24$ **** that this is Texas not NY or London. I paid 7 dollars for sandwich that had more meat than that and was pissed. This is unsustainable you would think.
I kind of chuckled because at a Rudy's here in the DFW area, the brisket is $24/lb. Two or 3 days out of the week they have prime rib. It's $26/lb. I think ribs are $15/lb.
Makes me kinda wish I had Netflix. When I visited Snow's years ago, I got a chance to meet her as she worked the pits. She is a beast. She works her tail off and worked it off to get where she is. There was an article written about her where someone said she was hauling around a quarter of beef by herself. She's only like 5'2" and over 80 years old now. lol. She's also the sweetest lady and offered to pose for pics for people, and stopped to chat with them while she was running around taking care of multiple pits. I always wanted to visit Rodney Scott's whenever I head out to South Carolina one of these years. He's apparently to pig/whole hog what Franklin and Snow's is to brisket.
I hate this thread so much sometimes. Voodoo posting so many delicious pics. Making me hungry and semi-motivating me to actually make a brisket, but much rather just go get some good bbq. In which I tried to do but was welcomed with very underwhelming cue. Went to a placed called Brendyns, which used to be a truck and recently moved into a permanent building. Ive had their brisket before(2 or 3 times) and was never all that impressed, but kept hearing how good it was from friends, so I decided to give them another shot at their new building. Waste of money. Brisket remains underwhelming with very little bark, small ring, very little smoke flavoring and seemed like they skimped on the seasoning. The worst part was that I saw they add chicken to the menu, so I gave it a shot as well. Big Mistake. They were using leg quarters, the kind you can buy in the grocery stores in the huge 10 pound bags. I dont have a problem where they get their chicken from, I have a problem on what kind of chicken theyre getting and the water injected leg quarters AINT IT man. How the hell do you smoke a leg quarter that was injected with a cup of water. You cant. Itll stay wet and never get the smoke flavoring it needs. Itll never dry out enough to even be considered bbq- its ****ing roasted chicken. Pissed me off and gave it to my dogs. Never going back to that place.
I've only been to the location in Brenham and have always found their BBQ much better than you describe. It's not Snow's good but good. Maybe they have a different pitmaster in Houston.
Forgot that I can actually contribute to this thread properly now. Back in February on the Texas road trip we stopped at a fair few places. The highlights: - Heim Bbq in Fort Worth (Magnolia): so good we went there three times in the few days we were in Fort Worth. The fact they have pork belly (think they were called bacon burnt ends) burnt ends on the regular menu is amazing. Would've taken top spot if not for the following: - Stillwater Bbq in Abilene: the BEST bbq I had on my entire trip. We got there just after 1pm and wanted to sample a little of everything on the menu, however a lot was sold out even the sides so we went with the staples. The jalapeno and cheese sausage was so good went back to order some more. They apologised for being out of things we ordered so gave me the entire link for free. The lunch rush had died and the two guys working there were more than happy to talk shop which made the experience even better. I'll be making a deliberate trip to Abilene again just to go back. - Louie Mueller Bbq in Taylor: my brother is not keen on the idea of the hours long wait of Franklins, so we headed on over to la barbecue. The line was out the door along the street and then hard right turn back along the corner. We got to the back of the line and said we may as well - we walked 30 minutes to get there. But after 10 minutes and the line not moving at all we called an audible and instead walked back to the apartment, hopped into the car and went to Taylor. Pulled up and saw only 8 people lining up at the door so we thought you beauty we beat the lunch rush. Slowly slowly slowly crawling towards the front door (always closed) and it wasn't until we were the ones next to open it did we realise that the line then snaked around inside. We weren't going anywhere else so we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waiter. And waiter. This was the worst near hour and 20 minutes of my life. The entire time we watched the people behind the counter: - one lady writing down the order - one lady receiving the order and taking everything out of the smoker and preparing it - one lady standing on the opposite side of the chopping board... contributing nothing - one lady (IN A MOON BOOT) all the way at the other end of the counter who was take the payments. None of the abovementioned people would bring the order to her to ring up, instead she - in her moon boot - would have to waddle over to them after each and every single order and then back to the register again - one guy who stood off in the corner who would stand there doing nothing, then he would go get trays, then he would do nothing, then he'd check the ice boxes, then he'd go back to doing nothing, then he'd get another tray, then he'd do nothing. I was in utter disbelief at the sheer lack of efficiency that was happening right before my eyes for over an hour. Food wise: we got suckered into ordering a beef rib due to hype. $52 US for the rib alone. Shed a few tears when we translated it back to Australian dollars. Their riblettes were pretty good and their jalapeno and cheese sausage was also damn good. I don't know what it was but we also got a cup of some type of liquid - I wouldn't call it a sauce due to the consistency of it. It had a real kick to it which was real nice just dipping the bread into. Overall, i'll never go back even if I was in Taylor just because of the whole situation that played out above. - Terry Blacks in Dallas: walked in and thought this can't be good - thinking they paid more attention to look like a trendy hang out spot - than focus on their food. But could not have been more wrong. We had the opportunity to go to another location of this brand earlier in the trip by my brother didn't want to instead wanting to try a smaller out of the way bbq trailer (which in itself was actually damn good but I just can't remember the name). He begrudginly agreed and he was glad he did too. Again the sausage was great which i'm beginning to think is a trend for every place, but their full pork ribs were the best I had the entire trip. There were a handful of other smaller places we went to on our travels but the names of them escape me. You're all some lucky sons of b*tches getting to experience all of that on a day to day basis!!!
