Eats BBQ - Gluttony never tasted so good

The new joint in downtown Austin: Blue Ribbon BBQ

July 23rd, 2010 posted by Ray Pierce0 Comments

By pure luck we heard that there was a new BBQ joint in downtown Austin called Blue Ribbon BBQ. Since most of the EatsBBQ crew works in the area that’s awesome for us. It’s actually just across the street Mike’s office, and few blocks away from mine. It’s in the bottom of the Frost Tower (in the old WeFuse space) on 4th Street.

When you walk in it’s not your typical BBQ place. There aren’t pits anywhere to be found. Before you lose total interest, know that they actually smoke the meat in Taylor, TX. So there is some cred there, just not the full allotment. It looks like a restaurant that’s in an office complex. Walls are clean and untarnished by smoke, there are windows and they let a lot of light in, and their are pictures of BBQ pits, pitmasters, and meat on the walls. Very atypical of the every other BBQ place you’ve seen.

Even with the decor not what I was used to, I bellied up to the counter and placed my order. 2 meat plate with sausage and brisket, sweet corn, and potato salad. The rest of crew ordered and I think we got every kind of meat they had available. So there was a sampling of everything. One of the bright spots of day was the serving size. It was very large. In the downtown area you just get accustomed to paying a lot or small serving sizes. So nice surprise.

Photos by Ray Pierce

Turkey and Chopped Brisket

Brisket and Ribs

Brisket and Sausage

The brisket was well smoked and had a good flavor. It wasn’t as tender as I would have liked, but not bad none the less. It seemed to be a pretty lean cut of meat, and I suppose that is what lead to it. The sausage was a medium ground packed sausage. It was well above average. Not as good as Meyer’s sausage, but good. They serve it with a sweet BBQ sauce. Not as sweet as the Salt Lick though. From trying the other guys plates, we also found out that they do a mean smoked turkey. Next time that I go I will probably order it.

As for the sides, they had large serving sizes as well. The corn that I had was very good and seemed pretty fresh. The potato salad wasn’t as good as I was hoping for. It was like Rudy’s Potato salad, just not as good.

I was very pleased with the results of the lunch. Especially since it wasn’t overly expensive either. I spent under $15 for all of that and was more than I should have eaten. It’s not got the history of some of the out lying BBQ joints, but it puts up a decent fight. So in my opinion this was a very good value and would recommend it for anyone in the downtown area.

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Categories: Austin, Blue Ribbon BBQ, Texas

BBQ Tour: The Original Rudy’s

July 10th, 2010 posted by Ray Pierce1 Comments

For most of us Austinites, Rudy’s is a staple of our BBQ diet. It is one of the places that you point visitors and new residents to get a feel for what Texas BBQ is all about. In fact the 183/Duval store was the first place I was taken when I moved to Austin in 1998. Although, in all of my years in this area I hadn’t ever made the trek down to Leon Springs to eat at the original Rudy’s. What a better way to remedy that than to setup an EatsBBQ.com outing to the Original Rudy’s.

Rudy’s is a bit of a trek for us in Austin. It’s about an hour and half South of Austin on the outskirts of San Antonio just off of IH-10 in Leon Springs, TX. To date this is the furthest we have traveled for a BBQ outing. That being the case I was a bit worried about the participation. In the end though we had a great turnout. In fact it was our largest to date with 16 people showing up. There were even several first time participants that came with us.

The building is an old convenience store that has an attached BBQ pit. There’s a fair amount of banquet tables and folding chairs available to sit inside the store, or larger dining area just behind the store. There is also wooden picnic tables around the outside of the building for seating. This particular Rudy’s is situated in front of a creek, and over the years has experience several floods. There is a large mural in the larger dining area that is depicts the floods and what was done in those situations. As a reminder there are also water mark to show how high the flood waters came and into the building.

When you enter the pit area it’s lined with standard ice cover sodas and beers in troughs. These help to form the path to work your way up to the counter to place your order. Unlike the other Rudy’s we’ve become accustom to the counter area is not air conditioned. The employees are working in a pit area and it’s quite warm on a Summer day. The area itself isn’t as large as I would have expected to output that much food. We started in line around 1:30pm, and it wasn’t nearly as crowded as I had expected. The line barely reached the outside of the pit area. I’ve heard that it snakes around the building a long way on Sunday afternoon’s though.

