BBQ 2Fifty Flying High In Top 100 BBQ Restaurants

Local Favorite Is Scorching In Top 100

Maryland BBQ stalwart 2Fifty Texas BBQ has earned national kudos, landing at No. 28 on Yelp’s newly released “Top 100 BBQ Restaurants in the U.S., According to Yelp Elites.” The recognition spotlights a Central Texas–style operation that has quietly become a destination on both sides of the Beltway, with locations in Riverdale Park and downtown Washington, DC.

Yelp’s write-up lauds 2Fifty as a place where “open flames and real wood fuel the slow-smoked magic,” praising its traditional Texas cuts and a slate of from-scratch sides informed by the kitchen’s roots. That ethos starts with pitmaster and co-owner Fernando González, who frames the craft in elemental terms. “We don’t use gas. We don’t take shortcuts,” he said. “Every brisket, rib, and sausage here is cooked with wood, fire, and feel.” Trained in Texas, González says the seasoning at 2Fifty carries “a little bit of home: the stories, the beans, the late nights,” favoring patience over flash, “just craft, sweat, and smoke.”

The restaurant describes its approach as classic Central Texas barbecue—spare, wood-driven, and technique-heavy. Meats are seasoned mainly with salt and pepper, then smoked in offset pits, a setup that demands vigilance and time rather than automation. The result is the kind of bark, smoke ring, and balance that devotees line up for: brisket that slices with a sag, ribs that yield with a tug, and sausages that snap clean.