City Market in Luling, TX
After last weeks trip to Smitty’s Market, I convinced my friend Eric that we needed to go to City Market in Luling, TX. City Market is the last one of Top 5 from Texas Monthly’s 2008 BBQ Rankings, that I hadn’t eaten at. So today after he got off work we headed out for Luling. It wasn’t as far of a drive from Austin as I was expecting it to be. It was actually just under an hour for us to get there.
Photos by Ray Pierce
The store is right in front of the railroad tracks in the middle of town. It’s sort of town squarish, but it’s just a few blocks long and it’s not centered around a courthouse. There wasn’t any waiting in line outside here, instead the line snaked around the dining area. I’m not sure if this was because it was cold outside or just the way it works there. The line moved pretty quickly though. It seemed to have more locals in it, than most of the other places that we’ve tried lately. I didn’t get the sense that there were any other BBQ bloggers or pilgrims in the dining area, but I also didn’t ask anyone. The seating was wooden booths with upright backs, picnic style tables, and a few 4 top regular tables. Some of the booths tables were very well worn from constant eating at them. All around the dining room you see signs about not taking the sauce bottles from the table, I’m guessing that is to deter people from taking them home. It seems like a common trait in the Luling, Lockhart area to have the pit area and dining area inside, but segregated by a wall. The same practice of purchasing the meat separate from the sides and drinks is in effect here as well. I’m not sure that I like that, having to stand in two lines for one meal doesn’t seem right. Throughout the course of our meal the main line stayed pretty constant at about 40ish people deep.
Once we reach the pit area where the meat is served, you are met by a sign warning to keep the door shut and a blast of warm air rushing out. The warming pit is to the right with it’s vents open. There’s a hanging sign that’s browned listing the prices of meat. The cutters and pit masters are busy serving the customers as they order. It appeared that the cutters were pre-cutting the brisket and ribs and letting them lie on the cutting table until someone orders it.
As for the food itself, the brisket had a good smoke ring on it, but it was visibly dry. There wasn’t much of a bark on the brisket at all. It tasted fine, but was not tender and was a bit chewy. Even a forceful pull with my hands wouldn’t tear off a bit size piece. I had to use knife to make it manageable. I was thoroughly disappointed with the brisket. This is what Texas BBQ is all about, and this was mediocre at best. Eric even commented that this isn’t something he would drive this far for again.
The beef sausage link was course ground, and was quite tasty. It was moist almost to the point of greasy though.
The highlight of the trip was the pork ribs. They were had a great smokey flavor. They weren’t too tough and with a little tug of the teeth the meat came off. There was a sweet BBQ sauce glaze on them. I really wish I had gotten more of these and forgone the brisket.
City Market has a couple of sides as well which are paid for in a separate area than the meat. They include potato salad and pinto beans. Another highlight for me was having bottled Big Red soda. I’m not sure where my affinity for it comes from, but it sure is good. We had to ask for the BBQ sauce since it wasn’t on the table. It was very good. A light orange color that had a sweet mustardy flavor to it, I would recommend it for sure. I had to use it to put some moisture back into the brisket.
My expectations for a Top 5 BBQ Joint were so high and the results were so low. I’m not sure if it is just my luck, or that quality has been sacrificed to keep up the demand generated from publicity. Overall, I’m truly disappointed in City Market.
Smitty’s Market in Lockhart
We got back in the saddle today after few month hiatus with a trip to Smitty’s Market in Lockhart, TX. Lockhart is known as the BBQ Capital of Texas because of the amount of top notch BBQ joints in the city. From my research, Smitty’s is one of the four must stop BBQ joints in Lockhart.
Photos by Ray Pierce
We showed up a little later in the afternoon, just past the lunch rush. Smitty’s is located just off of the square in downtown Lockhart. It’s really quite a cool looking courthouse, surrounded by classic small town shops. One of these days I’ll take a side trip just to shoot photo’s of it.
When we arrived, we made our way around the back of the store. It’s a little weird, but the main entrance is on the backside. There is a street entrance, but it leads you to the back of the building. We waited in a small line, and as we walked through the entrance we were greet by a soot covered doorway that right next to the serving pit. It was complete with fire going to keep the meat warm.
I ordered brisket, a pork rib, and link of sausage so that I could get a good sampling of their offerings. By the time we got there they had already sold out of the Prime Rib, otherwise I would have gotten some of it as well. I passed on the smoked pork chop because I knew that I couldn’t hold that much. They are smoked as whole pork loins and then sliced into chops when the customer orders. The servers weigh the meat on an antique scale with a rolling dial. I didn’t want to hold up the line so I didn’t get a picture of the area. In typical BBQ fashion the meat is served on butcher paper.
Something that is a little unique is that you pay for your meat in the pit area, but your drinks and sides are paid for in the dining area. Everything is cash or check, so don’t expect to pay with credit card. Pleasantly surprising though was the cost of the meat. I was expecting to pay a lot more, but either I finally ordered an appropriate size of meat or their price per pound wasn’t as much as anticipated.
The order itself looked great. The brisket dried out rather quickly for me during the process of taking pictures before I dove in. That was a little disappointing to me. For a place that doesn’t have forks, the meat was a bit too tougher than my liking. That’s not to say that it was bad, but we are talking about a joint that’s supposed to be in the upper echelon of BBQ joints. This could be because of the time that we arrived and their constant firing of the meat in the serving pit. The brisket tasted good, but didn’t seem to have a penetrating smoke flavor. It also lacked in a thick bark, but that wasn’t a deterrent for me. It’s gotten to the point where a lot of places may have too thick of bark in my opinion and this was a nice change of pace.
The pork rib was quite nice. It had a sweet flavor to it, as if they were glazed with sweet BBQ sauce then smoked. The meat stuck to the bone just as it should. Having it too tender makes them harder/messier to eat in my opinion. Just a little tug with the teeth should be all that’s needed. The sausage link was the star of the day for me. It was plump, juicy, and well flavored. Each link looked to be smoked by itself, rather than in a chain.
After the meal we looked around a bit and were told that we could go look at the empty front counter. It contained quite a bit of old antiques used in store in an earlier time. The building itself looks to have a great character about it. You know you are in a places that’s seen it’s fair share of business through out the years.
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.
