The rest from Spring Creek

More from Spring Creek

Spring Creek Barbeque

Two lunches on I-10

A couple of weeks ago, I made a quick round trip to Houston. I saw 6 BBQ joints on my way to between Luling and Houston. Naturally, I hit up two of them on the way back: Spring Creek Barbeque in Katy and Jerry Mikeska's Bar-B-Q in Columbus. The two places were completely different. Spring Creek, a chain, was pretty sterile and orderly. Ordering line. Take-out station. A man walking around the restaurant offering hot rolls. Jerry Mikeska's was no frills. If you're not a fan of animals mounted on the wall, this place is your worst nightmare.

One major leg up that JM's has on SC is that at JM's you can order as little or as much of a particular item that you want. If you want just a slice of brisket, no problem. At SC, you can only order a plate with one item, a combination plate, or meat by the pound. However, if you're keen on piling as many sides you can on your plate for no extra cost, SC is the ticket.

At SC, I only had chicken, which was good. If I go again, I'll just get green beans, because the slaw and beans were below average. I only ate the roll b/c I didn't get past a couple of bites of slaw and beans and was still hungry...probably the reason I had to stop again a few miles down the road for more food.

At JM's, I had a few slices of brisket, which was very good. The pork rib was okay. The green beans weren't bad. Like SC, JM's staff were friendly.

Pics coming up...

Bo knows BBQ

An email from Bo:

Not excited about having to make the 6 hour round trip to Houston today for a deposition that lasted for an hour and a half; I thought what better way to make the trip worthwhile than to Man-Up on some H-Town BBQ? Admittedly, any BBQ outside of Central Texas is starting at a disadvantage in my book. But I thought, why not give good ole' H-Town a try?

The next question was - where was a BBQ place? Is there even any BBQ in H-Town? Luckily I had my iPhone and opened Urban Spoon hoping for a little guidance. Unfortunately, there is not a "BBQ" option. (Drew - is this a possible Man-Up app for the iPhone, where to find the nearest BBQ joint with Man-Up reviews? - think about it!). Frustrated and almost out of gas I decided to exit I-10 somewhere in between Houston and Katy. Luckily, and to my surprise, Spring Creek Barbeque was at the first light. Thinking I had tried a Spring Creek Barbeque in Tomball at some point in the past, I decided to go in.

The physical restaurant itself reminded me of a Texas Roadhouse. When you walk in you are steered to the right (not in an IKEA communist sort of way) towards the typical BBQ meat cutting board. The options were no different here than anywhere else. I decided for my usual –brisket and ribs. Once handed your plate by the meat-cutter, you then proceed by a buffet of the sides. Here is Spring Creek's policy on sides: "All the sides that can fit on your plate." What a great deal! I chose beans, green beans, potato salad, and mac 'n cheese. I had to go easy, this was after all just lunch, and I still had to drive 2 more hours back to Austin and put some more hours in at the office. There were just too many people to sue today to really man-up to full potential.

I will start with the sides:

Beans: 8.8. Not sure if they were made with the BBQ sauce or if I just spilled the BBQ all over the beans but it there were good. Different but good.

Green beans: 9. Good flavor, nothing that really stood out.

Mac 'n Cheese: 8.8. Same at every restaurant. Except the green chili mac 'n cheese at Moonshine.

Potato Salad: 9. Mustard potato salad which is my style.

Overall the sides were good. There was corn on the cob and coleslaw I didn’t get but they both looked good. The concept of "all the sides that can fit on your plate" is very progressive. Should Central Texas adopt this trend?

Meat:

Brisket: 9.8 Seriously, Houston, whats up? This brisket was awesome! For me it had the perfect combination of fat that had saturated during the cooking process into the meat. Just almost perfect.

Ribs: 9.7. Mirrored baby-back ribs and absolutely delicious. When the cutter sliced my ribs he had trouble putting them on my plate because the meat was just falling off the bone. Nice, pepper flavor.

Sauce: 6 and 9.9. “What?” you say. You can’t give two different scores to an item. Oh yeah, watch me. Here is why. The sauce by itself was just a 6. But somehow in the magical world of Texas BBQ, when the sauce was added to the meat the combination was unbelievable. Think peanut butter and jelly. Both are ok alone, but put them together, and magic happens.

To top the experience off, a nice lady walked around with a huge bread basket and made sure you never ran out. The bread was the roles with a tad bit of sweetness to them.

Overall score: 9.8. Houston - you surprised me, keep it up.