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.
Railroad BBQ in Machaca
Railroad BBQ
727 FM 1626
Manchaca, Texas 78652
I went with my friend Andy to pick up some Railroad BBQ for dinner this past Thursday. He’s talked about this place before, but I’ve not had the opportunity to go down there until now. We were just getting a to go order to feed everyone before we watch Tron: Legacy at this house.
When you drive up, you know this isn’t a large operation just because there wasn’t much parking available. Although the parking that was there was completely filled. It’s just a simple corrugated tin building with the kitchen on one end and the dining area on the other. Once we got inside we quickly found out what was filling the parking lot. There was about 20 people playing various instruments and singing in what appeared to be a regular jam session. Oddest thing was that they weren’t playing very loud at all, you could carry on conversation at normal levels. That just struck me as odd.
We ordered a pound of pretty much everything and quart of potato salad and banana pudding. The lady taking our order said it would be a while and gave us a couple of free drinks, that were very much appreciated.
Once we got our order back home we dug in. The brisket had a good smoke ring on it, and a good mesquite smoke flavor. The meat wasn’t as tender as I would have liked to see, but it wasn’t tough. You still needed a knife to cut through it though. The turkey had an awesome smoke flavor and was really moist. I think it was my favorite part of the meal. The sausage links that we got came in two’s. The blend was fine enough for me and it had a good casing on it. The sauce they served had a lot of smoke flavor to it, but it reminded me more of store bought KC Masterpiece or Kraft, as it was quite thick.
The potato salad was pretty good. It was chunky, and a bit sweeter than I was expecting. Still quite good. As for the banana pudding, I heard that it was good. I don’t like banana’s so I didn’t try it.
All in all it was solid barbeque, I wouldn’t turn it down if it were offered to me.
Salt Lick North
My sister and her family were in town this weekend, and we decided to meet up with some friends of her’s at the Salt Lick North in Round Rock. I’ve been really curious if they had captured what the South location was all about. The ambiance is very Rustic Texas Country, but you can tell it was planned out and not an organic build as needed feel like the South location. They still have the live music while you wait. This location has a bar instead of the BYOB that I was expecting. With that said, they poured a VERY stout margarita.
As for the food, the group didn’t want to splurge on the all you can eat plate ($18.95) when you can could accomplish the same goal with the 3-Meat plate ($11.95). I can’t blame them for that, that seems to be a hefty up charge for just about the same thing. Something that I was a little disappointed in was the bread, it was just plain white bread from a store. That was always one of the more enjoyable things from the other location.
I ordered Brisket, Sausage, and Turkey this trip. I hadn’t ever had the turkey in my recollection, so I gave it a shot. It was the highlight of the meal. It was moist, and there was a generous portion of it on the plate. The sausage was just as good as always. Fine ground and awesome with the Salt Lick BBQ sauce. The biggest disappointment of the night was the brisket. It didn’t have a very smokey flavor, the bark on the outside didn’t taste of anything, and it was wasn’t very tender. Now I know that I comparing it to some of the best brisket in the world now, but that’s where the bar is. It was pretty just standard fare brisket. The BBQ sauce as always was great and lifted up a floundering brisket to make the meal pretty enjoyable.
The service we got was a little spotty though. The waiter never brought refills, even though we asked twice. They sold out of both the black berry and peach cobblers before we could order dessert, so we ended up skipping that all together.
All in all this experience was good, but not great. It feels more like your neighborhood BBQ joint rather than an award winning drive out of your way to go to it joint.
