Burnt Bean Co. chefs fall short of top prize, but still recognized as two of the best in the nation
6 Jun 2023
Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
Darren Dunn
(Chicago, IL) — Ernest Servantes and David Kirkland are still in some rare company. The dynamic duo behind Seguin’s wildly popular Burnt Bean Company fell short in their bid last night to be named the best chefs in Texas, but just being nominated for a James Beard Award is still an unbelievable honor for these two Seguin restaurateurs.
Burnt Bean Co., located on South Austin Street across from the Guadalupe County Courthouse, has become a destination spot for local residents and out-of-towners alike. It’s more than just a barbecue joint. It offers some of the most delicious sides, desserts, entrees and of course barbecue.
On Sunday mornings, it also becomes one of the best places to enjoy breakfast specialties, like brisket juevos rancheros, menudo, and my personal favorite — the Blue October sandwich, which features moist brisket served on a flaky croissant, with a fried egg, jalapeno cream cheese and strawberry jam. They also have regular specials featured on their menu, like their Red Cheeseburgers, pork steak, and their chicken and sausage gumbo.
We thought it was important to spend a little time on their menu today, because afterall — it’s the food that sets them apart from other restaurants in the Lone Star State, and it’s the food that earned them the highly-coveted nomination for the best chefs in Texas award from the James Beard Foundation.
The foundation held its annual award ceremony last night in Chicago. Servantes and Kirkland were there, representing Seguin in-style, with their families. In the end, they didn’t win. The award, instead, went to Benchawan Jabthong Painter, the owner and chef at Street to Kitchen, a Thai restaurant in Houston.
But for Servantes and Kirkland, just to be nominated is a major prize in and of itself. There were only five nominees in the Texas category. That means out of all of the chefs in Texas, these two from Seguin, Texas stood out in a most amazing way. Not only were they the only barbecue restaurant on the list of nominees, but they also represented a community that was by far the smallest of all of the communities that had restaurants and chefs nominated this year.
We hope to have reactions from Servantes and Kirkland on the air soon, but in the meantime, we wanted to say congratulations to them on their nomination. And we also wanted to say that we will be pulling for them next year, because Seguin certainly hopes and expects that they will be nominated again.
The James Beard Awards are considered to be the nation’s most prestigious honor, recognizing exceptional talent in the culinary arts and food media industries.
In addition to being selected as finalists for the James Beard Foundation Awards, Burnt Bean is ranked No. 4 on Texas Monthly’s Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints and was voted Best BBQ Joint in the 2021 BBQ Battle sponsored by GVEC.
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