Best BBQ and best Mexican in Austin

Fascinating story.

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

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Fascinating story.

don't encourage me! I've got a million of them. OK, one more:
When Stubb left Lubbock for Austin, the guy who owned his building (a competing and very frustrated BBQ maker), took a bulldozer and within a week had leveled the place down to the pad. i went back to lubbock to visit and stubb and i were driving around. he said he wanted to go by the old place. i couldn't imagine doing that ... like visiting a grave. but he insisted so we went. we pulled up next to the slab and it was just awful. so i said "well stubb are you happy now?" and he looked at me and said "yes sir. it's like looking at the saucer where a great cup of coffee has been."

Originally Posted by foodguy

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don't encourage me! I've got a million of them. OK, one more:
When Stubb left Lubbock for Austin, the guy who owned his building (a competing and very frustrated BBQ maker), took a bulldozer and within a week had leveled the place down to the pad. i went back to lubbock to visit and stubb and i were driving around. he said he wanted to go by the old place. i couldn't imagine doing that ... like visiting a grave. but he insisted so we went. we pulled up next to the slab and it was just awful. so i said "well stubb are you happy now?" and he looked at me and said "yes sir. it's like looking at the saucer where a great cup of coffee has been."

wow

I had no knowledge of Stubs or his BBQ but was looking to buy BBQ sauce at the grocery store. Reading the brands and labels I see Stubbs. The label read something like " ladies and gentlemen, I'm a cook"! that hooked me, been buying ever since. Sounds like a great guy.

Originally Posted by Despos

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I had no knowledge of Stubs or his BBQ but was looking to buy BBQ sauce at the grocery store. Reading the brands and labels I see Stubbs. The label read something like " ladies and gentlemen, I'm a cook"! that hooked me, been buying ever since. Sounds like a great guy.

actually, the current commercial label is almost exactly like the ones he drew up himself and xeroxed for those original bottles. his "ladies and gentlemen, i'm just a cook" was kind of legendary ... he loved musicians but had the worst musical timing of almost anyone i've ever heard. he knew like two songs ... the main one being "summertime", but he'd get up on stage and sing with anybody (and everybody was glad to have him). by the time he'd finished the first verse, the band was usually on the fifth. he'd interrupt the song periodically for philosophical soliloquies on the nature of life and cooking, always interrupted by "ladies and gentlemen, i'm just a cook." joe ely is working on a documentary film on his life. has been for a couple of years.

Originally Posted by Despos

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I had no knowledge of Stubs or his BBQ but was looking to buy BBQ sauce at the grocery store. Reading the brands and labels I see Stubbs. The label read something like " ladies and gentlemen, I'm a cook"! that hooked me, been buying ever since. Sounds like a great guy.

The Stubb's bottled sauce available in supermarkets now is quite good for a mass market sauce. I've bought it up north and there is some in my refrigerator in Texas at this very moment. It is much better than the national brands commonly available.
That said, you all do know that sauce on brisket is considered anathema in Texas? Some joints don't even make or serve a sauce, most notably Kreutz's in Lockhart which is widely regarded as one of the best, year in year out. The thinking goes that, if the cooking was any good you should enjoy the meat just the way it is off the fire, and I tend to agree with that. My kid puts Stubb's sauce on his hamburgers, though.

Originally Posted by Spats

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That said, you all do know that sauce on brisket is considered anathema in Texas? Some joints don't even make or serve a sauce, most notably Kreutz's in Lockhart which is widely regarded as one of the best, year in year out. The thinking goes that, if the cooking was any good you should enjoy the meat just the way it is off the fire, and I tend to agree with that. My kid puts Stubb's sauce on his hamburgers, though.

absolutely, stubb put sauce on his ribs, lightly, but never on his brisket. my daughter was born in lubbock and probably her first dinner out was gnawing on the remains of a rib bone at stubb's. when she was a teenager, her favorite comfort food was "stubb sandwiches" -- bread with stubb's sauce on them.

Agreed. Stub's is the best store bought I have tried. Sonny Bryans in Dallas has the best sauce of any BBQ place I have tried.

Have wanted to try Coopers in Llano. Heard great things about the place. They have a location in Fort Worth, is it as good/same as Llano?

Originally Posted by Despos

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Have wanted to try Coopers in Llano. Heard great things about the place. They have a location in Fort Worth, is it as good/same as Llano?
Dunno. I'm more of a "south and east of Austin" kind of BBQ eater. Cooper's has their fans, for sure. I did used to enjoy Angelo's on White Settlement in Ft. Worth about 10 years back when I had repeat occasion to visit that fair city.
Southeast of AusTex is Lockhart, not exactly a bespoke clothing mecca but more of a BBQ mecca, although you can get a custom made (big) hat there at Texas Hatters.

PS, One last word on small town vs. big city/Llano vs. Ft. Worth: one theory is that small town barbecue joints are better bets because they might not have a stringent health code or inspector. BBQ joints get kinda dirty over time, much of it not worth cleaning up every day just to smoke it all up again tomorrow, and they cook at suspiciously low temperatures too. Proof's in the pudding, I say.

