Distant Relatives

Is Distant Relatives worth booking in Austin?

Yes; and if you've already been once, it's worth going back with a clearer plan. Distant Relatives earned Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in both 2024 and 2025, which for a $$ barbecue spot in Austin is a signal that Michelin's inspectors found it consistently delivering quality above its price point. Chef Damien Brockway's approach sits at the intersection of Texas barbecue tradition and African diaspora cooking, the result is a menu that shifts with seasons and sourcing in ways that most Austin pits don't. That seasonal rotation is the main reason to keep returning; what you ate on your first visit may not be what's available now, that's a feature, not a bug.

The case for booking

Two consecutive Bib Gourmand awards carry weight in a city where barbecue competition is among the most intense in the country. The Bib Gourmand designation specifically recognises good food at moderate prices, so at the $$ price tier, Distant Relatives is operating at a level that Michelin considers punching above its weight class. For context, achieving that recognition alongside Austin heavyweights like Franklin BBQ and InterStellar BBQ means Brockway's kitchen is being held to a serious competitive standard, passing.

The address, 3901 Promontory Point Dr in the 78744 zip code, puts Distant Relatives in the St. Elmo/South Austin corridor, away from the tourist-heavy downtown barbecue trail. That matters practically: you're less likely to be eating alongside a bachelor party, the crowd skews local. If your first visit was a weekend afternoon, consider a weekday visit next time. Booking is rated easy, meaning you don't need to plan weeks in advance the way you would at Franklin BBQ or queue at la Barbecue. That accessibility is part of the value proposition.

Seasonal rotation: what it means for your visit

The editorial angle that matters most here is seasonality. Brockway's menu isn't static in the way that a traditional Texas BBQ pit's menu tends to be, brisket, ribs, sausage, repeat. The rotating seasonal components mean that sides, preparations, supplemental dishes change based on what's available and what fits the broader African and Southern culinary references the kitchen draws on. For a returning visitor, this is the most important practical point: check what's current before you go. A dish that anchored your first visit may be off-menu, something worth trying may have appeared since.

Seasonality also affects when to visit. Summer visits in Austin mean heat, outdoor queuing at most pits, peak tourist traffic. Distant Relatives, with its easier booking situation, is a stronger choice in high-season Austin than venues where you'd be in a line at 8am. In cooler months, October through March, the outdoor barbecue experience is more comfortable across the board, if the kitchen is drawing on seasonal produce, the fall and winter menus at a place like this tend to be when the agricultural calendar works most in the kitchen's favour. That's a reason to prioritise a return visit in that window if you went in summer.

For a second visit specifically, the move is to focus on whatever is furthest from conventional Texas barbecue on the current menu. The Bib Gourmand recognition isn't for doing brisket better than everyone else, it's for doing something with a distinct point of view at an accessible price. Lean into that. The more you treat Distant Relatives like a pit stop for standard Central Texas BBQ, the less value you extract from what makes it worth two Michelin nods. Peer spots like LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue and Briscuits offer solid barbecue in a similar price tier, if you want direct Central Texas smoked meat, those are legitimate alternatives. Distant Relatives is the choice when you want barbecue with a broader culinary conversation happening around it.

Practical details

Distant Relatives sits at the $$ price tier, which for Austin barbecue means you're in the mid-range, more than a quick lunch counter, less than a tasting menu experience. Booking is easy relative to the Austin BBQ category, where waits and sell-outs are common at the most-discussed spots. Hours are not published in the venue's current data, so confirm before visiting, barbecue kitchens frequently close when product runs out, a seasonal, scratch-focused kitchen like this one is particularly prone to early sell-outs on specific items.

No dress code applies, this is barbecue. Solo diners do well here given the counter and casual format. For groups, the accessible booking situation means coordinating a table is less stressful than at comparable Austin spots. If you're building a broader Austin dining itinerary, pair Distant Relatives with a dinner reservation somewhere in the $$$-$$$$ range, Olamaie for Southern, or Kemuri Tatsu-ya for a different kind of fire-forward cooking, you've covered the city's range without over-spending. For those building out a full Austin trip, our full Austin restaurants guide, Austin hotels guide, Austin bars guide, Austin wineries guide, and Austin experiences guide cover the rest.

In the broader American barbecue and fire-cooking context, Distant Relatives occupies an interesting position: it's earning the kind of recognition that typically gets attached to destination-dining restaurants like Lazy Bear in San Francisco or Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, but at a fraction of the price and with none of the booking difficulty. That gap between recognition and accessibility is exactly what the Bib Gourmand is meant to flag. If you're travelling through Austin and have one barbecue meal to spend, Distant Relatives is the pick over spots with longer queues and narrower menus, provided you go in knowing that the seasonal, rotating format rewards curiosity over habit. Across the Gulf South, comparable fire-forward creativity at the $$ tier is rare: CorkScrew BBQ in Spring is worth knowing for traditional Central Texas, but Distant Relatives is doing something different enough that the comparison doesn't quite hold. Internationally, wood-fire focused kitchens like Oretachi No Nikuya in Taichung show how fire cooking translates across culinary traditions, which is, in its own way, the same conversation Brockway is having in South Austin.