So on to the real reason we made the trip. BBQ!

Photos by Ray Pierce

Rudy’s has a pretty standard selection of sides and meats to choose from. They had Lean and moist brisket, chopped brisket, sausage, turkey, chicken, St. Louis and baby back ribs. For sides they have potato salad, cole slaw, and cream corn.

I ordered moist brisket, turkey, 2 baby back ribs, potato salad, and a fountain drink. Pretty much the standard fare for comparison to the other places that we’ve been. The guy taking my order got confused and had to ask me again what I ordered. It’s obviously not the well oiled machine that the franchises area.

After I got to the table, I figured out that I ended up with lean brisket instead of moist. I’m not big on their lean brisket just because it dries out so much. And just like I had anticipated the brisket was dry. It had a good smoke ring, was tender, and tasted fine. It was just dry. From there I moved on to the turkey. It was just as flavorful as all the other Rudy’s, and just like those places it’s hit or miss on the juiciness of it. This one ended up moderately moist to dry. At first glance at the ribs, I know for a fact they are going to be dry as well. It’s almost like they’ve been under a heat lamp for hours. They tasted good, but baby backs that are dried out aren’t all that appealing to me. They had a great flavor, but I didn’t finish them off.

So the theme of the day for my meat selections were Dry Dry Dry. Not a good way to make a positive impression.

I tried some of the crews sausage, and it was pretty moist. But it’s not a homemade sausage like several of the other places that we’ve been to recently. I also got to try some of the moist brisket, and it was much better than the lean selection I had. I just wish they hadn’t screwed that up.

The potato salad was just as good as the reference point of the Austin franchises. It’s a mustard based potato salad with large chunks of potato in it. It was probably the only thing that I had that I was fully satisfied with.

It was great to get everyone out to one of our events, but I really wish we could have delivered a better experience to the participants. I think I’ll be sticking to the franchises for Rudy’s from now on.

Categories: Leon Springs, Rudy's, Texas

Next up: The Original Rudy’s

June 22nd, 2010 posted by Ray Pierce1 Comments

We came to a consensus during the Meyer’s BBQ trip that we would be hitting up Rudy’s. Not just any Rudy’s but the original location in Leon Springs, TX. This will probably be one of the furthest trips we make on our tour, but due to the popularity of Rudy’s in Austin, it was only natural that we go to the source to see where all the goodness originated from.

We’ll coordinate time later, but it’s going to happen on July 10th. This is a bit of a jaunt for us to go that far South, but don’t worry, we will comfort ourselves with pie afterward. We should be coupling this trip with pie from Tootie Pie company. I’ve heard good things about it, but I need to test it out for myself.

This will probably take all day to get down there, eat, get pie, then drive back. So be prepared.

Map of location:

View Larger Map

Categories: Leon Springs, Rudy's, Texas

BBQ Tour: Meyer’s BBQ

June 6th, 2010 posted by Ray Pierce1 Comments

So the EatsBBQ Crew got to gather again for another stop on the BBQ tour of Central Texas. This trip was just a little ways outside of Austin to Elgin, TX home of Meyer’s BBQ. Both Elgin BBQ joints are known for their sausages. You can find Meyer’s Sausage in a variety of flavors at area HEB’s (grocery stores).

I lived outside of Manor, TX for about 7 years, so I was quite familiar with Meyer’s. I’ve eaten there a half dozen times for more. I’ve got a preference to it over the other establishment in Elgin that we’ll review later.

The restaurant is just off of HWY 290 on the South side of the road in the middle of town. Once you get inside, they have a collection of taxidermied wild game. Elk, Deer, Fish, etc. They also have some old equipment used to make sausage on display in the entry area. You also have sausage/meat counter that you can buy sausage by the pound to take home. The ceiling of the meat counter room is lined with all of the competition and awards that Meyer’s has won over the years. Quite an impressive amount.

