I'd say you should add Louie Mueller in Taylor, La BBQ in Austin and Franklin (if logistics allow) over any of the places you have listed (from my tour last year, those three had the best brisket). I guess I should say Snow's on Saturday would be my "must do" if I was there on a Saturday (I've not tried it yet). These places sorta group into doable sets as follows: - The Lockhart 3 can be done in an afternoon. - Austin Town (Franklin if you can handle the line or try "late", La BBQ, Mickelwaith, Kerlin, etc) - A trip out to Snows and then hit Louie Mueller on the way back to Austin would be a killer saturday. - John Mueller Black Box is open on Sunday, so that could be combined with Freemans or any of the Austin places. Let us know what you end up doing and post your reviews! (I'll try to remember to post my notes from my upcoming sept trip)
Thank you for the added information, we will be out in Austin in October,Thursday- Sunday and should be able to hit the majority of the bbq places if not all of them. I’ll try to keep some mental notes, anything other than the brisket I should watch out to try? I’ll have to resist the notion to order and get large portions in favor of eating multiple places.
Not a big sausage fan, but a lot of people rave about the Kruez sausage. Also, occasionally, I try a pork chop, but they are usually huge.
+1 IMO, the best in Tejas. The taste is great, the place feels like what a central Texas bbq joint should be....T
BBQ Tour part II is in the books... Day 1 was with a group of college buds. We hit five spots: Louie Mueller La Barbecue Lockhart (kreutz, smittys, blacks) Best of the day was La Barbeque by some margin. Mueller was not as good as my last time there, but the beef rib was loved by all. Blacks was second place. Day 2 I had the good fortune to be joined by one of our own - Tomc - who made the drive down to Austin. Was great to meet him and share some cue. We also hit five places: John Mueller Black Box BBQ Micklewaith La Barbeque Kerlin Stiles Switch John Mueller’s newest place is something worth visiting...good bbq too. The man himself was there, which I discovered when a bearded guy yelled over to us “you gonna take photos of it or eat it? Stop taking pictures and eat” La Barbeque was not as strong as two days earlier. All of the places showed “ok” or better to my palate. Lesson learned from revisiting many of these places...consistency is hard. The cue can vary from cow to cow and cook to cook. My other takeaway from this second trip is that I really enjoyed the sausage this time. On the first trip I was disappointed by the links everywhere. This trip was the opposite, I had good spicy links virtually everywhere. Not sure why my palate changed on that.
If y'all want a well-organized, tasty tour of Texas Q, let the man from Scottsdale hook you up! Went off w/o out a hitch, and we had some great Q. Got a little over-stuffed toward the end, but whatcha gonna do? I posted some pics over in the "What's for Dinner?" thread, but here's a few more, despite the injuction we got from John Mueller, to stop snapping & start eating! Image Unavailable, Please Login Lean & moist brisket. Sausage. Smoked boudin. Turkey. Brisket was very smoky & very oaky, just the way I like it. Loved the boudin. Never seen that before. The wife is not a fan of the variety meats, or I'd cook that up in a heartbeat! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Long line @ Mickelthwaite's. I didn't really get a good pic of the grub @ Mickelthwaite's. Everything was pretty intricately wrapped. I second what Dave said - good sausage, good brisket. The one thing stands out in my mind from this place was the smoked chicken. Moist & flavorful...T
Image Unavailable, Please Login This was the Q from La Barbecue. AzIt ordered ahead and we got to jump the queue for Q! Brisket was great. There was some "unusual" foodie in the ribs. Couldn't place it. But as a foodie, I enjoyed it. It was different. Different and good. There was some yellow spice in the sausage at La B. Don't think it was turmeric; hard to disguise that flavor. Saffron? At any rate, primo sausage. Image Unavailable, Please Login Funky art at La B. T
You may want to try Black Box if you're ever in the vicinity of Georgetown. They were the smokiest (oak) of the places we tried yesterday. AzIt can correct me if I am mis-remembering. If you like heavy smoke, they'd be the place I would try among the joints we hit up yesterday. Boardwalk Ferrari often caters their events like the Spring & Fall Concorso with Rudy's, and for chain Q, it's pretty good. I'm not a fan of Dickie's - another chain around here, but to be honest, I have only tried it once. I'd put Hard Eights between those two (I think they're up to 5 or 6 locations). Cooper's now has 4 locations, but I have only been to the original location in Llano and the closed location in Mason - very good. This is Kerlin. A few blocks from La B. We had a little sausage & a few slices of brisket. Image Unavailable, Please Login Small place near where La B used to be (as best as I can recall). Hidden behind a Mexican food truck. Image Unavailable, Please Login Snapped a pic after digging in. I was pretty much in brisket-overload by this point, but both still tasted good to me. Their homemade pickles were good too. A little acidity helped cut through the grease. A pop-up T-storm helped cool things off for a while while we were there. Pro tip - Kerlin's parking lot is not Ferrari-worthy! T
