House Park BBQ
Chris and I made our way to House Park BBQ on Friday. It’s taken us a while to get there because we never remember to have cash on us and it’s only at lunch. So we planned ahead a little and made sure that we had both things in order.
Photos by Ray Pierce - click on the images to go to the Flickr set
The building looks like it’s been there forever. When we rolled up, you could smell the smoke coming off of the pit. That’s always a great smell to me. There is quite a lot of paraphernalia on the walls that’s been there a long while and has absorbed the the smoke. Most of it has a smokey yellow patina to it. The stove behind the counter looks as if it had been there since the 1920′s.
The day we were there, they had the combo plate on special, so that we indulged in it. I grabbed the brisket and sausage, while Chris grabbed the brisket and pork loin. The brisket had a great flavor and was pretty tender. It was a very lean brisket though. If there wasn’t sauce ladled over it, it would have been pretty dry. The sausage was a good grind, but it lacked in flavor. There was nothing about it, that would make me long for it. Chris’ pork loin was tender and moist, but lacked flavor as well. The plates come with mustard potato salad, large cut coleslaw, and pinto beans. The potato salad was good, it had some peppers in it that gave it a good flavor. I’m not a cole slaw fan to begin with, so I won’t even try to review it. The beans were good, I think they were cooked with some of the BBQ sauce to give them a little different flavor. The BBQ sauce itself was a little thin, but wasn’t fully stained so there was some of the puree that a bit chunky. It had a good flavor, and worked well to cover up the dryness of the brisket.
Opie's BBQ
I stopped in at Opie’s BBQ in Spicewood, TX on my trip home for Christmas break. I’ve been driving past it (and the old location) for a number of years, and I haven’t ever taken the time to stop in and try it out.
The outside didn’t seem to match what I was anticipating on the inside. It was a wide open dining area, that was quite clean with a picnic tables and mesquite framed chairs. I was greeted by someone at the door and asked if I had been there before. They then opened the large steel door to a warming pit that all of the meat was served out of. Definitely a nice view, but I had my camera stowed away under a slew of presents so I didn’t get it out this trip.
I ordered a sampling of everything but the smoked chicken. Brisket, pork loin, 1 baby back rib, and 1/4 link of sausage were what I got. It turned out to be a more than I could eat of course.
They had quite a few sides available for sale. There were several that caught my eye (specifically the tater tot casserole), but I wasn’t there for the sides. I was even more tempted when I reached the desserts, but I was a good boy this time. They also served up free beans, onions, pickles, jalapenos, sauce, and bread on a different island.
The brisket was very moist and tender. It ended up up being more shredded brisket when I took my fork to it. It was good, but it didn’t seem to have a lot of smoke flavor in it. It seemed to be the theme of the meal, just not enough smoke flavor coming through in the meats. The pork loin had a great peppery crust on the outside of it that had some great flavor, but I think it may have been the victim of the warming pit. It ended up really dry, and you had to dip it in sauce to eat it, which was a blessing and a curse. The sauce was a thin vinegary sweet sauce, I liked it a lot. As for the rib, it was properly tender but not falling off the bone. It was done just right. I was really sort of disappointed with the sausage that I got. It seemed to me that it was just prepackaged German sausage and warmed up. Not much smoke flavor to speak of at all, but it was moist and cooked well.
I would also like to mention that the owners, Tom and Kristin Ashmore were quite friendly and welcoming to place.
All in all I think Opie’s a good BBQ joint, but with so many other excellent choices in the Hill Country they just don’t measure up to the elite. If you are in the area, it’s above your average BBQ joint and you should stop in.
Louie Mueller’s and the BBQ Blogger Meetup
At the prodding of the BBQ Snob, we ventured over to Taylor, TX to try Louie Mueller’s BBQ along with what seemed to be a very large contingent of BBQ bloggers and foodies. Our intention was to go to Louie Mueller’s then head on over to the Taylor International BBQ Cook Off, but due to some scheduling conflicts we had to cut the trip short after our BBQ brunch. The others braved the ocean of meat for us.
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
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.