It’s really hard to compare different places unless you order similar things at each place. So I ordered Brisket and Garlic Pork Sausage this trip with Potato Salad and Pinto Beans. Pretty standard fare so that I can compare apples to apples. Just wish I had a bigger stomach to try every thing everywhere we go. The Brisket was tender and had a good smoke ring on it. It was dry though, but it still maintained a good flavor. All I had to do was use some of the vinegary Hot Sauce they had on the tables to add some moisture back. They also had two other kinds of BBQ that were a more traditional thickness and flavor.

The sausage was served as two links together. This was by far the best sausage that we’ve had on our tour. It had a really good consistency and texture. It was nice and juicy just like it’s supposed to be. You didn’t get an overwhelming garlic flavor like I was afraid we might. It was really good on it’s own, but a combo of the thick BBQ sauce and the vinegary sauce we quite nice on it.

I tried some of Carrie’s pork ribs and they were quite tasty as well. They had great flavor and weren’t tough. Then again it’s hard to make a prok rib tough.

The potato salad and pinto beans were just so so. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. They are pretty much what you would expect at a Texas BBQ joint.

All in all I think the Brisket and sides missed the mark today, but the sausage and the vinegary hot sauce were right on.

Categories: Elgin, Meyer's BBQ, Texas

Next up is Meyer’s BBQ in Elgin, TX

May 31st, 2010 posted by Ray Pierce1 Comments

We have decided to setup our next outing for the BBQ Tour is to Meyer’s BBQ in Elgin, TX on June 6th, 2010. This should be close enough that quite a few of our friends can join us since it’s only about 20 minutes outside of Austin.

Now I just need suggestions on good pie place in the Elgin area. Leave a comment if you know of one.

Meyer’s BBQ Website

Categories: Elgin, Meyer's BBQ, Texas

Snow’s BBQ – The Kid’s View

May 1st, 2010 posted by Nathan Friemel0 Comments

I didn’t know much about Snows going in, except that Texas Monthly claims it the best BBQ in Texas; you know a small ignorable claim…. Other than that I knew they opened early on Saturday, the only day they are open, and sell meat until they are out, usually sometime around noon. So yes I was expecting a life changing BBQ experience.

So Snows is a rather small establishment, building wise anyway. About six tables that seat six a piece inside, which we made use of since it was raining that morning and some more tables outside near the smokers. Inside, the line was short, compared to what I’ve heard, but the proximity around the counter/food servage area still felt rather crowded.

I went with a two meat plate. Brisket and sausage with two sides, both potato salad because they were out of everything else. And lastly all the beans you can eat!

Since this is Texas BBQ, it’s only proper to start with the brisket. At first, the brisket was so moist and delicious. I was even privileged to get an end piece of the cut and it rocked my world. The sausage on the other hand was a gamble. I’ve yet to find good sausage on this meat tour. Unfortunately the house won this one, being dry as a bone. So I went back to the brisket; unfortunately it was dry. It was nothing I’ve ever seen before. How did something so delicious and moist, dry up in a matter of minutes? Was it the weather?

So I turned to the sauce. While not my cup of tea, a pretty sweat sauce and runny, but it got me through my meal. The potato salad was average, but the beans were a nice touch.

Afterwords, we headed outside to take some photos. Saw the meat smokers and got the meet the owners. Very nice folk! And then we headed for pie, but that’s another story.

Looking back I must say, I was a little disappointed. The brisket was delicious until it got dry, the sausage was dry from the beginning and the sides were OK. The experience was great, the people were nice and the south Texas animals were plump. I still say that horse looked like a cow, or perhaps bound for France.

Categories: Lexington, Snow's BBQ, Texas

Lambert’s BBQ Brisket Sandwich

April 27th, 2010 posted by Ray Pierce0 Comments

I had a craving for BBQ today and with my new office location Lambert’s is just a couple of blocks away. I was in the mood for a BBQ Sandwich so that’s what I ordered along with my side of Mac and Cheese. Sorry no pictures, only had the iPhone with me and not a lot of light in there.

Lambert’s is one of those places that serves cornbread before the meal. They are served as little mini-muffin size with real butter. They are a jalapeno based cornbread with pieces of real corn in them. They are quite tasty. The only problem is that they are served cold. The butter doesn’t melt, and a lot the goodness is lost in my opinion.

