They say good barbecue only comes around once in a blue moon, but Blue Moon BBQ in Lebanon has won Best Lunch in Nashville twice! For the second year in a row, Fooda consumers have proclaimed that Blue Moon BBQ serves the best of the best brisket, smoked chicken, and pulled pork. Oh, and mac and cheese, of course. We caught up with Owner and Pitmaster Todd Beaird to get the scoop on what’s new at Blue Moon BBQ and even scored the recipe for his Texas Style Brisket.

What’s new at Blue Moon BBQ since we last spoke?

We changed out a couple of side items since last year. Before we were doing baked beans but we got a lot of requests for a healthier vegetarian option. Now we’re serving meatless green beans. The healthcare industry is big in Nashville, and those companies suggest that their employees eat healthier. We fine-tune our menu a little bit to cater to the lunch crowd. We also added a broccoli casserole side and dessert.

For catering, we added a black bean burger as a vegetarian option. We’re listening to what customers want and take their suggestions into consideration when building our menu.

What would you say is your best-selling dish?

Our Texas Style Brisket has taken the lead a little bit. If we run out of anything, that’s the first to go. Our broccoli casserole has taken the lead on the sides; it’s a toss up with the mac and cheese.

What’s your personal favorite dish?

If I were going to go through line and order, I’d get smoked chicken, broccoli casserole, and potato salad.

Do you have a recipe we can share?

This is the recipe for our Texas Style Brisket – our most popular item.

Why do you think consumers vote you best lunch in Nashville?

Our philosophy with Fooda is the same as in the restaurant. Talk to customers and get feedback. We find out what they like and what they’d like to see different and tweak from there.

What food trends are you seeing in Nashville, if any?

The Nashville area is still trending towards fast casual. People don’t have as much time to sit down and be waited on. With us, you’re eating within five minutes of walking in the door.

Do you have any exciting plans for Blue Moon BBQ in the near future?

We have two or three possibilities in terms of expansion. Someone may partner up with us to open a second location, whether we decide to do a full service restaurant or run a catering business out of it.

We’re always playing around with menu items, too. We have a vegetable of the day every day in the restaurant; we brought in a few different desserts to test out. With catering we get creative. A few weeks ago we did an authentic Mexican meal, and we’re doing an Italian meal coming up. We’re trying to get outside of just serving barbecue and make good food in general. We’re constantly playing with our concept – whatever comes our way, we’ll take it on.

Fooda consumers voted Blue Moon BBQ the Best Lunch in Nashville for the second year in a row. Make the trek to Lebanon to get a taste of their famous Texas Style Brisket and – if you can tear yourself away from the mac and cheese – try the broccoli casserole.