Austin BBQ Joints

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Is Louie’s the best kept BBQ secret in Austin?

A customer picks up his order at Louie's, a BBQ trailer in south Austin. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Editor's note: Louie's has now moved to a new location in Buda, just south of Austin. Address and info is listed below. Louie’s, a trailer joint on South Congress, wasn’t on the itinerary for the Posse’s recent tour of Austin-area barbecue places. But then we met blogger Jason Salas at an early stop. He raved about Louie’s so we changed our plans. Order of street corn at Louie's. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) We’re glad we did. Louie’s, run by Luis…

Joints - 06/10/2018

Whitfield’s in Austin, a work in progress

Our meat spread at Whitfield’s in Austin. From left top clockwise: Jalapeño & cheese sausage, smoked half chicken, pork ribs, beef sausage, fried potatoes, sliced brisket & pickled beats. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) As settings go, Whitfield’s, the new barbecue trailer in southern Austin, might be in the most un-photogenic place we’ve encountered during a decade on the barbecue trail. “If it’s not first, it’s close,” Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins said during our recent visit. Located near the intersection of Brodie Lane and Davis Lane, the trailer and pits sit on a large gravel parking lot. No trees. Nearby,…

Joints - 06/08/2018

Texas BBQ revolution keeps spreading

Call me clueless, but I hadn't realized how far, and fast, the Texas BBQ revolution has spread. Some background: We’re heading soon on a cross-Canada train trip, so I was checking to see if there might be decent barbecue joints on the front end (Toronto) and back end (Victoria, B.C.) of the trip. Sure enough, Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins recommended Adamson Barbecue in Toronto, which has gotten some buzz from aficionados. Notice the lede photo on Adamson’s Facebook page, shown above. Can’t get much more Texas than that. And through a Google search I found Jones Bar-B-Que in Victoria.…

Joints - 08/01/2017

Let the Texas BBQ Posse eat cake, mom says, and we do

Customers line up on a Saturday morning at Truth Barbeque in Brenham, the Posse's first stop of the trip. (Photo ©Michael Ainsworth/Texas BBQ Posse) At the first stop of the day on a barbecue tour, we almost never order dessert. Plenty of opportunity later for sweets, if we’re still hungry. And so it was at Truth Barbeque in Brenham on a recent Saturday morning. After tasting the joint’s beef rib, brisket, pork ribs, turkey and sausage, we confirmed that Truth deserved every bit of its recent Texas Monthly ranking among the Top 10 places in the state. “I can’t think we’re…

Joints / Roadtrips - 06/26/2017

New look for Micklethwait Craft Meats, same great brisket

Three-meat plate with fatty brisket, a big pork rib, and knockwurst sausage & sides at Micklethwait Craft Meats. Micklethwait Craft Meats, the excellent barbecue joint near downtown Austin, had a new look when we stopped there for lunch this week. “Gussied up” was the term that immediately came to mind, though it might be a tad high brow for a trailer operation. But it sure looked nice. The space leading to and under the service windows is now covered with pea gravel and several large concrete pavers, and a new planter near the main seating was ready for some greenery. Before,…

Joints - 05/11/2017

The beef cheeks at LeRoy and Lewis in Austin, Yes!

The beef cheeks stole the show during lunch at LeRoy and Lewis in Austin. All the Argentine reggae on my playlist lately has put me in a very “vibra positiva” state of mind. So do the great beef cheeks at LeRoy and Lewis, the new truck and trailer joint in south Austin. Saturdays, the place serves more traditional smoked meats. We went on Good Friday. No line. What a treat in barbecue crazy ATX! This story of discovery begins early that morning. Posse member Michael Ainsworth messaged me that he was on the road to San Antonio from Dallas. “You…

Joints - 04/14/2017

Keep an eye on J.Leonardi’s, Cedric Griffin’s new trailer joint on Austin’s Eastside

Cedric Griffin gets ready for a Thursday morning opening at J.Leonardi's Barbeque in east Austin. Barbecue and football have a lot in common, says Cedric Griffin, the former University of Texas star and NFL veteran who recently opened a trailer joint on Austin's Eastside with partner Jerome Faulkner. "It's a mental game," Griffin explained, referring to cooking and playing ball. "Getting up and preparing yourself every day to be consistent. We have to be consistently good. We have to do our thing and cook our food to our taste." J.Leonardi's Barbeque (the J is for Jerome and Leonard is Griffin's…