Originally Posted by Despos

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Agreed. Stub's is the best store bought I have tried. Sonny Bryans in Dallas has the best sauce of any BBQ place I have tried. Have wanted to try Coopers in Llano. Heard great things about the place. They have a location in Fort Worth, is it as good/same as Llano?
Coopers is good, especially the "Big Chop," but I'd put it a tier below Smittys and City Market. It's a cool spot, though. Still better than anything in town with the exception of Franklin. The Coopers outside of Llano are not up to snuff, I've heard, nor are the Muellers outside of Taylor (although there used to be a really excellent one in Austin, where I believe Aaron Franklin got his start). In fact, out of staters don't realize this, but Texans generally denigrate BBQ found anywhere outside of central Texas, including the stuff in Houston and Dallas. Although I was raised on Sams and go there kinda often, I wouldn't take an out of towner there for their one TX BBQ experience because I've had some very dry and/or very ***** plates of food there. I've also never had anything revelatory there, as I have at Franklin, Smittys or City Market. I'm fond of the place and hesitant to say anything bad about it.... BBQ really benefits from a busy restaurant - you don't want your meat waiting for a customer. Sam's is famous for their mutton, by the way, which is unusual in Texas BBQ. I think a lot of people recommend Sam's b/c of the atmosphere and history, which is probably fair.

well, thanks guys. you really lit a fire. i just pitched our travel editor on a story on central texas, its bbq and its music. who knows whether she'll bite, but it sure would be fun. in the process, i found this piece i wrote many years ago on stubb. still like it.

I went to sam's at about 10pm last night. I was the only pale face for miles which they apparently found shocking. I was expecting ghetto but not THAT ghetto.

Extremely friendly, big guy running the place (I'm guessing Sam was his dad.) Only other dude there was some random mexican guy eating.

I tried 3 meats, should have gotten mutton too. It looked interesting. I love how the first thing the guy does is to wrap some white bread in foil. I had no idea what one does with that.

Parts of the brisket were not bad, some dry. Some of the ribs were very nice, others not. Honestly, the stand out that day was the chicken, which is odd I suppose but I found it quite nice. It was a mountain of food for like 12 bucks, obviously couldn't finish it. I'll go back again for the mutton, and to see how the food varies. It honestly wasn't the mind blowing experience I was expecting, but I was far from disappointed.

Had breakfast the next day at one of my favorite austin spots, the 1868 cafe at the Driskill, which also happens to be one of my favorite hotels in the US. I always have a great time there and it's just a lovely place. Unfortunately the Bar got rid of their impressive old Scotch collection.

Sounds like you did OK. I forgot about the "other meats" they have there, and I suppose the first thing an out of towner thinks of is to try them all. But I don't think that is how most locals eat bbq. Around Austin, it's really "brisket and sausage" 90% of the time for 85% of the customers. The fat in almost all central texas made sausage (Elgin, Tx. usually) is enough to balance out any deficit in your beef (what they call the sliced brisket). So you walk in and order, say, "half pound of sliced beef and a link," or some variant of that. If you're fussy, peer over the counter and look at the brisket he's about to cut. If it looks too dry, ask him if he has something with a bit more fat on it. If it looks too *****, ask him to trim away some of the fat or to cut from a leaner piece (brisket is quite variable in that regard). But as I say, if you have a piece of slightly too dry beef, you take a bite out of the sausage on your butcher paper next, with or without a piece of bread along with it or wrapped around it, and be careful not to squirt any on your tie.
I suppose it is also true that a brisket that has sat half served for a few hours on a low fire will be drier than one that is sliced and served up in 15 minutes; so yes, a busy joint can be good. On the other hand, if they have a long line and it's your turn, you're more likely to get a few slices of whatever is up next off the brisket and that might not be to your liking, so you have to have an eye for what you like and a man carving who is willing to indulge your whims (don't be too much of a dick, he's got a big knife in his hand).
A lot of traditional joints often have nothing but sausage and beef every day, saving ribs, chicken, pork loin, etc. for certain days. I probably have ribs at Sam's every fifth time or so. Forgot they had chicken, and haven't had the mutton since 1978 (it IS cheaper, but tastes a bit like lanolin on brisket). Sam's always has ribs though, and a lot of places don't. Beef ribs are a gimmick at The County Line, I think. A pork loin or chop at Kreutz's Market in Lockhart is NOT to be missed if you ever get a chance. Barbecued turkey is best left sitting wherever you find it. Best barbecued chicken I ever ate was in the back parking lot at Harold's Lounge (where the Four Seasons hotel is today) one Friday afternoon when some electricians were whooping it up early. I forget what the occasion was, probably nothing. But chickens cooked over an oak wood fire for seven hours can't be picked up by the bone sticking out of the drumstick, I remember that.

Originally Posted by SField

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I went to sam's at about 10pm last night. I was the only pale face for miles which they apparently found shocking. I was expecting ghetto but not THAT ghetto.

Extremely friendly, big guy running the place (I'm guessing Sam was his dad.) Only other dude there was some random mexican guy eating.

I tried 3 meats, should have gotten mutton too. It looked interesting. I love how the first thing the guy does is to wrap some white bread in foil. I had no idea what one does with that.

Parts of the brisket were not bad, some dry. Some of the ribs were very nice, others not. Honestly, the stand out that day was the chicken, which is odd I suppose but I found it quite nice. It was a mountain of food for like 12 bucks, obviously couldn't finish it. I'll go back again for the mutton, and to see how the food varies. It honestly wasn't the mind blowing experience I was expecting, but I was far from disappointed.

Had breakfast the next day at one of my favorite austin spots, the 1868 cafe at the Driskill, which also happens to be one of my favorite hotels in the US. I always have a great time there and it's just a lovely place. Unfortunately the Bar got rid of their impressive old Scotch collection.

I think brisket, pork ribs, and sausage form an essential trinity, with importance in that order.

Pro tip: when ordering brisket always ask for it "moist", which will get you the ***** part.

I didn't know sausage was more traditional than ribs. I saw a lot of people eating the sausage, not the other stuff. I should have tried it.