For your trip in October, now that I can reflect on my two trips (I have done 5 days total and 20+ stops), I think I'd recommend the following: 1) Lockhart 3 - must do. Smitty's, Kreuz and Blacks (and its easy as they are all within a few hundred yards of each other and the town is pretty cool looking) 2) Snow's on Saturday (I say this despite never having been there. Reputation suggest its gotta be great and a unique Texas experience) 3) John Mueller Black Box - must do (a bit north of Austin). The secret is not out yet...can't believe there are no lines...yet... 4) Louie Mueller in Taylor - must do (a bit east of Austin) (I think a saturday of Snow's, L. Mueller and J Mueller would be amazing if logistically possible.) 5) Austin. La BBQ and Franklin (if you order ahead at both places, which you need to do NOW) are must do*. But the secret has been out on Franklin for years and now the same is happening at La BBQ with resultant long lines there too. Kerlin and Micklewaith also worth hitting and all four are within a mile of one another 6) Western Hill Country Drive (time permitting its a fun drive to get into the hills. Hit up Opie's in Spicewood, Coopers out in Llano, perhaps a couple more with research. Opie's still sticks out in my mind for being very authentic and real people spot. I'd go again.) Ordering - get enough moist brisket, lean brisket and sausage for everyone in your group to try it. I'd get a beef rib at Louie Mueller for sure, and perhaps at Black's too. I've started getting a pork rib or two here and there and have had some good ones in Texas. I avoid sides and bread. I get lots of the pickles (especially the homemade ones at a few places). I also try turkey or chicken a few times. You can bring along a cooler and take it home/to the hotel if anyone wants late supper. * The lines at Franklin and La BBQ are too long to work either place into a BBQ Tour day unless you pre-order on their website. Pro tip - you have to order 1lb min of each meat on La BBQ's website, but they don't charge you in advance and you can then adjust the order simply by telling them when you arrive that you are "touring" and need less. Btw - the pre-order secret door is in the "back" of the place, so just walk by the large line. Franklin has a 5lb min iirc, but you can spread it around 5 meats. Btw - their sauces are the best I've ever had (I'm not religious about sauce). If you can get a pre-order at Franklins, do it. Don't let the Texan's tell you it sucks and is for visiting Californians. There is real dislike of Aaron and his "whole thing" and the crowds it attracts with its "yuppie Q". Like many things, some people don't like change and don't like different. What matters is the food. And his is fantastic. Also, keep in mind my comments on consistency, no restaurant has perfect consistency and you can have bad or disappointing brisket at any place one day to another. So I'm sure some have been disappointed by the food at Franklin. But, many, many have had fantastic BBQ there. Go and find out for yourself vs. being told you are an idiot if you go there.
Just got back from Austin, we stayed near the work office in brushy creek area, had a lot of bbq and took some pictures. Here are my brisket assessments Thursday Slabs- dinner was nearby the brewery’s (Celis & adelberts) was ok, but everything was part of a sandwich with a lot of toppings, think It was called the gronk. Friday John muellers black box -lunch Had it for lunch, got there around 11am, took a while since they cut everything up front. Not bad, thought it was the most heavily smoked of all the places I visited, though some of the brisket could have used some more time in the smoker as the fat didn’t fully cook and become transparent. Coopers-dinner Was downtown meeting some acquaintances and they recommended coopers, I can say the meat was ok but not really bbq or it was very very lightly smoked, but the blackberry cobbler was good Saturday Got to Lockhart at 9am since smittys was open already, blacks opened at 10, and kreuz at 1030. Smittys only had sausage ready, so we wondered around Lockhart until 10am smittys Cool place but can be confusing to get around in, was alright but some of the cuts were really dry, it was hit and miss Blacks I would say the briskets here was on point, Smokey and moist, best out of the 3 in Lockhart Kruez Really big place on the outside, didn’t seem so on the inside, cuts were on the dry side and the lowest of the 3 for me in lockhart. I was bbq’d out by lunch Saturday, I’d say that if these places are really the pinnacle of bbq in the Austin area, that there are plenty good bbq in the Chicagoland area (green st in the west loop, bbq king in Woodstock, and ld’s in east Troy, wi). It also may ultimately the oak that makes the difference in these areas too. Thanks for all the recommendations and I look forward to trying more places on my next trip. John muellers black box Image Unavailable, Please Login Coopers Image Unavailable, Please Login Smittys Image Unavailable, Please Login blacks Image Unavailable, Please Login Kruez (excuse the blurry ness) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks for posting your reviews. Sounds like a disappointment overall. Hopefully was fun regardless. Now that I've done the two trips and hit a lot of these places 2-3 times, I am very cognizant of the difficulty of getting each individual brisket to cook properly. I knew brisket was hard to do well, but now I really know! Your notes confirm the same reality... I will say the best brisket I had on my trips was at Franklin, La BBQ and Louie Mueller. Too bad you didn't hit any of those three. Next time prioritize those and Snow's! I'd add Micklewaith and Kerlin as "next up" on your list for the next trip after the others.
Let me know when you are ready to do the Saturday morning drive to Snow's! It was great brisket. Nice drive out there...T
Maybe my expectations are real high or the QC isn’t very high at some places. I’ll be back in December and head out towards Taylor as it was out of the way with the time we had available. I’ll try franklin and la bbq, if no pre order, what the protocol for those places? I’d rather not wait
Gotta pre-order. It’s easy online for LaBBQ, but you gotta get 5lb at Franklin. Otherwise you can go on a weekday in the quiet season. I did go to Franklin without a preorder by arriving around 1pm and the wait wasn’t bad and they weren’t sold out (but that was a cold mid week in December)
Some info on Franklin's in this thread. Around post # 900. Charcoal grill/smoker recommendations? https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/index.php?threads/Charcoal-grill-smoker-recommendations%3F.321055/ Wife and I preordered on the advice of an F-chatter. It was easy and smooth as silk. T
Thanks, it’s around post 913, also https://austin.eater.com/2016/6/13/11923718/franklin-barbecue-skip-line-preorder
