Lots of people are selling their tickets at facevalue on Craigslist, so tickets shouldn't be difficult to get if you're interested. I think face is $65 with fees/etc.
I couldn't make it out to the BBQ festival but I did eat a couple left over Franklin ribs and some brisket and even 2 days later it was stir excellent even out of the microwave.
People's Choice Winners from the 2011 Texas Monthly BBQ Festival : Brisket : Franklin Pork ribs: Stanley's Sausage : Louie Mueller Beef Ribs : Louie Mueller
Some of the best sausage I ever had was at City Market in Luling, Texas. Mmmm... good stuff. Then again, I'm not really a true bbq connoisseur like a lot of you fanatics.
Franklin brisket was number one...and there was no clear number two. Stanley's ribs were unreal. What a day. I'm in need of raw vegetables and grains...
I was there...I was stuffed. Franklin's won hand down...but I don't think Snow's brought it's A-game. Plus I was disappointed to see Kruetz was absent. Some of the BBQ was great, but some was downright awful. How does a place like Baker Ribs get invited? Their BBQ was just terrible.
city market is my favorite sausage (no homo). still havent been to snows or franklins though. and the jalapeno cheese sausage at blacks in lockhart rocks my world too.
From what I've heard, they actually used to be good until they started opening up multiple locations. There are a couple in the Dallas area that I've been meaning to try. I'd rather have BBQ they make at their location. They're probably more used to the conditions, pits, timing, etc. than when they go mobile.
I'm not a huge fan of bbq sausage, but have you tried the jalapeno cheese sausage from Kreutz? I went to Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas and they have Kreutz sausage. I tried it, but like I said, I'm no bbq sausage expert. It was alright, but others rave over it.
i havent - when i go to lockhart its either blacks or smittys - both of them have top notch sausage. but like i said, city market has the best ive ever put in my mouth.
I've never been to Blacks (though I've heard questionable things about it), but I went in a group of 7 to Smitty's and Kruetz Market - Kruetz Market was favored 7-0. We didn't think Smitty's should've been ranked in the top 5, Kruetz is really good and that jalapeno cheese sausage there is incredible. Next time you're in Lockhart you should check out Kruetz.
I was bored, and like an idiot decided to go try some Franklin BBQ today not remembering that afternoon traffic would be murder near Christmas as people were traveling. *sigh* All I have to say is that when I tried Snow's, I thought I'd gone to Heaven. If that was the case, then, in going to Franklin, I've met Jesus. Ok, of course I'm exaggerating, but this was either the best or second best brisket I've ever... EVER... had. The only competition I've had so far would come from Snow's. It was a toss-up for me. The one time I tried Snow's, it was incredible, if a bit salty. Franklin was just as good. The people that work there are really nice people. I chatted with Aaron and told him I had driven from Dallas to try his brisket. He gave the obligatory "wow", and then proceeded to be one of the most humble pit bosses I've ever chatted with (along with Tootsie Tomanetz at Snow's - a sweet lady). I told him that Snow's was the best brisket I'd had to-date anywhere and people had been raving about Franklin so much, I had to try it. His response? He starts rattling off names of "competitors" who are good. He said something like "Oh yeah, they do a good job" when referring to Snows. I had told him I was from the DFW area and he added, "Have you ever gone to Pecan Lodge?" up in the DFW area. It's considered by many to be the best bbq you can get up here. I told him, no, but that it was definitely on my list. He said that was one of his favorites or something. Then he said "have you tried Lockhart Smokehouse?" I said, yeah, and they really were the only BBQ joint up here that I thought could give Central Texas BBQ a run. I posted a few pages back about how good their brisket was - Kreutz family members started the place up here. He agreed with me and said they do a good job. I was going to talk BBQ with him, because it seemed like he could talk for days about it and it was kind of shocking to see the guy talk about other places and what he likes. You usually don't see that from competitors. It also shows this guy travels around doing research on these places. lol. It's like the legend about Aaron - the guy is a BBQ nerd. The pork ribs were pretty good, btw, but the brisket blew it away on taste alone. The pork ribs were among the few I've ever had where I could easily pull the meat away with a fork. You could easily eat the ribs with a fork. But then sanity set in and I just picked the damn things up and started gnawing. I liked the espresso sauce and whatever the other 2 sauces were, but the brisket was eaten pretty much "nekkid" with maybe a few drops of the espresso sauce to see what it would taste like. It's really crazy how good that brisket was. Anywho some pics : The sign outside : Spoiler I was actually the first one at the restaurant at around 8:30, but decided that was too early to wait in 40 degree and windy weather, so I drove around. I ended up being the 3rd person there. A lady brought a chair and a book to read. We all walked up to the store at the same time. The guys and I chatted for the approximately 1.5 hours we stood outside freezing. :grin: This pic was taken around 9:30am when we first walked up. This was the entire line at that point. Keep in mind, they don't open until 11am. Spoiler This pic was taken at 10:45am. The line seems to have.... grown a bit. And you're not seeing the entire line : Spoiler Here's Aaron - the wizard of brisket. Doesn't look like a BBQ guy... yes, I'm stereotyping BBQ people. Spoiler Here's the menu hanging above the counter. Only thing I really didn't care for was the crazy pricing. Brisket @ $16/lb. is damn-near insane! But if he can make it good enough that people will still line up for it, who can blame him? Spoiler Ribs on top, brisket on the bottom : Spoiler This is the line 40 minutes later when I was leaving. The crowd just keeps coming in - it's relentless : Spoiler Ridiculously hot chick in line : Spoiler Haha. JK.
Last weekend me and a few friends headed to Snows. Left Houston at 9:00am, and figured we would get to Snows by 11:00AM. Called them when we almost there and they said they are out of brisket! Damn! Started driving towards Franklins as they said they still had brisket. Got there around 12, and they said they were out of brisket! Damn!!! Headed to Salt Licks, which is not bad, but its no Snows.
If you guys ever want to experiment or that happens again, go to John Mueller's BBQ. It's not far from Franklin BBQ from what I recall. I've never been there, so I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's gotten really good reviews. Mueller just recently opened the place. Aaron Franklin used to work for him. They apparently have smoked prime rib on Fridays. It's definitely on my list of places to visit. http://jmuellerbbq.com/ Speaking of Salt Lick. I bought some Salt Lick BBQ sauce the other day. Man, that stuff is weird. It's soybean oil-based. Seemed like it would be a great laxative.
