BBQ Tour: The Original Rudy's
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.
Snow's BBQ – The Kid's View
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.
Snow's BBQ
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.
