In response to the visitor who was looking for good barbecue in Austin:
Serious Q
There are scores of barbecue joints in Central Texas. If you are
interested in eating good smoked meat, any number of them will serve the purpose. But there only a few barbecue legends left. Making the pilgrimage to one of the cradles of Central Texas barbecue is more than a culinary experience, it is a trip back in time. Like the black and white photos of Walker Evans or Russell Lee who chronicled the lives of cotton farmers and laborers, these old meat markets are a snapshot of what Texas and the South used to be.
Somebody once chastised me for recommending the trip out to Kreuz
Market. "There were no plates, no potato salad, no beans, there wasn't even any barbecue sauce. This place isn't a restaurant, it's just a meat market!" the disgruntled eater informed me. He was right. True to its roots, Kreuz Market is still a butcher shop, not a restaurant. You can sit down in their dining hall, you can even buy beer, soda, jalapenos and pickles. But there are no side orders and no desserts.
If you had a civilized dining experience involving silverware in
mind, don't bother driving all the way to Lockhart. There are plenty of good barbecue restaurants in downtown Austin where you can eat beans and potato salad with real forks and knives. You may even find the smoked meat pretty similar.
That's no accident. The legendary meat markets in the cotton country
have defined the style of Central Texas barbecue. The king of the plate is brisket, slow smoked for 20 hours or longer. Whether you like it sliced or chopped in a sandwich, it is the main attraction. And brisket isn't the only beef, you'll also find a truly succulent smoked prime rib at Kreuz's (if you get there early enough) and a juicy all-beef sausage at Louie Mueller's. Some places also serve beef ribs from time to time.
Sure, we have pork too, although the pulled pork shoulder that is
popular in the Carolinas is pretty rare around here; pork ribs, smoked pork loin and pork sausage are pretty easy to find. We also have smoked mutton and smoked goat if you're curious.
The other unique characteristics of the Central Texas style are the
choice of hardwood and the uproar over sauce. While hickory is the smoking wood of Tennessee and the Carolinas, in Central Texas, post oak is the nearly unanimous choice. As for barbecue sauce, many Texas purists consider it with skepticism. They'll tell you that it is only used by amateurs to add moisture to dried out meat and that anybody who's any good at smoking doesn't need it. While many Texas barbecue establishments use sauce or at least offer it on the side, at die-hard places like Kreuz, it is not available at all.
There are a few tricks to getting the best barbecue. First of all,
you've got to know what time of day the meat is at its prime. Late night joints like Sam's and Ruby's in Austin are good bets in the middle of the night. They gear up for a rush when the bars close, and they've got fresh meats coming off the smokers well into the wee hours.
If you're going to get serious and take a trek out of town to the old
meat markets, remember that they eat lunch early in the farm belt. Consider skipping breakfast and showing up at 11 am to get first choice of the day's best cuts. By 12:30, any small town barbecue joint worth its salt has sold out of their most popular items.
If you're driving the back roads of the cotton country, follow your nose. You may chance upon a barbecue smoker on wheels set up under a shade tree that will blow away anything on this list. Just remember that when it comes to barbecue appearances can be deceiving -- the place that looks like a bank building may actually serve renowned sausage, and the tiny off-road dive that has all the appearances of a true find may be awful.
After all, the legends of barbecue are written in smoke.
Cotton Belt Legends:
KREUZ MARKET
208 S. Commerce
Lockhart, Texas
(512) 398-2361
Open: Monday through Friday 7am-6pm
Saturday 7am-6:30 pm, Closed Sunday
Known as "The Meat Market" to the locals, Kreuz Market features your choice of an air-conditioned dining room or an ancient hallway with knives chained to the counters where patrons have worn wells into the wood with decades of enthusiastic brisket carving. You order your meat in front of the two oak fires at either end of an L-shaped brick oven in back.
Don't miss the smoked prime rib if they have any left.
LOUIS MUELLER BARBECUE
206 W. 2nd St., Taylor, Texas
(512) 352-6206
Open Monday through Saturday 9am until they sell out
It's very dark when you first step inside from the street, but as your eyes get adjusted you begin to focus on the wonderful details of this old shrine. You can watch the smoke wafting through the shafts of light that shine in through the fan housings in the impossibly high ceiling. Or admire the corkboard covered with business cards of people who have eaten here; the cards are all smoked to a lovely shade of brown. The brisket is excellent and so are the pork ribs. If you want to try beef ribs come early on Saturday.
Louis Mueller's has side dishes and sauces as well as cold beer.
LULING CITY MARKET
633 East Davis, near US Hwy 183, Luling
Mon-Sat 7-6.
(210) 875-9019
"We don't have any forks," the cashier at City Market repeats
emphatically every five minutes. Visitors who aren't familiar with Central Texas barbecue traditions are dumbfounded by the lack of eating utensils. Why do we eat barbecue with our hands? Because that's the way cotton pickers did it, that's the way the oil field workers did it and that's the way it's done. Open since 1930, Luling City Market is an old meat market that hasn't changed much. Try the juicy brisket and the sausage, they have two kinds, wet and dry. The wet one squirts when you cut it.
SOUTHSIDE MARKET
1212 Hwy 290 West, Elgin
Mon-Thur 8-8; Fri & Sat 8-10; Sun 9-6
(512) 272-5713
Founded in 1882, South Side Market is the home of the legendary Elgin "hot guts," a natural casing sausage also known in these parts as "Elgin Sausage." Barbecue joints all over the state serve South Side's sausage.
It was one of the best known barbecue joints in the state, after 110
years in the old butcher shop on 109 Central Street, Elgin. But unable to get fire insurance on the old building anymore, the owners moved out it out to a new building on Highway 290 three years ago. It is now one of the largest barbecue restaurants in the state.
PRAUSE'S MARKET
253 West Travis Street (which is Hwy. 71), La Grange
Mon-Fri 7-5:30; Sat 5:30-1; closed Sun.
409-968-3259.
Prause's is unique in that is still more of a meat market than a barbecue joint. They sell a great breakfast sausage in the butcher case; the barbecue is served in a little room in back. The tender brisket always sells out early.
TAYLOR CAFE
101 N. Main, Taylor.
Sun-Thurs 9a-10p; 11p on Sat and Sun.
(512) 352-2828
A rough and tumble beer joint that has still has two bars, a leftover from the era of segregation. Don't miss Vencil Mares excellent "bohunk" sausage. It's the red building near the railroad tracks under the overpass.
Austin Barbecue:
SAM'S
2000 E. 12th
478-0378
Open: Sunday through Thursday 10 am-3am, Friday and Saturday 10am-5am
Sam's is Austin's all-time favorite barbecue joint. When it burnt
down a few years ago, people from all over the city showed up with materials, tools and money and rebuilt the place.
Sam's was a favorite of the late Stevie Ray and many other blues
musicians. It's is popular with the out-all-night crowd -- it's open very late. Try the ribs and the sausage, this may be the only place you'll ever see barbecued mutton.
While there are lots of places to get great barbecue, there is only
one Sam's.
RUBY'S
512 W. 29th
477-1651
Open: Sunday through Thursday 11am-Midnight, Friday-Saturday 11 am-4am
Ruby's is proud of its organic beef brisket. It is the only
restaurant in Central Texas to serve certified hormone and chemical free barbecued beef. You can also get vegetarian black bean tacos here! But don't let the healthy stuff scare you away -- Ruby's is a great little dive that puts out a fine plate of ribs and outstanding side orders. Located a few doors away from Antone's blues club, just off of Guadalupe, it's very convenient for a late night barbecue breakfast.Barbecue