Meat Euphoria: Franklin BBQ
Franklin BBQ
3421 N. I-35
Austin, TX 78722
http://www.franklinbarbecue.com
After reading up on Franklin BBQ on several of the BBQ blogs that I follow (Man Up Texas BBQ, Full Custom Gospel BBQ, and Urban Spoon) I felt that I needed to give it a try. It’s been a Talk of the Town topic on Urban Spoon for a while now. Some of the Eats BBQ crew had it on their wish list, and it was only about 10 minutes from our offices in downtown Austin. So we Mike, Chris, Justin, and Ray (me) loaded up and ventured over.
When we arrived around 11:45am there was already around a 15 person deep line. That’s a really good sign in my book. It took us around 15-20 minutes to get through the queue. Not too fast, but not too slow either. They’ve done the best that they can to provide shade and fans with misters to keep people cool. Of course there’s a gap between the awning and the ordering area, but the line sort of just broke apart there to keep everyone in the shade.
Franklin BBQ has a pretty tight little setup. They serve the food out of a convert travel trailer, the smoker is on a trailer behind that with a roof and is screened in. They use the old empty filling station next to it for their bathrooms. One of the more memorable signage’s I’ve seen is the The Franklin BBQ logo, it has a very vintage unique look to it. They even have an iron version of it on the smoker trailer. The picnic tables either have an awning or umbrella over them to provide as much shade as possible. They also have mister fans going, but it’s still all outside.
So on to the food. We decided to pool our money and just order a tasting of everything that they had. Here’s the order:
1 lb Moist Brisket
1/2 lb Lean Brisket
1/2 lb Pulled Pork
8 Pork Ribs
side of potato salad
side of beans
side of coleslaw
1 Key Lime Tart
1 Lemon Chess Tart
1 Pecan Tart
4 drinks
For 4 people it ended up $62. Not bad at $15.50 a piece, but not exactly cheap either.
Photos by Ray Pierce - click on the images to go to the Flickr set
I started off with the pork ribs. They were difficult to get on to my butcher paper because they were so tender. The meat was separating from the bone just picking it up. There was a light rub on the them that was black pepper based but had a saltiness about it. It wasn’t overly peppery as some other place do, but it was just the right amount. There was a great flavor with just the meat alone, but it was even better with the vinegary bbq sauce that they had. They were some of the best ribs that I’ve had in a long while.
Next I delved into heaven the brisket. I know that the words that I write here won’t do it justice, but I’ll try. Aaron Franklin served us, and he was quite generous with his cuts. There was about an inch of fat on the top of the brisket and due to that he gave us a little more than what we had ordered. That fat translated into one of the most moist and tender piece of brisket that I’ve ever had. There was a great flavored, nice and thick peppery bark on the outside of the brisket. It was one of those things that you know that he’s worked on for years to get it just right. The flavor by itself was tremendous. But then you add the dark bbq sauce (think coffee and molasses infused bbq sauce) that they have to it, and it just makes it that much better. I believe that it was smoked over oak, which gave it a bit of a different flavor than your typical mesquite.
The pulled pork was beyond tender. It was served more in the manner of how chopped brisket would be. It was really finely separated into small strands of meat. It had a definite salty flavor to it, but once you added a little bit of sauce it countered it quite well. It would make a great sandwich, but we didn’t eat it as such. To me this was probably the weakest of the meats that we had, and it was still outstanding.
The intention was to get some sausage as well, but we apparently were overwhelmed by the little tasting tidbits they were handing out at the window and forgot to order it. We’ll try it next time.
As for the sides, they were fairly forgettable. The beans had a good flavor, but they are beans. They are what they are. The potato salad was overly mustard flavored, not bad, but forgettable. The coleslaw was more or less just red cabbage with little flavor to it. If you are coming here for the sides, your priorities are all wrong anyway. Stick to the meat.
As a treat to finish off the meal we had one of each of the tarts that they had from Cake and Spoon. We tried Key Lime, Lemon chess, and Texas Pecan tarts. One of the great things about them is that they are all homemade crusts. The Key Lime tart and graham cracker crust we delish and my favorite of the day. The Lemon Chess tart was a close second. The pecan was good, but the other two out shown it. Their website doesn’t list those tarts on their website, so they may be special for Franklin BBQ.
All in all this set a new level for the bar. We’ve went on several hour plus trips to get BBQ that wasn’t as good as Franklin’s. It was probably the best BBQ that I’ve had, but I’ve only been here once. Consistency is part of the game as well so when I go back I’m just hoping that I don’t have to go back on my words. If you are in Austin area, try this place out. You won’t be disappointed.
The new joint in downtown Austin: Blue Ribbon BBQ
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 - click on the images to go to the Flickr set
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.
Lambert’s BBQ Brisket Sandwich
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.
The Shed BBQ – Grand Opening
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.