Joints - 04/06/2017

Inflation watch: Franklin's barbecue and Austin home prices on same track

All sold out at the original Franklin Barbecue trailer in Nov. 2010. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins sent me a photo the other day from a trip we made to the original Franklin Barbecue in November of 2010. It shows the front of Aaron Franklin's little trailer in Austin and his barbecue prices at the time. "Sweet memories," Wilkins said in his email subject line. Indeed. Franklin then sold his terrific brisket for $13 a pound. Now it's $20 a pound, a nearly 54 percent increase. Ribs were $11 a pound then; now $17, also a…

Joints - 11/11/2016

And everywhere the BBQ Posse looked there were other posses

Member of the Bandera County Young Life BBQ group pose for a photo with legendary Snow's pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz. (Photo ©Chris WIlkins/Texas BBQ Posse) My memory isn't what it used to be, but I was pretty sure we ran into a first -- for us anyway -- during the Posse's trip to Snow's BBQ in Lexington last weekend. We met two groups of fellow barbecue lovers, each wearing special shirts championing their meat-loving pursuits. One group of a half-dozen guys from North Texas wore very nice black and red bowling shirts with the words "BBQ Burnt Ends" above…

People - 10/26/2016

A very tasty Texas BBQ day: Breakfast at Snow's, lunch at Louie Mueller and dinner at Miller's Smokehouse

Legendary Snow's BBQ pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz. (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves/fotobia.com) The Posse took it's long overdue 5th anniversary barbecue tour Saturday. Dubbed the Central Texas Legends Tour by Posse co-founder Chris Wilkins, it came 5 years and 5 months after our very first trip in November 2009. It was a one-day roundtrip dash from Dallas, covering 390 miles in about 13 hours. We ate at 3 joints and stopped at a fourth to pay homage to one of the state's cooking legends. A lot has changed since the Posse first started touring. And some things haven't. One of those is the…

Joints - 04/15/2015

Hutchins BBQ in McKinney can hang with Austin's best and it's open all day

(L-R) Jim Rossman, Kathy and Steve Hunt, Gary Jacobson, Michael Landauer, Bruce Tomaso and Gary Barber at Hutchins BBQ. (Photo by Tom Fox) For quality, the barbecue benchmarks are clear for Tim Hutchins, owner of Hutchins BBQ in McKinney. "We're shooting for those guys in Austin," Hutchins said during the Posse's recent visit to his joint. He said he and his crew regularly travel to the new BBQ Capital of Texas to sample the fare at places like Franklin BBQ, la Barbecue and John Mueller Meat Co. They also visit Pecan Lodge in Dallas. But Hutchins is even more ambitious.…

Joints - 02/28/2014

Zip Code 78702 -- East Austin -- the center of the Texas BBQ universe

Tom Micklethwait, pitmaster & owner of Micklethwait Craft Meats. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) Last spring we wrote that Austin had replaced Lockhart as the new barbecue capital of Texas. Now, with La Barbecue moving east of I-35, we're prepared to be even more specific. East Austin, specifically Zip Code 78702, is the undisputed center of the Texas barbecue universe. La Barbecue, with pit boss John Lewis, opens this week in its new location at the corner of East 6th Street and Waller. According to Google, that puts La Barbecue about a half-mile (a 9-minute walk) from Franklin Barbecue on East…

Joints - 12/03/2013

Lots of gorilla dust in the Texas barbecue world…Why?

Customers wait in line at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) I don't know if Ross Perot likes barbecue. He's Texan, so probably. But it doesn't really matter. He had the perfect term for what's happening now in some parts of the Texas barbecue world. Gorilla dust. Whenever Ross saw sideshows obscure real issues, whenever he saw posturing and anemic attempts at intimidation, he called it "gorilla dust." For him, cutting through b.s. was the only way to do business. That approach helped make him a business legend. During the past week or so, as I've…

Joints / People - 06/15/2013

The Barbecue Chronicles: Austin is the new Lockhart BBQ Tour

The Texas BBQ Posse dives into a spread of sausage, brisket, ribs and turkey at La Barbecue in Austin. (Photo by Tom Fox/DMN) Story by Gary Jacobson It would be easy to get carried away by what’s happening in Austin barbecue. Amid a fertile startup environment, young pitmasters are creating a smoked-meat renaissance, using only wood-fired pits and adopting old-school ways to cook for a new generation. A case could even be made that Austin has replaced Lockhart as the capital of Texas barbecue. We’ll leave that big-think stuff for another time. This is a story about…

