Short answer: Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin, named Texas Monthly's No. 1 barbecue joint in Texas, cooks with post oak from ButlerWood. We supply consistent, naturally aged bbq wood so the restaurant can turn out the same quality every single day.

Great barbecue starts with great wood. In downtown Seguin, Burnt Bean Co. cooks the barbecue that Texas Monthly named the No. 1 joint in Texas for 2025, and the post oak in their pits comes from ButlerWood. Clean fire, well-trimmed meat, and wood that burns the same way every time are what separate good barbecue from the best.

When wood is doing this much of the work, it has to be right. Burnt Bean's pitmasters, Ernest Servantes and Dave Kirkland, built their name on consistency, and consistency starts with the bbq wood going into the pit. That is where ButlerWood comes in. Burnt Bean cooks on post oak we grow, age, and deliver, and the partnership is a clear example of what good wood does for serious barbecue.

A Seguin partnership built on consistency

Burnt Bean and ButlerWood are practically neighbors. The restaurant sits on South Austin Street in downtown Seguin, and one of our two Texas wood yards is right here in the same town. That closeness matters when a kitchen is firing pits before sunrise and cannot afford a bad load of wood.

Servantes and Kirkland came up on the competition barbecue circuit, then opened Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin in October 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. They kept their focus on one goal the whole way through, which was serving the same plate every single day. A restaurant doing that kind of volume lives and dies on whether the smoke tastes the same on a Tuesday in January as it does on a Saturday in July. Customers notice fast when the chicken tastes different one week to the next. The wood has to deliver the same burn and the same flavor profile load after load, or the food drifts.

That is a tall order for any wood supplier, and it is the part most people never think about. Anybody can sell you a pile of oak once. Selling the same quality post oak, week after week, all year long, takes a different kind of operation behind it.

Why post oak is the backbone of Texas barbecue

Post oak is the standard for Central Texas barbecue for good reason. It burns clean, throws a mild smoke, and lets the meat come through instead of covering it up. For barbecue where you want the meat to lead, that is the point. Heavy woods can bury a good brisket. Post oak holds it up.

The wood itself is shaped by where it grows. Austin Butler, ButlerWood Co-Owner, explains it plainly:

"Post oak is really just a white oak tree, but it is grown here in Central Texas. Because it is so dense, it produces a mild flavor where you can still taste the meat more than the smoke. That is why it is so popular."

Moisture content is the other half of the story. Wood that is too wet throws a heavy, dirty smoke that turns food bitter. Properly aged wood does the opposite. Within the first several minutes the moisture has cooked off and the wood settles into a clean burn, the kind that gives you a thin, almost clear smoke instead of thick gray clouds. We target a moisture range that keeps the wood easy to light and quick to settle, which is exactly what an offset smoker, a pellet grill, or a backyard kamado needs. You can find that same post oak in our cooking wood collection.

From our field to their pit

Burnt Bean could buy wood from almost anyone. The reason they stay with ButlerWood is the same reason a lot of restaurants and wholesalers do. We make our own wood. We are not a reseller buying product off a truck and passing it along at a markup. We clear the land, sort and age the wood, run our own trucking, and deliver it ourselves. Austin Butler, ButlerWood Co-Owner, sums up the difference:

"Having the ability to control your own destiny from field to barbecue pit has always been the goal. That is what separates us from a lot of other specialty cookwood providers. We are doing it on a vertical scale, from field to barbecue pit."

That control is what keeps the product steady. Every stick is hand sorted, and only the wood that meets spec leaves the yard. Anything rotten, off-size, or too wet gets pulled and repurposed before it ever reaches a customer. You can read more about how we do it on our about page.

What Burnt Bean's approach teaches other cooks

You do not need a Texas Monthly ranking to cook this way. The same ideas work in a backyard smoker and a commercial pit alike:

1. Start with the wood. Good wood and good meat need very little help. The foundation matters more than any rub or gadget.

2. Mind your moisture content. Aim for cooking wood in the 10 to 15 percent range for most smokers and grills so it lights easy and burns clean.

3. Buy from a producer, not a middleman. A producer can hold quality and supply you steadily all year instead of scrambling in peak season.

4. Match the wood to your cook. Use post oak for a clean, mild base, then reach for mesquite or hickory when you want a heavier, bolder smoke, and pecan when you want something sweeter and milder.

The wood is the foundation. Get that part right and the rest of barbecue gets a lot easier.

Cook on the same wood as Texas's best

ButlerWood is a family-owned cooking wood and firewood producer in the heart of Central Texas. We source our own wood through in-house land clearing, age it naturally in the Texas sun, then heat-treat it to meet USDA standards before it ships. We run two yards in Seguin and Gonzales, own our trucking and logistics, and proudly carry the Go Texan mark. We sell single boxes for backyard cooks and full truckloads for restaurants across the country, and all of it is sorted by hand and held to the same standard.

Want to cook on the same post oak behind Texas Monthly's No. 1 barbecue? Shop our post oak and the full cooking wood collection online, with shipping to all 50 states. Restaurants and high-volume buyers can request a bulk quote and we will help map out a burn rate so your kitchen never runs short. Call us at 830-205-1035 or stop by the Seguin or Gonzales yard.