Opie’s BBQ: A Texas Monthly Top 50

I'm happy to be back to Alamo A La Carte after a long sabbatical. I'm planning many more posts about food, travel, and arts, particularly in central Texas. I hope you'll join me (or rejoin me). 

Labor Day provides a great opportunity for a barbeque road trip, as long as you’re careful to check if your target joints are open on Mondays (many aren’t). So we headed to Spicewood (about an hour and a half north of San Antonio) to try Opie’s BBQ. The air was redolent with mesquite smoke as we drove up.

Judging from the number of cars, we weren’t alone. I love places that keep their meats in an indoor “pit” (like Schoepf’s and Cooper’s). They lift the lid, and you choose (if you can) from the many smoky selections. We picked out some baby backs, sausage, and brisket. We’ve heard raves about their spicy corn and tater tot casserole, so those came home too. We helped ourselves to onions, jalapenos, pickles, and sauce at the center island (bread and beans were also available; we’ll need to return on the weekend to try their butter beans).

I met head pitmaster Marco Oglesby out back. (One really has to love this job to put in the hours required, but one must have a special love to do so in the August heat.) He said they try to estimate how much meat they’ll need and get everything going hours before service. It’s not like he can cook it to order; once they’re out of product, they’re out. “We try to stay open as late as we can,” he said.

The fork-tender brisket, with its defined pronounced smoke ring, fell apart as I cut. The meat had a great body. The ribs were sweet and peppery with an intense bark, and very tender.

A bit of onion and mushroom gave the creamy tater tot casserole some texture and had just the right amount of cheese. The cream in the spicy corn helped to offset the kick from the jalapenos. The corn was fresh and crunchy, with a touch of smoke.

I highly recommend a road trip. As with most popular BBQ joints (especially those on the TM Top 50 list), the earlier you get there, the better choices you’ll have. What are your favorite BBQ joints?