Nick Kindelsperger: As Texas barbecue ascends in Chicago, what happens to the city's South Side style?

CHICAGO — When picking my first Chicago apartment in 2008, barbecue may have swayed my decision. Although my Bucktown walk-up had excessively creaky floors and windows so old the air whipped right in, it was also two blocks from Honey 1 BBQ.

There I could watch owner Robert Adams Sr. cook all the meat in a fascinating glass-sided smoker, often called an aquarium smoker. The contraption had no dials, switches or temperature gauges. If the heat needed to be higher, Adams added more wood. To cool it down, he sprayed the inside with water.

“I came from the South, and we didn’t have gas when we were coming up,” Adams said of growing up in Arkansas. “I’m keeping it all original. My mom cooked on a wood stove. I cook with my 10-foot pit the same way.”

While customers could order pulled pork or a rack of ribs, most people went with the rib tips, small smoky pieces of pork riddled with bones and cartilage. If you didn’t mind some dexterous