shed encompassing picnic tables and a shiny Airstream trailer where you place your order. The centerpiece of the dining area is a colossal offset barrel smoker.

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The best way to keep up with L.A.'s "underground" barbecue scene is to follow the various vendors on their Instagram social media accounts:

instagram.com/pearlsbbqla

instagram.com/ragtopfernsbbq

instagram.com/mooscraftbarbecue

instagram.com/trudys_underground_barbecue

Alas, placing my hand on the smoker's firebox revealed the steel compartment to be cold to the touch. And that smell of smoke didn't come from cooking barbecue but rather from the recent wildfires that raged among the hills surrounding Los Angeles.

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Pearl's was in the last weekend of a well-publicized "soft opening" before the official launch a few days later. Restaurants use soft openings to work out the kinks in service and food quality, and Pearl's was still working on both. The brisket was overcooked and lacked any noticeable smoke flavor.

In a sense, Pearl's is a microcosm of the barbecue scene in Los Angeles that often seems to emphasize style over substance. Unlike the barbecue scene in New York, where several legitimate Texas-style barbecue joints anchor a thriving culture of smoked meats, the Los Angeles barbecue scene is still trying to figure out what is wants to be.

My last visit to Los Angeles two years ago coincided with the rise of upscale barbecue joints such as Barrel & Ashes, Maple Block Meat Co. and Bludso's Bar & Que. Although some good barbecue can be had at these locations, my hardcore L.A. barbecue buddies derisively refer to them as "craft-cocktail bars with a barbecue joint attached."

More recently, Los Angeles has embraced an "underground" barbecue movement equivalent to pop-up restaurants in other cities. But L.A. is a city driven by hype and exclusivity, and the "underground" moniker is a clever way to draw attention to the trend.

Trudy's Underground Barbecue is the best known of these purveyors, garnering a splashy profile in Food & Wine Magazine, among other mentions in local media outlets.

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Trudy's wasn't active during my visit, but I was able to check out two other barbecue pop-ups that have recently gained notoriety.

Ragtop Fern's BBQ opens on most weekends in the small front yard of pitmaster Fernando Carrillo's apartment building in the Rampart Village area of central L.A. The name comes from Carrillo's predilection for ragtops, or convertible cars. His vertical smoker, named Lucifer, sits on the sidewalk in front pumping out a legitimate volume of smoke.

Though not technically Texas-style in that it eschews a heavy salt-and-pepper rub, Carrillo's beef and pork ribs were well cooked with a measured flavor of smoke.

Another pop-up gaining notice is Moo's Craft Barbecue in the traditionally Hispanic East L.A. On a recent weekend, owners Michelle and Andrew Muñoz set up shop at Angry Horse Brewing in the area's Montebello neighborhood. The Muñozes' operation makes frequent trips to Texas, and their barbecue reflects that. Using an all-wood-burning offset barrel smoker, their smoked meats are some of the best and most authentic Texas-style barbecue I've tasted in Los Angeles.

Though showing some bright spots, Los Angeles barbecue is still looking for direction. The underground scene is certainly cool, but translating the occasional weekend barbecue pop-up into a daily barbecue restaurant is the hard part.

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Full-time barbecue joints such as Ray's BBQ in Huntington Park and Bigmista's Barbecue in Long Beach may not get the flattering media attention, but they should be recognized for producing consistently good barbecue on a daily basis.

Hopefully, newcomers such as Pearl's can follow their lead and get the consistency factor right. And if purveyors Trudy's, Ragtop Fern's and Moo's can find a way to make the jump from pop-ups to full-time barbecue joints, the substance of Los Angeles barbecue will move from the underground to the light of day.

A native of Beaumont, J.C. Reid graduated from the University of Southern California after studying architecture and spent his early career as an architect in New York City. He returned to Texas in 1995, retiring from architecture but creating his own Internet business in Houston. As his business became self-sustaining, he began traveling Houston and the world to pursue his passion: eating barbecue.

He began blogging about food and barbecue for the Houston Chronicle in 2010 and founded the Houston Barbecue Project in 2011 to document barbecue eateries throughout the area. Just last year, Reid and others founded the Houston Barbecue Festival to showcase mom-and-pop barbecue joints in the city. The 2014 event drew 2,000 guests to sample meats from 20 restaurants.

You can view more of J.C.'s work at jcreidtx.com.