The good thing about BBQ is that it can be pretty easy to do yourself, then you don't have to full around paying 22 bucks for a plate. Heck, Kroger had a special of brisket for 2 bucks a pound the other day - I cooked a whole 14 pound brisket for 24 bucks. That'll get you more than 1 plate.
This.
Come on down to SoCal,
@bayareabadger with a case of Russian River Blind Pig IPA in tow, and I'll show ya the ropes ;-)
That said, I think part of it is that people here in CA don't even know what good BBQ is. People think if you slap BBQ sauce on something it's BBQ. The issue will be that outside of the aficionados who REALLY know BBQ, the good BBQ won't distinguish itself from the mediocre BBQ joints.
I think of it similar to where beer was a decade ago. Places like CA, OR, CO, MI, and portions of the Northeast had great beer. In those areas, very few breweries weren't good, because they were a stone's throw from a place with much better beer, and any consumer that tried both learned the difference pretty quickly. Outside of those places, there were breweries and brewpubs, but a lot of them frankly sucked. The reason for it is that people didn't know the difference between good and bad craft beer, so the bad breweries could survive more on novelty than on quality. It's now grown to the point where palates have gotten better across the country such that bad craft beer is called out as bad craft beer, and everyone has had to up their game, regardless of where they're located.
I don't think BBQ has hit that inflection point yet. Mediocre BBQ in Texas will get run out of town. Mediocre BBQ in California will make the owner rich.
Hence Lucille's
Lucille's.
