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?

Meat-Fest: Texas Monthly's BBQ Fest

 

Hubby Bruce, me, sister Mary and her hubby Jeff, sister Robyn and her hubby Chris

 

Twenty-one invitation-only barbeque masters (all from TexasMonthly’s Top 50 list) provided the draw for the third annual Texas Monthly Barbeque Fest @tmbbqfest on September 23. (See my sister’s Festival story at CraveDFW.) Texas Monthly cleverly limited the crowd; otherwise the smells of meats smoking on multiple pits on the breeze would attract half of Austin and the entire UT student body.

Pits were arranged around the perimeter of the site, so the smoke lent an intoxicating aroma without driving festival-goers for oxygen and cover.

During this meat-fest, most plates were unburdened by sides. As expected, the much-buzzed-about Franklin Barbecue @franklinbbq (recently featured on No Reservations) and Pecan Lodge @pecanlodge (Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) generated the longest lines (and sold out the quickest).

 

One rare exception to the “no side” rule was Goode CompanyTexas Bar-B-Q @goodecompany, who served their popular jalapeno cheese bread. Tender and redolent of roasted chiles, their distribution of extra loaves later in the afternoon drew a swarm of locusts.

Just so you’re prepared for next year: you cannot sample everything. Even the most hollow-legged TV show host (Adam Richman and Tony Bourdain come to mind) couldn’t mow through everything. We paced ourselves and took small bites, and even then, our glazed eyes and bulging bellies around 3:30 belied our satiation.

City Meat Market (top left) and Buzzie's (bottom left)

Giddings’s City Meat Market served up my favorite sausage, crumbly and beefy.

I found my favorite brisket at Buzzie’s Bar-B-Que. Moist, tender, and not as smoky as the others, it had just the right amount of fat.

Vincek's turkey sausage

Good barbeque screams for good beverages. The “Watering Holes” stocked several varieties of Shiner (their Ruby Red sold out early) and mixed drinks. I found the Texas Mary (Dripping Springs vodka, Shiner Bock, spicy tomato juice) quite refreshing.

The Texas A&M BBQ Team braved hostile Longhorn territory to man a booth. They haven’t participated in any competitions…yet. In addition to online advice, they offer a one-credit-hour class (growing in popularity after four years), where students learn about different meats and cooking methods.

Complete strangers shared tables and exchanged opinions on “what’s your favorite,” giving the event a fun atmosphere of camaraderie.

@BBQSnob and me

I set out to meet @bbqsnob Daniel Vaughn and found him right behind our table. His favorites of the day: the “@PecanLodge beef rib, Cousins brisket, @stanleysfamous brisket, and Vincek's sausage.  Franklin brisket was gone” so he didn’t get to try it….this time.

Aaron Franklin and me

And a surprise meeting: The Man himself, Aaron Franklin. While I didn’t get to sample his heavenly brisket, he was very gracious and said nice things about San Antonio.

The Palmer Center provided a great, easy to get to location, with reasonably priced (and covered) parking, indoor air conditioning, and plentiful comfortable restrooms. Festival organizers wisely set up on the west side, so the needed shade only grew as the warm day progressed. The volume of the various bands allowed spirited conversations about the merits of different pitmasters.

If you want to attend next year’s event, start visiting the Texas Monthly website in late spring to find out when tickets go on sale. You’ll need to purchase your tickets within two hours of the opening bell, or you’ll be out of luck.

Congrats to Texas Monthly for a tasty and well-run event!

(Photo credits: Laura Bray, Chris Folmar, Robyn Folmar….and one helpful stranger)