This might be the prettiest barbecue in the state, with its flower-filled pots on a Westchester street that slopes down to the Hudson River. The St. Louis ribs are nicely charred, the brisket smoke-ringed, and the pork sausage cross-hatched and made in-house. Vegetarian salads on display are particularly colorful, an oddity in good barbecue.

Founded in Syracuse in 1988 and still boasting upstate flourishes, John Stage's Dinosaur Bar-B-Que is one of the more established barbecues in NYC. Rather than settling on a single style, its menu evokes several different places around the state and country. Go for the pork ribs, baked beans, and, best of all, Syracuse salt potatoes. Located on the edge of Columbia University’s north campus, Dinosaur is a great spot for dining with kids. Other locations reside in Park Slope and upstate New York.

This Mott Haven restaurant from pitmaster Robin Hudson does a spectacular job on fundamentals, including a solid brisket sandwich and a passel of smoky pork ribs, matched with a local beer selection and a comfortable dining hall. Hell, this place might as well be in Texas. Lots of quirks keep the menu interesting, including pork belly, a smash burger, chorizo, and jerk chicken. Beef ribs and pastrami are available on Saturdays.

A pork rib sandwich may sound like an impossibility, but in some parts of the South it is considered a classic form of barbecue. Expect sauced ribs between two slices of white bread — and how you eat it is up to you. Grasp the bread carefully and roll the thing around in your mouth until the meat falls off the bone, keeping your hands relatively clean in the process. Shane’s is a multi-state chain originating in Georgia, and other specialties include chicken, pulled pork, and hamburgers — but no brisket or sausage.

Virgil's Real BBQ in Times Square makes real hardwood barbecue more accessible to tourists than any other place in town, and it’s owned by the same hospitality company as the Italian restaurant Carmine’s. The barbecue is surprisingly good despite the corporate feel, with decent brisket, pulled pork, and barbecue beans bobbing with little tidbits of meat. Another branch can be found on the Upper West Side.

Describing itself as Kansas City-style, John Brown BBQ moved into the old location of Mothership Meat Company in Long Island City. The menu is more eclectic than the Kansas City designation suggests, featuring brisket, pulled pork, smoked turkey, and house-cured pastrami. There’s also a beguiling array of invented sandwiches, such as the John Brown Reuben, which deploys pastrami along with Swiss cheese and coleslaw. The fenced and decorated backyard is another lure.

Hill Country turns out a faithful version of Central Texas barbecue, inspired by Kreuz Market in Lockhart. Founded by Texas native Marc Glosserman, the brisket is available fatty or lean, in addition to “clod” (beef shoulder). The small chain (there’s another location in Washington, D.C.) recently started making its own hot links, and they’re damn good. As at basically all great Texas barbecues, the sides are just so-so. The meat is served by the pound on butcher paper with a choice of white bread or soda crackers.

Don’t you love a quirky barbecue, where the level of the output sometimes rises to exemplary, while other things are mediocre? This new pit right on Hoboken’s main drag is run by Myron Mixon, a veteran of the competitive barbecue circuit who’s also a food TV personality. Pulled pork is a highlight, especially when doused with vinegar; the beef and pork sausages are nicely dense and smoky; and as over-the-top as it sounds, a sandwich of brisket topped with mac and cheese is probably the best thing on the menu.

This barbecue in Jersey City, a few blocks from the mouth of the Holland Tunnel, was founded in 2016 by brothers Michael and John Gondevas. In addition to great beef brisket, pork ribs, and pulled pork, find uncommon items such as brisket sausages, crusty and chewy lamb belly, and tacos filled with various forms of barbecue, squiggled with sauces. The fenced-in side yard is an added plus, about as close as the metro area ever comes to Austin.

Mable's is unique among the city’s barbecue joints, a real Oklahoma-style honky tonk fit for brew-swilling crowds. Try the brisket, St. Louis-style ribs, and locally sourced kielbasa that stands in for hot links sausage. The platters with three meats and sides are a good deal for a crowd, but the individual diner or couple could easily be seduced by some of the side offerings, including a Frito pie with top-notch chili, barbecue tacos featuring your choice of meat, and peanut butter pie. Skip the pulled chicken.

This new barbecue across the street from Jersey City’s Grove Street PATH station doubles as a beer bar, and has seats along the open front windows that offer great views — and predictably, there’s a speakeasy in the basement. Chef and pitmaster Kenny Callaghan was the original pitmaster at Blue Smoke, and his beef ribs and pulled pork appetizer are the things to get. Southern specialties like pimento cheese and deviled eggs round out the menu.

While the original branch of barbecue pioneer Blue Smoke closed during the pandemic, the Battery Park City outpost motors on under chef Bret Lunsford. This branch has always been known for its ribs in the Memphis and St. Louis styles smoked over cherry wood. The Texas-style brisket sandwich is good, too, and so is the barbecued chicken, smoked and then grilled. From there the menu wanders needlessly off into things like fried chicken and chips with queso.

Early on, this 15-year-old barbecue spot tucked in a Williamsburg alleyway established itself as a maverick operation with a broad range of barbecue options. The chalkboard menu often ran to pork belly, beef tongue, pork chops, and pig tails, in addition to the usual ribs and brisket. The quality has always been high, with a much more aggressive drink program than most barbecue spots, including shots of premium whiskies.

Brooklyn BBQ is a year-old establishment at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn Heights with an eclectic assortment of meats. Sure, the fatty brisket and burnished pork ribs are top notch, but also find some really distinguished Alabama-style chicken thighs speckled with a black pepper rub, and a pork-and-cheddar cheese sausage with a snappy skin. Sides are pretty much all the usual.

Royal Rib NYC, known originally as Royal Rib House, was founded in the 1970s, before the city had real hardwood barbecue, reflecting traditions of the Carolinas. For the time it sufficed, turning out ribs, pulled pork, and chickens that derived smoky flavor and crisp exterior from a vertical rotisserie cabinet. The storied place closed in 2019, but has since reopened further east, offering a menu that also lists fried chicken and also seafood. The soul-food sides persist, along with banana pudding, apple cobbler, and sweet potato pie for dessert.

When Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue burned down two years ago, my feeling was that it was already slipping in the quality of its smoked meat. But now it’s back with a bang. The substantial, black-pepper-rubbed pork ribs are better than before, the footlong jalapeno sausage is spicy and grainy enough for anyone’s taste, and the brisket is tasty — even though it’s sliced with the grain contrary to the usual practice. The roadhouse ambiance feels just right.