Franklin BBQ’s new menu item
I met up with Chris, Evie, and Douglas Bowman for brunch BBQ at Franklin’s today. The crowd was just as I was anticipating. Snaking from the front door, down the access ramp, and the length of the building anticipating its opening. Luckily Chris had save me a spot in line (I’m sorry to those behind me, I don’t like it anymore than you.)
There was a nice couple (Bruce and his wife) from Lago Vista in line behind us, who also happen to be readers of the site. Chris had told them about our attempts to find the best BBQ in Texas. I talked with them quite a bit while we worked our way through the line. They had driven in just for this, and were about to make some BBQ deliveries to their kids on the way back out. How awesome would that be to have Franklin’s BBQ delivered to you instead of waiting in line?
Photos by Ray Pierce - click on the images to go to the Flickr set
One of the things that Chris and I noticed was that Franklin’s had added a wax paper addition to their menu for Turkey. That’s a great addition to their menu. While Aaron was cutting, I chatted with him a bit about the new operation there. He said that while they had three smokers now, they were really only using two fully. He said that they did it by changing the scheduling of when the meat was done. He said that they try to get their briskets done by 4:00am, and then put on the ribs. By doing that they doubled the amount of ribs they were able to serve compared to the old location. He also said that they’ve been able double all of their other meat production from the old trailer location. He also mentioned that they were up to about 30 briskets a day now. That seems like a lot, but with the kind of lines you see there, it only delays the sell out until about 1:00pm.
The brisket this time seemed to have a thicker bark on it. It may have been the cut, but I liked it. The slices that I had seemed to have a cavity that a lot of the rub had gotten into. So that flavor permeated the brisket a lot. Think of it like an injection into the meat. You can see some of it in the pictures. And like always, the meat was really tender and only needs a fork to eat it.
As for the turkey, it’s only been being served since Friday. So three days in to the new menu item, and it looks and tastes really good. He said that he’s still working on it and is making tweaks to it. It was quite moist when I first got it, but it dried out a bit towards the end of my meal. Not sure that there’s anything you can do about though. It carried a great flavor and the rub on the outside wasn’t over powering. There were a few bites that were a bit salty, but that’s to be expected. It’s something that I’ll order again I guarantee. Let’s hope that Aaron gets in dialed in to perfection before my next trip.
Great job again!
Stubb’s ‘cue and Gogol Bordello
Stubb’s Bar-B-Q
801 Red River
Austin, TX
78702
http://stubbsaustin.com/
Some friends (Andy and Colette) bought me a ticket to the Gogol Bordello show at Stubb’s BBQ. They’ve raved about eating their ‘cue prior and during the concerts they’ve gone to. I now know why, it’s just a great lead in for the music. What’s better than hanging with your friends, grabbing some great food, and listening to some good music. One of these days I’ll make it down there for the Gospel Brunch.
I grew up in the Lubbock area and have had Stubb’s BBQ there and here in Austin. In all my trips, I’ve never actually had as good of BBQ there as I did this trip. Most of my other trips had left me wanting for better brisket, but I was totally satisfied with this. One the 2 meat plate that I ordered, the meat had a deep smoke flavor. Both the brisket and the turkey was moist, and the brisket was super tender to top it off. One of the things that I love, is when restaurants actually serve sweet tea. They had it and had it in big glasses which was even better.
The Serrano Cheese Spinach was really good, it was just a bit too spicy to actually finish it is all. When it hurts to eat something, I tend not to finish it. So if you are into spice, I would highly recommend it. The potato salad was a good chunky potato version, and I easily finished it off. I followed that up with some Pecan Pie a la mode. It wasn’t nearly as good as I was hoping for, it didn’t have a lot of flavor, it was too thin, and not enough pecans. Everyone else thought that their banana pudding was good, so I would probably recommend that instead (even though I can’t stand banana’s).
I ate so much I was pretty miserable most of the concert. Poor me, right? I wasn’t able to keep up with the pace of Gogol Bordello, but it was a really fun show. Not heard a lot of their music, but it was quite entertaining. This experience will make me come back to Stubb’s for some more ‘cue and concerts for sure.
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.
