With the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments in full swing, we’re joining the fun of bracket competitions with a face-off of our own with our FTWtoday barbecue bracket.

Winner

It was a close race, but raking in 550 votes in the final round, the bracket winner is… Heim Barbecue, voted best barbecue in Cowtown by our readers and social media followers in our FTWtoday barbecue bracket.

Heim is a mom-and-pop shop that prides itself on "farm-to-smoker" ingredients. Started by couple Travis and Emma Heim, the concept began as a food truck and grew to four permanent locations around the greater Fort Worth area.

The founders recently passed operations over to their business partner Will Churchill. Stop by for prime brisket, bacon burnt ends, twice baked potatoes, and green chile mac n' cheese.

We want to extend a major “thank you” to all of you for participating in our bracket challenge the past few weeks. We’ve had a blast seeing how the votes shook out, and we hope you did too.

Looking for more barbecue around town? Check out our brisket guide.

Championship round

The competition is heating up — with 2,000+ votes and some very narrow margins — we’re down to two final “teams" in our FTWtoday barbecue bracket. The finalists are:

Heim Barbecue | Started by couple Travis and Emma Heim, the concept started as a food truck and grew to four permanent locations. The founders recently passed operations over to their business partner Will Churchill.
Panther City BBQ | Also a food-truck-turned-restaurant, Panther City hosts BBQU, a monthly pitmaster class. The owners recently purchased the historic Bailey's Bar-B-Que and are rebranding it as Fort Worth Barbecue Co.

Who should be crowned the champion? Cast your vote below.
Vote on barbe-who should win.

Final Four

Welcome back to our FTWtoday barbecue bracket, where we’re asking you to determine the best barbecue joint in Fort Worth.

After our initial round of votes, we’re down to four “teams” left:

Cousin's Bar-B-Q and Heim Barbecue | Cousin's makes its barbecue "low and slow" and serves meat by the pound in a cafeteria-style dining room. Heim is a mom-and-pop shop that prides itself on "farm-to-smoker" ingredients.
Dayne's Craft Barbecue and Panther City BBQ | Dayne's started as a food truck and recently opened a permanent location in Aledo. Panther City holds the Guinness World Record for longest barbecue marathon.

Ready to decide who moves on to the final two in our bracket? Cast your vote below.

Vote on barbe-who should win.

Round 1

Last year, you helped us name the best margarita: Taco Heads. This year, we asked you to share your favorite barbecue in Cowtown. Now — thanks to you and the help of a random generator — we have the official lineupfor our bracket.

Who’s in the running

Going head-to-head in the first round are:

Cousin's Bar-B-Q and Railhead Smokehouse | Cousin's makes its barbecue "low and slow" and serves meat by the pound in a cafeteria-style dining room + Railhead's menu features a la carte items like baked potatoes and cheese boats.
Heim Barbecue and Brix Barbecue | Heim is a mom-and-pop shop that prides itself on "farm-to-smoker" ingredients. Brix is run by Big T, who loves nothing more than Texas-style smokes and his rescued Boxer-Terrier mix, which the restaurant is named after.
Lil' Boy Blue BBQ and Dayne's Craft Barbecue | Lil' Boy Blue BBQ,a catering and pop-up company, serves upscale Southern classics + Dayne's started as a food truck and recently opened a permanent location in Aledo.
Panther City BBQ and Hurtado Barbecue | Panther City holds the Guinness World Record for longest barbecue marathon + Hurtado adds a Tex-Mex twist into its recipes.

How it works

Beginning today, we will host several voting rounds within our newsletters and social channels to determine Fort Worth’s best barbecue. Who moves on is up to you. Vote for your favorites, and the restaurant with more votes moves on. Simple as that. We’ll go until we have a champion, which will be announced in our Monday, March 25 newsletter. You will be able to voteonce per round.

How to participate

Vote for the barbecue joint you’d like to see advance to round two using this poll. You can vote for all four spots or as little as one. Once we count all the votes, we’ll share an updated bracket and new poll in an upcoming newsletter.

Ready to cheer your “team” to victory? Battle of the barbecue.

Nominations

But first, we need your help nominating the spots you think should be in the bracket.

Using the nomination form, submit the local spot that has your favorite brisket and slaw, pulled pork sammie, or go-to order, and we’ll use your nominations to create a bracket and battle it out in our newsletter and on socials.

Need help brainstorming? Check out our brisket guide to get started.