It was great to finally put a face with a name for Daniel (BBQ Snob). The problem with meeting a whole lot of people at once is that that you tend to forget people’s names. I apologize in advance for this, I’ll leave it with groups. We met the people who run Texas BBQ Posse, Houston Foodie, Don O.’s Texas BBQ Blog. It would have been nice to meet Drew with Man Up Texas BBQ / The Q Card, but he had to man his booth at the cook off.

So on to the ulterior motive for meeting everyone. Louie Mueller BBQ.

Photos by Ray Pierce - click on the images to go to the Flickr set

Colette and Andy outside Louie Muellers

Louie Muellers BBQ

Wall of Business Cards

Brisket, Spare ribs, Chipotle Sausage

Colette and Andy about to dig in.

Meat Selection at Louie Muellers

Spare Ribs

Brisket, Sausage, and Pork Loin

Taylor is only about 40 minutes away from where I live so it’s not a long haul to get there. I’ve heard from friends and other that Louie Mueller’s was one of the places that I needed to stop in at. Of all the places that we’ve visited so far, this place has the most authentic look and feel of any of the joints. It’s in the downtown area of Taylor and takes up 2 store fronts, one for dining and the other for the meat counter / food prep and a smaller dining area. They are huge in size, and have 20ft ceilings with skylights that have heavy smoke film on them. There is no air conditioning, big fans roar in the corners of the place to circulate the air. There is years and years of a deep smoke penetrating the walls and it just reeks of hard work, passion, and love of BBQ. I would expect that this is the same feel that I would have gotten if I had walked in the 1950′s. There is a wall of business cards that line one wall that are browned with time and smoke. It gives it a distinct look and personality.

When we got in line it wasn’t all that long. Mostly the other BBQ blogger with their Digital SLR camera’s in tow. Also just wanted to point out that someone from the back came out and told me that they really liked my Texas Tech hat, that’s a big plus when you are in Longhorn country. When you get to the front of the line, you are greeted with a small chunk of brisket to help you make your decision on ordering. I tried to get a sampling of all the meat they sold per pound. So I got a 1/4 lb. brisket, 1/4 lb. pork loin, 1/4 lb. turkey, and 2 spare ribs. A pretty good sampling I think. I also got a side of potato salad along with pickles, onions, and bread.

The brisket looked delicious, nice bark, nice smoke ring, moistly glistening. So I started in on it. The rub on it was overly black peppered in my opinion. The black pepper flavor masked most of the smoke flavoring. The meat wasn’t as tender as I was expecting. Due to the seat selection that we had next to one of the giant fans, I’m pretty sure the brisket dried out prematurely. The center of it was moist, but the edges were a bit dry. I’m willing to forgive that though because when I first started on it, it was moist. Nothing that the thin vinegar based BBQ dipping sauce couldn’t help cure.

The turkey I had was outstanding. Turkey is such a finicky thing to smoke, so I’m truly impressed with it. It wasn’t nearly as pepper flavored as the brisket, but was seasoned quite well. It was extremely moist as well. The smoke flavor really came through in it. I’d recommend that to anyone.

Next I tried the pork loin. It was forgettable. No deep smoke flavor, it wasn’t tender, and it didn’t have a lot of flavor.

I tried two different types of ribs while I was there. I ordered the spare ribs. Lots of meat on them. They have the right amount of tenderness to them. They weren’t falling off the bone, so you could still handle them appropriately, and a little tug on the meat and it came off. I also had some of Andy’s baby back ribs. Almost the same as the spare ribs, just a smaller package.

They also had some nice beef sausages to select from. Andy and Colette ordered one of all 3 types. Chipotle, Jalapeno, and Original. Flavorwise, the Chipotle won for me. The Jalapeno was good and there were distinct piece of jalapeno in it. I was a bit too stuff by the time the Original made the rounds, so I didn’t sample it.

The potato salad was more like a homemade potato salad to me, with its fine grain potato pieces. It was made with mustard, but it was a mild flavor in it. Quite nice, I really enjoyed it.

While we were there, one of the guys dropped by our table and let us try one of his creations. Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce Ice Cream. It was interesting to try, but I don’t think it’s ready for mainstream America just yet.

I believe that we are going to be meeting up with the BBQ Snob (Daniel Vaughn) himself from Full Custom Gospel BBQ as well as several other BBQ bloggers. The tentative plan is to hit Louie Mueller’s around 10-10:30ish to grab a brunch. Then hit the Taylor International Barbeque Cookoff after we are done there.

I’ll be stopping by no matter what the others are doing. Hope to see you all there.

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

The line at 11:45

Franklin Barbecue

The Setup

Franklin Barbecues Pit Trailer.

