AUTHOR BIO: Kris Furrevig is an engineer and FSU grad who lives in Fort Lauderdale. He's an expert in the peatiest of whiskies and tacos made from fresh-caught lobsters.
The best barbecue I’ve eaten in 2026 came from La Traila in South Miami.
And I’ve been to Louisville twice this year.
Owners Mel Rodriguez, Erik Velasquez, and Jerry Pasantes opened this location in April, building its menu around Texas barbecue and the Latin American flavors that have long shaped South Florida. Rodriguez is originally from Austin, and La Traila’s two hulking smokers begin their work at 3:30 every morning.
I visited for a rum dinner created with Diplomático, the Venezuelan producer. Four courses arrived with four cocktails, and each rum was also poured separately—a particularly efficient way to turn dinner into a spirits lesson.
For the occasion, La Traila leaned into Diplomático’s Venezuelan roots. A corn empanada came stuffed with smoked brisket and queso, with guasacaca alongside it. The combination worked because the brisket remained the main event, while the sharp, herbaceous sauce kept all that smoke and cheese from becoming too heavy.
A crisp arepa carried smoked pork belly, queso de mano, avocado, pickled cabbage, and garlic crema. The pork was rich enough to require some resistance, and the cabbage provided it. Better still was a patacón topped with smoked beef cheek, queso de mano, guasacaca, and pickled onions. The plantain cracked beneath the fork, followed by beef that had surrendered almost entirely to the smoker.
These were special-event dishes, but they showed how comfortably La Traila moves between Central Texas and South Florida. Nothing about the Venezuelan additions felt pasted onto the barbecue for the night.
Then we got down to brass tacks: meat straight from the pit. The beef brisket and pork belly brisket arrived tender, deeply smoky, and still juicy after their long hours over the fire. The fat was the detail I kept returning to. Brisket fat can be rubbery enough to leave diners performing minor surgery at the table. Here, it had rendered into something soft and nearly translucent, carrying smoke through each bite instead of getting in its way.
That brisket alone was enough to make La Traila my favorite barbecue stop of the year.
The restaurant occupies a corner in South Miami, with ample parking nearby—an amenity Miami diners learn not to take lightly. We arrived during golden hour, when the patio offered views of the Metrorail and the sunset without leaving us to squint through dinner.
Inside, wood-paneled walls and rustic details nod toward a Texas cabin, although the cooking says far more about the restaurant than the décor does. La Traila isn’t merely reproducing Austin barbecue in Miami. It is filtering those traditions through empanadas, arepas, guasacaca, plantains, and the city around it.
Come for the brisket. If the pork belly is available, order that too. And if you’re headed to Louisville anytime soon, tell them South Miami has entered the conversation.
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