Just ordered 3 racks of pork ribs from Tejas Chocolate. Can anyone let me know how they are? My girlfriend swears she can’t get good Bbq in Texas which is ridiculous to me.
Ive heard nothing but good things about Tejas. Roegels pastrami brisket is still on my list after someone in this thread mentioned it.
I live in the DFW area and have wanted to try them forever, but right as I was about to quit my last job and do a country road trip I saw COVID popping up and decided to cancel my plans. Heim's was on my list of places to go. The bacon burnt ends is what they're known for -- they apparently invented them. I've only tried them at one other place in the DFW area and I really didn't think it was all that, but again, haven't tried them at Heim. They're starting to get popular on bbq menu at other places, too, I think. A lot of BBQ places don't make their own sausage. I had to look up Stillwater BBQ to see if they made their own and saw they get their sausage from Hudson Meat Market in Austin. Or at least they did a few years ago according to Mr. Vaughn Sorry to hear this as this is another bucket-list place I've never been to and was going to try before COVID. They're known for their ribs and overall have some of the best BBQ in the state -- the entire family is pretty legendary. La Barbecue is run by a Taylor, btw. So you got the double-whammy. You'll usually find these guys on everyone's "Top 5" or "Top 10" list. I went here shortly after it opened since I didn't work too far from it back then. I had the opposite opinion when I first heard about it. It had "Black's" in the name, so I wondered if it was related to Black's BBQ in Lockhart, because if so, it would probably have a chance of being pretty good. The owner is indeed related to those Blacks, but I don't think they cook their meats the same way. Of course, they were going to call it Black's BBQ or something and got into a lawsuit with family members. It's funny how all these family bbq joints seem to have drama (like the Muellers). As for the BBQ, I loved it. I especially liked whatever rub they used on their ribs. The brisket was probably a 7 when I went. There were a handful of other smaller places we went to on our travels but the names of them escape me. Actually, most of what you experienced has only been around Texas-wide for about the last 10-15 years. The style and seriousness of BBQ has changed in that time. Before that, there were 2 "meccas of meat" in Texas. In Lockhart, Tx with the "Big 3" of Kreuz, Smitty's, and Black's and Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Tx. Houston and Dallas generally sucked for BBQ and was limited to garbage chain restaurants. In the last 10-15 years, you can find great bbq everywhere now. La Barbecue is supposed to be really good, too. Snow's and Franklin are still the best brisket I've ever had, but trying to get to Snow's 1 day of the week to be in a line and Franklin any day of the week to be in a line can be rough. Hopefully you can get to go to some of the other place some day. The worst part of BBQ is that you can try the best BBQ place on their worst day and have a bad opinion of them. BBQ is so variable sometimes. If you went to Terry Black's, you weren't far away from what many consider one of the best BBQ places in the state in Pecan Lodge (just down the road, really). I've been to Pecan Lodge 3 times, and only 1 time did I think their brisket was all that, but you may want to give it a shot if you ever head back.
So weird you just mentioned Heim and I mention this morning that I always wanted to try them. A neighborhood near me always sponsors food trucks to come to the neighborhood so people can buy food from the truck if they don't feel like driving to various places due to traffic, busy schedule, COVID, etc. I find out today Heim's food truck was there... kill me.
You ever corned a brisket and then smoked it, pastrami-style? Not that difficult and f-ing delicious.
Only open from 10am till 1 PM on weekends but Old Bucs in Manvel on 6 is the best around. Not crazy prices either.
