Yes the Backyard is the best BBQ, even when it is not perfect. And no offense to anyone here, as is good music...good food is an opinion....except mine of course.
But going out...you should be paying for a Pit Master, not the fast food employee who happened to get hired at Dickeys or Spring Creek. SC does not season, they mass cook brisket on gas fired, commercial, rotisserie type cookers that they throw a couple of sticks of hickory in to. Then set a time clock. NOT BBQ. Dickeys is much the same, however, they are a franchised operation...so it could be worse, or could be better.
Yes Lockhart is indeed the heart of good BBQ. Smitty's to me, is essential Texas BBQ, just walking thru that screen door thru back into the pit area, ordering your meat and having them cut for you, right out of the pits. That is BBQ.