Texas mini BBQ Crawl

[smokeasaurus]

Mike Mills speaks very highly of Smitty's brisket. We are just gonna have to send you back.

Tee, where is Regular Guys LTBBQ gift certificate? 

[Saber 4]

Wish I had seen this sooner I would have come down to Austin a day early and met up with you guys. Austin is weird enough that we could have found lots of Vegan fare for your daughter as well. Glad you got to enjoy some good que though.

[Jaxon]

By the time we got to Austin, Franklin's was closed...
It was a trade off - go to Franklin's or go to Lockhart.
six of one - half-dozen of the other as they say here in the South.

Franklin's is still on my bucket list.

j s...

[RG]

Alright folks, as luck would have it, I did have it in me to eat some more 'cue after all

On the way back, traveling through Mississippi I saw a sign for "The Shed" so after discussing with the wife we decided to give it a whirl. I had watched their TV show and always wanted to give it a shot. They named this place appropriately, I felt like we were eating in a junk yard! It is just a bunch of rickety buildings kind of just strewn about the place. The bathrooms are not even in the main "structure". The floor in the dining area is the same as the parking lot, GRAVEL, lol!! I played it safe and went with a pulled pork plate with Mac and Baked beans for my sides. My wife, still thinking about Franklin's Brisket, ordered the brisket plate. They serve everything sauced, not a big deal for me as I like sauce (we've covered that already, lol) but my Wife is not one to eat sauce on BBQ and if she does, it's only on ribs if I put MY sauce on it, pulled pork can only have a vinegar based sauce and for brisket, ONLY a little on burnt ends, NEVER EVER on slices. She ate it anyway, I tasted a small piece and right away I noticed they sliced it wrong! It was stringy like pot roast. They had sliced it WITH the grain, a BIG no no. It was tender but was severely lacking smoke and was bland. It actually NEEDED the sauce. My pork was decent. Not great, not bad....middle of the road I guess. It too was sauced. It had enough smoke but wasn't the moistest stuff I've had. The sides, in typical BBQ fashion, were nothing special. I am going to get on my soapbox for a sec here. I know that NO ONE ever goes to a BBQ joint for the sides BUT my logic is that if you care enough about what you're doing, make some sides that are better than the next guy. Make them spectacular! Every 'cue joint I've eaten at that has had better than average sides, always had great 'cue as well. The mac was ok, but it was a velveeta type of deal, fake cheese sauce instead of the real deal. The beans were doctored up bush's. Not the end of the world, but a missed opportunity I'd say. Would I eat there again? Maybe. I'd get chicken or ribs though, those might be better.

Walking in


Waiting on our order, there is so much clutter in here it's CRAZY!


My Pork Plate


My Wife's Brisket Plate


Their outdoor stage for live Blues bands


I like this

[RG]

Not BBQ related but here is some pics of other things we ate, some of the pics not so good but such is life

Upon arriving in New Orleans to meet our buddy Cajunate we ate dinner at Parkway. Po Boy's and Gumbo (GOOOOOOOD STUFF!!)


My Wife's Shrimp Po Boy


After saying bye to Nate, we went to our hotel and chillaxed

The next morning we went to Austin and ate a Muffuletta given to us by Caj for lunch and dinner was at LA BBQ (already posted some pics, here's some more)




The next morning was the epic wait for the best bbq I've ever eaten, and that is a bold statement coming from me. I've eaten A LOT of BBQ, lol

There are a lot of pics here, some duplicates from earlier, some you've not seen yet

Arriving at 8ish


While in line, my Wife spotted him nearby and got these pics of him but not of me talking to him, lol



The long line, there were at least 150 in front of us and 75 or so behind us!


These guys played beer pong for 4 hours. By hour 2 they were missing pretty bad, lol


I stared at this graffiti for hours while waiting, I like it!


More Random pics from Franklin

[RG]

The day after eating at Franklin, we went to San Antonio and stayed in a hotel on the river at The Riverwalk. A VERY cool and hip place. We walked right out of the hotel and went up and down the river, sight seeing, ate a little ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and scouted out our dinner options. We ended up eating at a Mexican joint as I posted earlier.

2 single scoop cups of ice cream - $12!!


Cool boat tours. $10 a person, we passed as I needed the exercise after all of the grub I had been chowing on


This burrito had beef (chuck roast type), rice and beans. Covered in "Ranchero" sauce and cheese. It had to have weighed close to 2 pounds.


Once back in Nola, we ate a place right down from the hotel Astor where we stayed called The Creole House. It was supposed to be good but I found it to be just okay and WAY overpriced!

