When national food lovers speak of the best cities for barbecue, Denver doesn’t often make the list — but the Q BBQ Fest is attempting to change that.

The festival, held in Civic Center on Friday and Saturday, brought together 12 pit masters from all over the country, with a few hailing from Colorado. Attendees were able to try different barbecued cuisine, see cooking demonstrations and put Denver barbecue up against some of the best in the nation.

“When we started Q BBQ in 2018, Denver was not a barbecue town,” Brady Archer, festival director and vice president of operations for Q BBQ Fest, said. “I feel like what we’ve done in the last six years has really turned Denver into a barbecue town to the point where the local pit masters that we’re bringing out, they’re just as good as those Kansas City, those Saint Louis, those Texas boys.”

The festival, which has iterations across the country, celebrated its sixth year in the city, moving to Civic Center park from Empower Field, where it was held the last five years.

And though smoky flavors poured through the air, filling the park with delicious aromas, the question still remained — is Denver really a barbecue town like Kansas City, Austin and St. Louis?

An estimated 12,000 people attended the two-day festival, and all raved about the food, but Denver’s status as a barbecue destination was mixed.

“We kind of had three or four options without boutique barbecue. We’ve had a lot of names come and go,” Blaine Baggao, chef and owner of Adobo, said of the local barbecue scene around five years ago, which he believes is growing.

Baggao and Adobo are certainly a shining example of that growth.

After starting the Adobo food truck in 2017 — bringing together New Mexican and Filipino flavors — Baggao saw continued success with an array of awards, a feature on Netflix in 2020, a flagship restaurant that opened on Speer and Federal, the opening of Gayle’s Texas BBQ in McGregor Square and Moonrise Garden Bar food truck park in Wheat Ridge.

“I was struggling with life and decided to start a food truck to rewrite my story,” Baggao said of Adobo, which he began after an accident caused a significant brain injury, stopping his career in finance. “I was able to build back my brain skills and elasticity through cooking on the truck.”

His love for cooking and continued success helped bring back his confidence, he said.

He shares that same confidence in Denver barbecue, as well.

“There’s a lot of people that have things that they do really well, that I think on a national level would be as good as anybody,” he said. “I don’t think Denver has its own kind of barbecue, but it is bringing together a lot of different scenes. Everybody has their own style, and I think that’s what Denver loves. They know they can go find anything if they work hard. It’s probably out there.”

“In general, barbecue culture in Denver is lacking,” Bill Espiricueta, owner of Smok Barbecue in RiNo and Fort Collins, said, pointing toward the other barbecue restaurants attempting to start a local culture like you’d see in Kansas City or Austin. “It’s not necessarily a competition, but more about showing our individual styles and our perspectives for what we do.”

To build that culture, Espiricueta said, people need to start going out and talking more about barbecue. He pointed toward his upbringing in Austin and living in Kansas City where families go out for barbecue three times a week.

But, like Baggao, he added that the lack of specific style in Denver is a positive.

“Because there are so many transplants in Colorado, it’s kind of a melting pot of barbecue,” he said. “Nobody here is sticking to one style. Because of the way the clientele and customers are, we have to be diverse enough to get attention from everybody’s palate.”

Archer agreed with the meat melting pot idea.

“We’ve got folks that have moved out from all across the country and they’ve brought their favorite styles with them,” he said. “Whether it’s that smoky Texas brisket or that tanginess from the Carolinas, you get a little of all of it in Denver.”

The attendees, trying out all of the different flavors, noted how great the food and festival were for the scene, though.

“No,” Bryan Werkmeister, an attendee at the festival that has lived in Denver for 10 years, said of whether Denver has a barbecue scene. “It’s always a struggle finding good barbecue in Colorado. You have to know what you’re looking for… It’s nice to bring visibility to it with festivals like this. I’d love for it to change.”

“So far, I’ve tried a few places and the brisket is phenomenal,” Kyle Coba, who was visiting from New Jersey, said. “But I would never think of Denver as a barbecue city. It was a shock that this was occurring here, so I had to try it.”

“We’re from the South, just outside of Memphis. Comparatively, it’s pretty awesome,” Stacy Wahrer said, noting that she hadn’t had a bad thing at the festival.

“There’s absolutely a Denver barbecue scene,” Scott Wahrer said. “We’ve got a little bit of everything. If you want vinegar, you can find vinegar. If you want sugar, you can find sugar.”

And the festival certainly showcased the variety, bringing attention to the growing scene.

“It’s a lot of different communities overlapping,” Baggao said of the festival. “I really love the barbecue community and I want to be there at all of the events to be part of it and support it… You want to be at the big game. You’ll have a hard time finding a better place to showcase your barbecue.”