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.
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.
The new joint in downtown Austin: Blue Ribbon BBQ
By pure luck we heard that there was a new BBQ joint in downtown Austin called Blue Ribbon BBQ. Since most of the EatsBBQ crew works in the area that’s awesome for us. It’s actually just across the street Mike’s office, and few blocks away from mine. It’s in the bottom of the Frost Tower (in the old WeFuse space) on 4th Street.
When you walk in it’s not your typical BBQ place. There aren’t pits anywhere to be found. Before you lose total interest, know that they actually smoke the meat in Taylor, TX. So there is some cred there, just not the full allotment. It looks like a restaurant that’s in an office complex. Walls are clean and untarnished by smoke, there are windows and they let a lot of light in, and their are pictures of BBQ pits, pitmasters, and meat on the walls. Very atypical of the every other BBQ place you’ve seen.
Even with the decor not what I was used to, I bellied up to the counter and placed my order. 2 meat plate with sausage and brisket, sweet corn, and potato salad. The rest of crew ordered and I think we got every kind of meat they had available. So there was a sampling of everything. One of the bright spots of day was the serving size. It was very large. In the downtown area you just get accustomed to paying a lot or small serving sizes. So nice surprise.
Photos by Ray Pierce - click on the images to go to the Flickr set
The brisket was well smoked and had a good flavor. It wasn’t as tender as I would have liked, but not bad none the less. It seemed to be a pretty lean cut of meat, and I suppose that is what lead to it. The sausage was a medium ground packed sausage. It was well above average. Not as good as Meyer’s sausage, but good. They serve it with a sweet BBQ sauce. Not as sweet as the Salt Lick though. From trying the other guys plates, we also found out that they do a mean smoked turkey. Next time that I go I will probably order it.
As for the sides, they had large serving sizes as well. The corn that I had was very good and seemed pretty fresh. The potato salad wasn’t as good as I was hoping for. It was like Rudy’s Potato salad, just not as good.
I was very pleased with the results of the lunch. Especially since it wasn’t overly expensive either. I spent under $15 for all of that and was more than I should have eaten. It’s not got the history of some of the out lying BBQ joints, but it puts up a decent fight. So in my opinion this was a very good value and would recommend it for anyone in the downtown area.
