TX

Linkdown: 2/26/14

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– Vote for your favorite barbecue restaurant in Charlotte Magazine’s Best of the Best Awards for dining and nightlife here. May we kindly suggest the current Barbecue Bros fave and True ‘Cue approved Midwood Smokehouse.

– The James Beard Award semifinalists were named last week and several Fatback Collective team members were honored

– Speaking of which, the preliminary Rodney Scott In Exile totals are in and approximately $81,000 was raised

– Austin’s La Barbeque is named one of GQ’s best restaurants in America for 2014

– Pride and Joy BBQ’s future NYC location runs into more issues (via)

– South Carolina barbecue chain owner (and noted racist) Maurice Bessinger has died; Southern Foodways has their take on his death

– Firefighters responded to a fire at Old Hickory House in Charlotte earlier today; I haven’t seen anything further about the extent of the damage

– The NC State student paper The Technician had a short profile on Bob Garner, who is currently serving as “minister of barbecue culture” at The Pit in Durham

“My job [as minister of culture] is much more cultural than it is technical,” Garner said. “I do everything from developing new variations of recipes from the original menu, to training staff and taking plates out to the table. Customers faces are shocked to see me and it gives me a conversation starter that allows me to do what I love the most, interact with customers.”

– After not opening in Fall 2013 due to construction issues, Ed Mitchell’s ‘Que (who he is opening along with his son) is now shooting for an April 1 opening in downtown Durham

Linkdown: 2/19/14

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– Hillsborough’s Hog Day will be back after all

– Big Wayner’s mini Georgia barbecue crawl hit up three spots in the Atlanta area

– Beef prices are getting a bit ridonkulous and are affecting Texas barbecue as a result

– The Ballantyne Hotel will be hosting weekly $15 barbecue plate specials throughout the month of May (which just so happens to be National Barbecue Month)

– This month’s barbecue photographer is Ken Goodman, who had some nice photos from this year’s Whole Hog Extravaganza at 17th Street Bar & Grill in Murphysboro, IL including this great one of Sam Jones with his double cleavers

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– Thrillist’s “American BBQ Field Guide” doesn’t get the details right, particularly about NC barbecue (via), though their 33 best barbecue joints in the USA post by two different writers is a little better

Blue Ox Barbecue – Austin, TX

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Name: Blue Ox Barbecue
Date: 11/1/13
Address: 1505 Town Creek Dr., Austin, TX 78741
Order: ½ pound of pulled pork (link to menu)
Price: $7.65

Rudy: I’ve been putting off writing this review for a while, because I didn’t think it would be fair, but after my last review of Live Oak, I think I am ready. Blue Ox Barbecue is a new food truck that is located in the enclosed back yard of Buzz Mill Coffee off East Riverside in Austin. There have been lots of these barbecue food trucks popping up that are opening to great reviews. I’ve been trying to get to more of them, but the cold weather hasn’t made visiting a food truck a high priority (not sure the 100 degree summer will be any more appealing).  

The enclosed yard that Blue Ox is located in has a small stage where live music can be played as well as plenty of picnic benches for seating and even what looked like a homemade skeeball game. Lots of personality, a fun atmosphere, and pet friendly.  

Unfortunately when I went to order, they had already sold out of everything but the pulled pork. This seems to be a recent theme that I have run into lately, where I’m arriving after most everything is gone. I’ll freely admit that I have purposely avoided ordering pulled pork in Texas because I’m afraid it is not going to be NC barbecue. But since I was already there, and I had no other options, I figured I would give it a go. And in a word, it was…fantastic!  

Monk: Pulled pork? In Texas? Oh, this should be good…

Rudy: Well, they never tried to make it NC pulled pork. No, this was pulled pork Texas-style. The main staple of Texas barbecue is black pepper, and heavy doses of it. The outside of the meat has a bark that is built up and provides a tremendous amount of flavor in each bite. So, think NC pulled pork with a brisket bark, that’s what we were dealing with. They served it with a thicker tomato-based sauce which complimented it well, but wasn’t really needed because of the flavor of the seasoning.

I’m not quite ready to say it, mainly because it could be blasphemy, but this pulled pork could be the best I’ve had…  

Monk: Alright, alright, alright…I’ve let this go on long enough. While the idea of pulled pork with a brisket-y bark sounds intriguing, let’s not get carried away here. It may be good, but it can’t compare to Lexington Barbecue (aka the gold standard) can it?

Rudy: I have hesitancy with saying it, so I know you don’t want to hear it. Maybe being away from NC for a while has made me forget some of the gloriousness that is Lexington Barbecue. I definitely need to have it again before I could think of saying that, which leads me to my ratings. I have to give Blue Ox an incomplete, because I only had the pulled pork and wasn’t able to try everything (or at least as much as I wanted). But it was a very fortunate occurrence, because if they hadn’t been sold out of everything else, I never would have tried the pulled pork. Unlike Live Oak, where I felt confident giving it a rating, because I was also confident that I didn’t want to go back, I am giving Blue Ox an incomplete until I can return, which I hope to do shortly.

Ratings:
Atmosphere – 3 Hogs
Pulled Pork – 4.5 Hogs
Overall – Incomplete (for now)

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Blue Ox Barbecue on Urbanspoon