Blurry pic taken while walking


My Wife got A Fried Combo platter, shrimp and oysters


I got Shrimp & Grits


$56.00 before tip. Good Lawd!!

Other stuff eaten but no pics were In-N-Out burger which was tasty and Whataburger which should be named to Whatashame, it blew.

[RG]

Mike Mills speaks very highly of Smitty's brisket. We are just gonna have to send you back.

Tee, where is Regular Guys LTBBQ gift certificate? 

Wait....what?? I get a gift certificate? YAY!!!

My Wife is already talking about going back. She wants to fly next time, we can get buddy passes on Delta so who knows?

[RG]

Awesome thread. I'm going in July. I'll make a thread then!

Cool, please do! The hype about Franklin.....believe it. It's true.

[RG]

Wondering what makes Franklins BBQ so good?

Salt and Pepper rub...we can all do that

Uses a pit with logs of wood......we can all do that

Is it the grade of the briskie that sets it over the top??

Well, I know that he uses some kick azz meat for starters. I also have heard tell of The Turtle cooking a SRF brisket and one of the other members (IR2DUM??) cooking a select HEB brisket side by side at one of the get togethers and it was no better than a select HEB brisket but I'll tell you this much, it has just as much if not MORE to do with the cook and the cooker than what's being cooked. Briskets cooked on a Rec-Tec (no offense intended to them nor anyone that owns one) is NOT going to taste like one done on a proper reverse flow big azz big time stick burner like Aaron uses. Period. I have made some very good briskets on my Kegs and Smokin-It but it was not on the same level as what I ate at Franklin. If Franklin is 10, mine which I used to rank as maybe an 8 or 9 on my good days have now become a 6. Kind of a bummer but also glad that Franklin BBQ lived up to its reputation as I would have hated to drive over 2100 miles round trip to eat what I can make at home

[RG]

Wish I had seen this sooner I would have come down to Austin a day early and met up with you guys. Austin is weird enough that we could have found lots of Vegan fare for your daughter as well. Glad you got to enjoy some good que though.

Thanks, it was the thought that counts! Maybe next time

[muebe]

Cool posting all the pics!

[Ka Honu]

... San Antonio ... Riverwalk ... Ben & Jerry's ...

Right under Ben & Jerry's is a restaurant called Paesano's. I think it's a (relatively) new location (I haven't been there since my mom moved back to Hawaii in the late 90s) but they used to be the best Italian place in San Antonio. Their Shrimp Paesano was worth whatever they wanted to charge for it.

Once back in Nola, we ate a place ... called The Creole House. It was supposed to be good but I found it to be just okay and WAY overpriced!

Well, that's not surprising. If you looked closely at the sign you would have seen that it was a "slip cover" over the sign of the restaurant it replaced sometime in the last year. If you'd looked even closer, you'd have seen that the old sign was "Arby's" (You can just see the red Arby's hat brim under the "B" in "Bar" in your photo). Well at least you didn't try a Lucky Dog.

I also have heard tell of The Turtle cooking a SRF brisket and one of the other members (IR2DUM??) cooking a select HEB brisket side by side at one of the get togethers and it was no better than a select HEB brisket but I'll tell you this much, it has just as much if not MORE to do with the cook and the cooker than what's being cooked.

I supplied the SRF brisket but dee's SIL (a professional chef) smoked it before I got there. I don't know what cooker he used but it was possibly the best brisket I've ever eaten. I probably wouldn't (and haven't yet) paid that much very often. I made burnt ends out of the point and they, too, were excellent (but burnt ends are pretty easy to make). I don't remember a HEB brisket at the time (but I was jet lagged - TMS&ISTI).

[IR2dum]

Quote from Turtle
I supplied the SRF brisket but dee's SIL (a professional chef) smoked it before I got there. I don't know what cooker he used but it was possibly the best brisket I've ever eaten. I probably wouldn't (and haven't yet) paid that much very often. I made burnt ends out of the point and they, too, were excellent (but burnt ends are pretty easy to make). I don't remember a HEB brisket at the time (but I was jet lagged - TMS&ISTI).

Here's video to refresh Turtle's memory.
00:15  Brad (Dee's SIL) preparing Turtles SRF Prime brisket. He smoked it in Dee's Masterbuilt.
26:18  Turtle working on his burnt ends. Not sure what he smoked them on.
43:53  HEB select brisket which was smoked on the RecTec.

[RG]

Ah! Video is always good for reminding us of our past, lol. My whole point is that I DO think that meat is a big part of it and that the cooker (person and device) make up the other part. Aaron Franklin himself could not make what he makes on a Rec Tec or a MES (but it would still be damn good!)

[Jaxon]

Great thread here with lots of "food for thought".