On the main attraction though. I’ve been to Lambert’s several times before, but this is the first time that I’ve actually ordered something other than the traditional brisket and pulled pork plate I always lean towards. The plate was called the BBQ Beef Chopped Brisket Sandwich. Sounds like a tasty mouthful. The bun was I believe your standard fare sesame seed bun, but they went to the effort of toasting it, which was a nice surprise. There was a pretty sizable quantity of meat on the sandwich as well. It was an $8 sandwich, the cheapest thing on the menu if I recall correctly. But that’s what I wanted. The meats wasn’t overly saucy, and it was a fairly large cut chopped brisket. Not the fine ground stuff a lot of places server. This was real sliced brisket that had been chopped. It was topped off with a bit of finely chopped relish.

The sandwich had a great flavor and great consistency. There was one piece in the sandwich that wasn’t cut enough to get in one bite and ended up on the plate. Lambert’s has a hot sauce on every table that is quite tasty, it’s a little more vinegar based than the regular sauce but is still a thick sauce. If you want add a bit of spice to your meat I would highly recommend it, it’s not going to “burn” you, but it just adds a little something extra. So I put a generous helping of it on the meat and applied the top half of the bun. I do like to add some regular sauce to pretty much each bite. Lambert’s sauce is well done. Not too sweet, not vinegary, and not to peppery.

If you like Mac and Cheese order it, it’s for you. There is plenty of melted cheese in the dish, and a nice crusted American cheese layer on top. I almost felt that it was too cheesy if there can be such a thing. I think a bit of gratin would have been nice, but it stands up well on it’s own.

The only draw back to coming here at lunch is the price. Today’s adventure was reasonably affordable for downtown, but if I order what I normally do it would have been well over $20. As it was with tip and everything it was about $14. I thought it was a pretty good value based quality and quantity of food that I got. I definitely recommend it to people, but beware that you will be paying downtown prices for BBQ. It’s well executed, and quite tasty.

Categories: Austin, Lambert's BBQ, Texas

The Shed BBQ – Grand Opening

March 26th, 2010 posted by Ray Pierce0 Comments

The Shed BBQ
1816 E 6th Street
Austin, TX 78702
In the parking lot of Rabbit’s Lounge.

At a SXSW Recovery party the Sunday following SXSW, I was introduced to Brett by our mutual friend Joe. He’s the owner of the The Shed BBQ. Joe mentioned that I ran the EatsBBQ.com website and reviewed BBQ joints. After a few pleasantries and the exchange of a few ideas on what makes BBQ great, he asked me to come by and check out the The Shed on their Grand Opening. This was my first invite to try a BBQ place since I’ve been working on EatsBBQ.com, so I had to take up the offer. So Thursday after our softball game, Mike and I headed up there. It was dark and I didn’t have my camera handy to take pictures, sorry. This location is the first in Texas for the Shed, they are mainly based in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida.

The Shed is pretty much what it’s namesake implies, it’s a mobile BBQ Trailer and Smoker. It’s newly built, but with it’s corrugated tin exterior and general setup they are really trying to invoke “the shed” look. It’s located in the parking lot of Rabbit’s Lounge on 6th and Chicon. Their menu is a bit limited, as they only serve BBQ sandwiches it seems right now. Pulled Pork, Pulled Brisket, and Chicken. The have a plate combination that comes with 2 sides. You have a choice of Macaroni Salad, Potato Salad, Baked Beans, and Coleslaw. I was told that this is Mississippi style BBQ, which I can say that I’m not totally familiar with.

I tried the Pulled Pork Sandwich, which was recommended as “what we are known for”, with Potato Salad and Baked Beans. I mean that’s about a classic of a combination as you can have. The first observation I had was that the sandwich was stacked full of meat. Big thumbs up! I like that they are trying to give you your money’s worth. As Mike pointed out, the buns were your run of the mill buns. He pointed out that it would have been nice to have a kolache style bun for sandwich, which I totally agreed with. The pulled pork was very tender and moist, as it should be. None of the dry stringy stuff here. I didn’t get a strong sense of a smoke flavor from it, which was a little disappointing. The meat was topped with a really sweet BBQ Sauce, sort of a brown sugar/molassesy flavor. It worked really well with the Pulled Pork. I’m didn’t have a chance to try it, but I think it would probably overpower the brisket, as it was a really strong flavor.

