Barbecue Bets Around Connecticut

This friendly neighborhood barbecue spot caught the attention of Texas Monthly's barbecue critic in 2023, who particularly loved its unique housemade flavored sausages. Hindsight offers all the classics like smoked pulled pork, brisket, ribs, chicken, and turkey, but gets creative with appetizers like Texas Twinkies (brisket and cheese-stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon.)  The team also opened Cowboy Butter BBQ in New Milford in 2025, which owners call "a live-fire cookery and boujee barbecue restaurant." 

Hoodoo Brown brings Texas outlaw-style barbecue to Connecticut (like Hindsight, it also got some love from Texas Monthly "barbecue snob" Daniel Vaughn!) Stuff your face with crispy and smoky chicken and turkey, cracklin' pork belly, mouthwatering ribs, monstrous sandwiches, mac and cheese, apple vinegar slaw, and so much more. For those really serious about barbecue, Hoodoo offers a Barbecue School where you can learn to smoke like the pros.

Try what some say is the best authentic wood-smoked Kansas City style barbecue in Connecticut. Bear's is also known for its unique Moink Balls (bacon-wrapped smoked meatballs) and its outsized BBQ-loaded items, like the Bear Attack with your choice of meat atop a pile of mac and cheese and cornbread. With locations in Hartford, New Haven, Windsor and South Windsor, Bear’s is also the Official BBQ of the UConn Huskies, with a restaurant on the Storrs campus. 

"Great barbecue isn't just in the South," Chester's proclaims, and its menu ranges from Texas beef brisket to Carolina pulled pork, to try to capture as many styles as possible. Chester's is also known for its housemade chili. 

This landmark restaurant and bar in downtown Hartford serves up southern and Cajun cooking in a unique atmosphere, with dishes like St. Louis pork ribs, BBQ beef brisket, and Southern specialties like low country shrimp and grits, jambalaya and blackened catfish. Weekly live music ranges from jazz Wednesdays to rock, blues and authentic Zydeco on Fat Tuesday. 

Pick the right night to go here and you'll get live music along with your maple bourbon baby back ribs, house-made Andouille sausage and southern fried chicken. This popular Westport spot offers good vibes along with great bites.

In an area best known for seafood, Noble Smokehouse adds another option for landlubbers, featuring smoked meats like baby back ribs, sausage, brisket, pulled pork, turkey, and chicken. Housemade sauces span the country's top barbecue regions, like Kansas City sweet and tangy, vinegar- and mustard-based sauces from North and South Carolina, and mayo-based Alabama white. 

At Thomas' Smokey Pit Stop, BBQ is what they do. Devour incredible creations like pulled pork grilled cheese, brisket baked potatoes, spicy smoked sausage sandwiches and the Brisket Pit Bomb - brisket on a hard roll topped with baked mac 'n cheese, coleslaw, and bacon.

Bite into barbecue favorites from smoked crispy pork ribs and smoky brisket poutine to the spicy Nashville chicken sandwich and skillet mac & cheese with all the fixings at this cool, casual joint.

Little Mark's reopened in a new Vernon location in 2025, offering smokehouse entrees like baby back ribs, Carolina pulled pork, brisket with Kansas City sweet sauce and hot Texas sausage. The extensive menu also offers burgers, sandwiches and full plates like a T-bone steak and southern catfish n' chips.