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?

Tips for a Successful Wine Tour

The wines of 4.0 Winery

Looking for a fun day trip, regardless of the weather? Try the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail!  @texaswinetrail 

 

Some lessons we’ve learned while leading tours for our friends: 

• Save your nose: Don’t wear perfumes or other strong scents. “If you do not smell a wine…very little information goes to the brain, and not surprisingly, you have trouble deciding what the wine tastes like,” writes Karen MacNeil in The Wine Bible. I want to smell my wine, not the trendy fragrance your cousin Martha just brought back from France. Strong colognes impede that sense and annoy others. 
• Breakfast and hydration: Eat a filling breakfast, and bring water to stay hydrated between tastings. 

Our group at 4.0 Winery

• Always bring a cooler: Heat and wine do not play well in the same sandbox. Why spend all that money on a nice bottle of wine, only to allow a hot car interior to destroy it? 
• Plan your route to minimize driving: While you can enjoy the beautiful rolling scenery of the Hill Country, the goal is to taste and compare wines. Use online resources (like the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail map, see link above, or CatchWine) to plan an efficient route. We target four to six wineries but stay flexible to meet the needs of the group.

 

Monarch migration season at Messina Hof

• What’s for lunch: Our group packs a cold lunch and stops at a winery for a picnic. Ask the staff if you can use their seating area; some wineries are more hospitable than others. TABC rules require that you consume only that winery’s products on their premises, so no opening bottles from down the road. If you stop at a Texas state park, they mean it when they say “no public consumption of alcohol.” Small town restaurants offer another dining option.
• Dealing with crowds: Buses and limos lurk in winery parking lots, which means a big group (or two) has beaten you to the tasting bar. The Texas Hill Country Wine Trail attracts over 5 million visitors annually, and sometimes, you’ll swear all of them are there on your afternoon. Many wineries increase their staff on weekends to accommodate these large groups. However, on our recent tour, Mendelbaum Winery had only two staff scrambling to serve over 40 people. We waited nearly an hour, and half our group never tasted. If you notice an overtaxed staff or too-crowded tasting bar, move on to your next location before the rest of the crowd does.

Pouring a sample at Hilmy Cellars

• It’s OK if you don’t like one: All wineries provide dump buckets, and no one takes offense if you jettison a sample. Life is too short to drink a wine you don’t enjoy.
• Buy local: Ask which wines you can get only at the winery…and buy them! You can always get that Becker Viognier at H-E-B. Support local business!
• Designate a driver: All those little tastes add up (not to mention the glass of wine with lunch). Designate a driver who’s responsible enough to know when it’s time to stop tasting.

Many thanks to Four Point Winery @fourpointwine , Messina Hof Hill Country , Hilmy Cellars  and others for a fun Saturday. I hope you’ll visit one of the Texas Wine Trails very soon!