Ordering area

The meat pile

Succulent ribs

Brisket crust

Pulled pork

Brisket and Ribs

The tarts

The line up

Soon to be transparent table

Two meat plate at Franklin BBQ

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Snow's BBQ

Snow’s BBQ
516 Main Street
Lexington, TX 78947

After hearing about Snow’s BBQ and subsequently reading about it in Texas Monthly the EatsBBQ crew decided we were going to put Texas Monthly’s claim of Best BBQ in Texas 2009 to the test. That is a pretty lofty claim given the level of BBQ in Texas, much less Central Texas. So we loaded up, gathered a few friends to join us and start on our romp.

Snow’s is in Lexington, TX. It’s not exactly on your way anywhere and isn’t on a major road. It’s only open on Saturday’s, and it starts selling BBQ at 8am. The stay open until they sell out. From what I’ve read on several blogs and articles was that you needed to be there before 10am to make sure you got what you drove for. So this little gem has eluded a lot of people for a long time because of the location, quantity, and time. Texas Monthly really put the bright spot light on this little joint. The demand for Snow’s BBQ has skyrocketed since the article I’ve read, but I’ve also read that they increased their output as well.

Snow's - EatsBBQ and Snow's Owner and Pitmaster

Today we got to Lexington around 9:45am. It took us a little over an hour to get there from 183/290 E area (outskirts of Austin). It was a very rainy and cold day, so that works for us and against us. The rain and cold keeps the crowds away, but there’s not much seating inside of Snow’s. It’s only got 6 picnic style tables indoors with the other seating outside. Luckily we got two tables next to one another inside by pure chance.

As we usually do we try to get a sampling of all the fare that is offered. I ordered the Pork and Pork Ribs, Mike ordered the brisket and sausage plate, and Nathan ordered the same as Mike. They had already sold out of the creamed corn by time we got there, but they still had potato salad. They have the typical condiments, BBQ sauce, onions, pickles, and bread available for everyone. They also have free pinto beans. For drinks they had Sweet and Unsweet Tea, Water, and canned soft drinks.

So on to the tasting!

I started with the pork ribs. They were very moist and had a very smokey flavor. They were very tender, but not to the point where you could just pluck the bone out. In hindsight, this was probably my favorite of the meal. Only got 3 ribs and gave the smallest one to Mike of course.

Then I tried the pork butt. It was quite good. It had a great flavor and a good smoke ring. It was however a bit dry. Not to the point of overcooked by any means. Nothing that a little BBQ sauce couldn’t cure. I shared a little with friends, but I devoured most of it myself.

Snow's - Brisket, Sausage, Pork Butt, Pork Ribs, and sides

I tried some of Mike’s brisket, and the same solid flavor and smoke ring was there. But it was a bit dry as well, although Mike claims that it wasn’t dry when he started on his plate. Read his review about it. The meat itself was still extremely tender. Later in the meal Nathan let me have some of his since his had a bit more fat on it. It was better, but still drier than I would have wanted. When our friends Andy and Colette showed up the brisket they got looked much more moist than what I had sampled, but unfortunately I was reaching my food intake limit by then. So this may have just been the piece of brisket we were sampling from. It happens and you can’t predict it.

The sausage was a homemade sausage. It didn’t have a huge amount of fat in it which worked pretty well for it. Because of that the sausage wasn’t very greasy. On the other hand it felt like the meats wasn’t bound together and solid. I liked it’s flavor, but I was a bit annoyed trying to cut it

The BBQ sauce was a sweet and tangy blend. One of the guys commented that it was like a sweet and sour sauce for egg rolls. It definitely had some of those characteristics, but not in a bad way. I found that it grew on me the longer I sat there and ate. You have to have a good BBQ sauce to go with your smoked meat in my opinion. I really think that it complemented the flavor of the meats and allowed the smoke flavor to come through and didn’t over power it.

The free pinto beans were quite tasty. Not as peppery as some, but enough you could taste. It was a good contrast to the meats.

Snow's - Smoker

All in all I think Snow’s is a great BBQ place. All smoked BBQ has fallen to off days in the smoker, and I think that have happened to us today. It’s just the nature of the beast for dryness to set in the longer something sits. I think if we came back another day, it would have different moisture in the meats and maybe a totally different opinion. Personally, I don’t think it lived up to the Best BBQ in Texas title, but it’s definitely in the conversation. I’m willing to give it another shot on another day.

I would recommend any BBQ lovers to come and try Snow’s and take in the experience. Just be prepared to get up early, drive, and stand in a line to get it. You will be rewarded with some top notch BBQ.

One of the odd things about Snow’s is that they start selling BBQ at 8 am until they are sold out. That usually occurs before lunch. So we are going to have to make this a morning trip.  Hopefully we can get there before 10AM.

http://www.snowsbbq.com

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