Roadtrips - 05/07/2013

Today in the Dallas Morning News: The BBQ Posse's Austin BBQ Tour

Here's a look at our Austin BBQ Tour story in today's Dallas Morning News travel section. This is the Posse's second installment from the Texas BBQ trail in the DMN this year. Our Best of Texas BBQ project was published in early March. The tour grew out of a growing suspicion that Austin might be quickly replacing Lockhart as the state's barbecue capital. And nothing we experienced on that day disproved the theory, every stop on the tour was nothing short of sensational. Click here to see the story, slideshow and video links on the DMN Travel section of dallasnews.com. Also, you can join us…

Joints - 04/28/2013

See the photos from the Posse's Austin BBQ Tour - The Fantastic Mr. Fox strikes again

Dallas Morning News staff photographer Tom Fox at work on the Austin BBQ Tour. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) When you're on the road with the Texas BBQ Posse, it's kind of like being in the middle of a media storm. The Posse is mainly made up of Dallas Morning News writers, editors, photojournalists and their friends. Yes, we have been accused before of being the BBQ paparazzi. On the recent Austin BBQ Tour we had nine journalists and artists in the group, including five photographers. One of those was award-winning DMN staff photographer Tom Fox. Tom has captured numerous…

Joints / People - 04/27/2013

The Posse's Austin BBQ Tour: Is Austin poised to overtake Lockhart as the barbecue capital of Texas?

Stops on the Austin BBQ Tour, clockwise from top left: John Mueller Meat Co., Franklin Barbecue, La Barbecue and Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew. (Photos by Tom Fox/DMN) The Dallas Morning News just posted Gary Jacobson's story on our recent Austin BBQ Tour on both dallasnews.com and the DMN iPad app. The print story will appear on the in the newspaper's travel section on Sunday. This may have been the best single day of barbecue we've ever had on tour, sampling four meats from each joint visited. As a collective group, the brisket, ribs, sausage and turkey from La Barbecue,…

Joints - 04/27/2013

No photos allowed, but La Barbecue's John Lewis talks about his new convection smoker

La Barbecue pitmaster John Lewis and his new brisket pit. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) In Texas barbecue, competitive secrets are valuable. And a photograph, apparently, is worth much, much more than a few lousy words in a blog. No pictures. No pictures, La Barbecue pitmaster John Lewis kept repeating as he gave us a tour of his new pit during our recent tour of the best joints in Austin. Lewis claims he has built, with the help of his father, the world's first offset convection cooker that operates without any mechanical assists, such as fans or blowers. Offset refers…

Equipment - 04/19/2013

Posse favorites: Crispy wild boar ribs at Lamberts Downtown Barbecue

Our second stop on the Central Texas 5-Star Anniversary BBQ Tour took us to Lamberts Downtown Barbecue in the heart of Austin. Our previous stop at Franklin Barbecue was going to be a hard act to follow. The dining room had just closed for lunch, so we took over the bar in the historic Austin building that dates back to 1873, ordering up a round of frothy cold beverages. Looking over the menu, the crispy wild boar ribs jumped out as must-sample bbq tour fare, described as "Honey & Sambal, Cabrales Blue, Celery & Daikon Slaw. Though not exactly sure…

Joints - 11/24/2010

Franklin Barbecue - Is this the best brisket in Texas?

One giant question loomed over our Central Texas 5-Star Anniversary BBQ Tour. Could Franklin Barbecue, aka: the little trailer that could in Austin, beat out Snow's BBQ in Lexington for the title of "Best Brisket in Texas?" We had 12 posse members meet up for lunch at Franklins. The joint opens at 11am but they were sold out by 12:30pm, not an unusual occurrence. We had called ahead anonymously a few days earlier to pre-order a brisket, a couple of racks of ribs and some sausage. The posse arrived at 1pm and dug in, sitting at the picnic tables next…

Joints - 11/21/2010

Franklin BBQ: The little trailer that could

Dallas Morning News colleague Michael Ainsworth was recently on assignment in Austin when he asked advice on which barbeque joint to visit on his way back to Dallas. I directed him to Franklin BBQ, a little place in Austin that's been generating big buzz lately on the Texas BBQ trail. Michael arrived at the auqa blue and white trailer located in a parking lot beside I-35 around 2pm on a Wednesday. They were about to close but still had brisket left. Franklins is a "til the meat runs" out place when it comes to a closing time. He messaged me…

Joints - 05/04/2010

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