La Barbecue – Austin, TX

June 16, 2014November 13, 2015 / Barbecue Bros / 1 Comment

Name: La Barbecue
Date: 5/17/14
Address: 1200 E. 6th St., Austin, TX 78702 (link to menu)
Order: ¾ pound of brisket, ½ pound of ribs, 1 sausage, side of potato salad
Price: $30

Rudy: After spending hours in the classroom, minutes in the library, and many thousands of dollars earning a graduate degree, what’s the only thing I wanted to do on graduation day? Go pick up great barbecue instead of going to pick up my degree.

Monk: Congratulations on all that learning, Rudy!

Rudy: I have been hearing great things about La Barbecue for well over a year, but haven’t had the time to go wait in the line (much shorter than at Franklin’s, but still a line). So I figured this would be as good of an occasion as any.

La Barbecue was originally established LeAnn Mueller who is the granddaughter of the famous Texas pitmaster Louie Mueller. She has moved on, and in her place John Lewis has taken over, keeping the name and raising the level of barbecue that’s produced.

It still operates out of a trailer, but it has set up permanent residence, so they have plenty of picnic benches and shade tarps. They opened at 11:00, so I got there at 9:30 hoping to snag a good spot, which I did, 3rd in line. As the line grew, everyone sat on the picnic benches creating a makeshift queue. Adding to the atmosphere was the offering of free beer on weekends. Let that sink in, free beer, not some bread for the table as a freebie. FREE BEER!

Monk: Uhhh wow, best idea ever. Who is going to bring this idea to NC?

Rudy: La Barbecue is known for their massive beef ribs, but I decided to opt out of that and try as much of the other meats as possible. When I got up to the front to order, Lewis (who was taking the orders and cutting the meat) handed me a piece of brisket to try. This is a dirty trick, because I immediately upped the amount of brisket that I was planning on ordering. I started with the brisket, which was amazing. It was so juicy with a great amount of smoke and crust. They served two different sauces with it, but I have no idea what those even taste like because the meat was perfect by itself. La serves thicker slices than many of the other places, and that helps to keep the pieces super juicy.

Next I moved on to the ribs, which were the best I’ve ever had. Very meaty, super moist, and extremely tender. The problem that I have had with most ribs is that they are usually tough or they don’t have much meat. These had a similar rub to the brisket, but they also had a glaze that had just a hint of sweetness and spice. They were perfect.

The last meat that I had was one of their sausages, which they called “Hot Guts.”

Monk: Hot guts? Sounds appetizing…

Rudy: This was the least impressive meat I had. The link that I had was a bit dry and a bit disappointing. They make their sausage in-house and make it from 100% beef, which causes some of the dryness, but it was still more than I cared for.

I also ordered a side of their buttermilk bacon potato salad. It was better than most efforts at potato salad, but it still wasn’t anything to write home about. What’s still my complaint about Texas barbecue is that they put so much time and effort into cooking the meat, and then put little effort into the sides. Most places offer the same ones, which means I usually just end up ordering meat.

La Barbecue pitmaster John Lewis has completely mastered Texas barbecue. For my money, this is the best in Austin. This shouldn’t come at any surprise, because Lewis’s first job as a barbecue cook was to help Aaron Franklin open Franklin’s. He then cooked for them for 2 ½ years before taking over la Barbecue and transferring what he learned at Franklin’s and adding his own touch. It doesn’t have the hype that Franklin’s does, but it also doesn’t have near the line. When you are weighing taste and length of wait, it isn’t even close.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 4.5 Hogs (Half Hog bump for the free beer)
Brisket – 5 Hogs
Ribs – 5 Hogs (because 6 isn’t allowed)
Sausage – 3 Hogs
Sides – 3 Hogs
Overall – 4.5 Hogs

Bonus photos after the jump

June 13, 2014August 1, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Food writer Michael Pollan talked with Ed Mitchell (though he is not featured in this video), who said “the two most integrated places in his life… [were] Vietnam, where he served, and barbecue.”(via)

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Southport Smoke House – Southport, NC

June 13, 2014July 31, 2014 / Barbecue Bros / Leave a comment

Name: Southport Smoke House
Date: 5/22/14
Address: 1102 N Howe St, Southport, NC 28461
Order: Lunch portion pork and brisket, small red slaw, and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $14.51

Like Duke’s Old South BBQ in Leland, Southport Smoke House is another joint by the coast that is cooking over wood. Based on what I’ve read online, it looked fairly promising so we took the ferry from Fort Fisher across the Cape Fear River to Southport so I could check it out for myself (Mrs. Monk opted not to have barbecue for the second day in a row – pfft).

On the website for the restaurant, it claims to have “the finest wood smoked bbq this side of Texas” which is just a weird thing to say in North Carolina. But the restaurant definitely does have a Texas bent to it – in addition to pulled pork it has brisket, sausage (labeled as “Kreuz” in the restaurant so possibly shipped in from Lockhart), and ribs on the menu.

Had the sausage not already sold out (at 12:30 on a Thursday, which is kind of impressive), I would have gotten it as well as pork and brisket for my lunch that day. Instead, I stuck with just pork and brisket and although they don’t have a combo plate, the lady who took my order suggested I just get lunch portions of the two meats. Done.

I could taste the hickory wood smoke in the pork, particularly the bark, but it was a tad bit dry. Southport Smoke House has several house sauces available (with a sign promising more to come), so I tried the pork with Lexington (of course), Eastern, and “NC Tangy.” The Lexington sauce came off best for me, with the Eastern coming second, and the NC Tangy barely registering. Whatever the case, although the pork had good smoke it definitely needed some sauce, whichever one the eater may have preferred.

The brisket was sliced (or chopped if you prefer) to order and had a slight smoke ring as well as a decent tug to it. It also wasn’t completely overdone, so it had that going for it. The restaurant had only been up and running for a little over a month at the point where I visited, but both the brisket and the pork showed a fair amount of promise.

The red slaw was a decent Lexington imitation and not too much more to be said about it. Southport Smoke House doesn’t offer hush puppies, which again is a more Texas way of doing things, and instead each dish came with a couple slices of Sunbeam sliced bread. I think its a shame they don’t offer hush puppies and I’d love to see them on the menu eventually.

Southport Smoke House only opened back on April 18 and I would imagine that they are in some ways still working out the kinks. However, like the pork and brisket, the restaurant itself shows a lot of promise and I’d love to check this place out in another 6 months or year once they really get going. Definitely a joint worth keeping an eye on.

-Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 3.5 hogs
Pork – 3 hogs
Sides – 3 hogs
Overall – 3 Hogs