The baked beans were quite good as well. You don’t typically see baked beans in this area served with BBQ. Being a fan of baked beans in general I thought it worked. They definitely had some of the BBQ sauce mixed in, so they had a really sweet taste to them.

Brett brought out a sampling of the coleslaw for Mike and I to try. I just want to preface this by saying, I’m not a coleslaw fan. It was sort of forgettable to me. It had a bit of a sweet and peppery flavor to me, but all in all it was just coleslaw.

I also sampled some of Mike’s Macaroni Salad. It’s another thing that you don’t see offered at BBQ places in this area. It was pretty good, and will require some more research to really make a judgment on it. I mean it was one bite, not enough to really make an opinion on. Mike seemed to really like it though.

The highlight of the meal and biggest surprise was the Potato Salad. It was should have been billed at Loaded Baked Potato Salad on the whiteboard out front. The first bite had a strange delicious flavor to it that I wasn’t expecting. After asking Brett about it, it was Sour Cream. That’s when he spilled the beans about what it was. The bacon bits really accented it well, I mean who doesn’t like bacon. It was dark while we were eating, so I couldn’t tell if had chives or cheese in it (I would assume so, but I could be mistaken), but it wasn’t enough for me to taste. I think this side is a must when you come here.

The prices were a little more expensive than I would have anticipated for a sandwich, but still a good value given the amount of food you get. It was all that I could do to get it all down. This is good little spot to get some BBQ sandwiches, grab a few beers at Rabbit’s Lounge, and enjoy it with your friends.

Categories: Austin, Texas, The Shed

Snow’s BBQ

March 22nd, 2010 posted by craveytrain0 Comments

Texas Monthly laid down the gauntlet. The claim: Best BBQ in Texas. Lofty to say the least. But with the bar set that high was there really any chance of success?

So, the story goes they are a small place with a big reputation. They are open 1 day a week. They open at 8am and sell out by noon at the very latest (sometimes much earlier). Pulling up to the sleepy establishment you can see signs of the Texas Monthly celebrity status: Jaguars, BMWs, Porsches. These are the patrons traveling for Texas’ Best BBQ. The owners are as humble and sweet as I suspect they have always been. But you don’t read this blog to hear about the peripheral stuff. So, on to the BBQ!

Snow's - Sausage and Brisket

Jumping in line at 9:45 we benefitted by a morning of rain to keep the crowds away. We had no problem getting brisket, sausage, pork loin and pork ribs. I sat down with the brisket and sausage. The brisket was moist and tender. I mean plastic fork, pot roast tender. Good smoke ring, nice flavor though I felt the rub was a bit salty. Not overly so, but noticeable. The sausage was obviously home made, looked and tasted to be primarily beef. The seasonings were good in it but I have learned I am not a fan of the coarse ground homemade beef only sausage. I like a little fat in my sausage. I like a finer ground. After a few bites I remembered I was supposed to get my wife (who could not join us) some BBQ to go.

I decide it’s better for me to get in line at that point than to chance them running out, so I got up from my tray and did so. 15 minutes later I was back to my seat with a pound of brisket to go. This is germane for 1 key reason. Someone switched my brisket! Or it sure seemed that way. What was this succulent mass of meat became a pile of brisket jerky. Still very tasty but dry and tough. This was consistent across all the brisket we ordered. What was consumed while still steaming was worth bragging about. What didn’t get devoured in that narrow window, however, lost a lot of its luster.

I only tried a few bites of the pork. They were consistent with the brisket but somewhat less remarkable. Tasty when fresh, dry very quickly. The BBQ sauce was unlike any I have had before. It seemed more fitting for eggrolls than BBQ. But, somehow, it worked. It grew on you. I was dipping everything in it shortly after my initial reaction. The free beans were solid and the potato salad was decent if not spartan.

So here I sit, wondering how to rate this BBQ. I think I’ve got to go with my gut and say very solid BBQ made by some very nice people who still do things the way it should be done. My hat’s off.

Categories: Lexington, Snow's BBQ, Texas

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