Time to vote for our 2012 Readers' Choice Awards!

It's the last day of 2012, so time to reflect on the copious amounts of smoked meat you've consumed this year in Texas. After you've flipped through the BBQ annals of your mind, let us know what your favorites were, by voting in our 2012 Reader's Choice Awards. We had 5 RCA categories last year, but I'm gonna expand it by two categories this year. NOTE: These awards are for TEXAS BBQ joints, so if you send me some garbage about a place in Memphis or KC, I'm tossing it!!! (Just kidding about the garbage part, Memphis & KC people...but not about tossing it!) The 7 categories are...

Brisket
Sausage
Pork Ribs
Beef Ribs
Service
Atmosphere 
Overall

For any/all, email me your votes. NO TIES. If you send me two or more BBQ joints for any category, no vote will be recorded for that category. So, suck it up, & pick just one. Voting lasts through January 31. VOTE!!!

The Meat Men storm Central Texas!

I'll do a proper writeup later, but I wanted to post a picture of our Texas Q Tours group from this weekend. The picture was taken upon leaving our final stop last night (The Salt Lick). Seven BBQ joints in 2 days. These guys were impressive, never really slowing down on chowing down. Check out the blog that one of them wrote throughout the trip, in real time. The hashtag "meatmen" emerged this weekend on Twitter, so I'm referring to them as such. Fantastic guys. More later.

Another day with Texas Q Tours guests!

We had a great day yesterday with our Texas Q Tours guests from LA & NY. Nine hours from start to finish, we made BBQ/non-BBQ stops in Taylor, Giddings, Bastrop, & Lockhart. Four BBQ meals. I was impressed that the guests stayed strong, appetite wise, through all 4 stops, but my guess is that they crashed pretty soon after we got back. One of our guests started a blog to chronicle his/their adventure: Check it out! And, now, we're ready for another day of it! If we don't get ahead of schedule, today's journey will last about 14 hours!!! As we did yesterday, I'll tweet updates & pictures from our Man Up Texas BBQ account, & Brad will do so from our Texas Q Tours account. Follow along with us!

Two days of Texas BBQ with newbies!!!

Today & tomorrow, I'm leading some out-of-town folks on a Texas Q Tours BBQ trip. Not counting the BBQ they had for dinner last night on their own, while they're in here, I'll take them to 7 BBQ joints. Four today, three tomorrow. Four of the guests flew in from New York, & the other 3 flew in from LA. So, I've got guests from both coasts! One of the guests from LA told me after I picked him up from the airport that his friends back home didn't understand why they were going to Texas to eat BBQ. They asked, "What else are you going to do?" Ha! Well, we all understand. Maybe later, their friends will, too. I'll tweet pictures & updates from the road, so follow along!

All-Star Sauces are en route!!!

As some of you know, we recently launched a mail-order club for award-/contest-winning BBQ sauces. All-Star Sauces ships two bottles of sauce every other month, with each shipment coming from a different vendor. Well, yesterday, our very first shipment (Jan/Feb 2013) went out from Grumpy's BBQ Sauce (Thornton, CO). Too late to snag the Grumpy's shipment, but order anytime, and you will receive the next available shipment. To receive the Mar/Apr 2013 shipment, order by 5PM Central on February 15, 2013. This is a brand-new venture, and we are still tweaking and refining, but we think it's a pretty cool program and would be honored to have your business. If you don't want the sauce but would like to support me financially in a personal capacity, I accept cash and checks and gift cards!!!

Jacob visits Micklethwait Craft Meats (Austin, TX)

On Sunday, our man Jacob visited Austin's newest BBQ trailer, Micklethwait Craft Meats:

Made it over to Micklethwait today for lunch. Found out two important things. One, they only serve brisket and pulled pork from Thursday to Saturday after 4:00 PM, no lunch. They serve pork, chicken, and sausage during lunch and they said they hope to try various other meats on random days for lunch. So I didn't get to try brisket, and they didn't make spare ribs today either. Two, they plan on doing a different custom sausage everyday. He handmakes and stuffs it daily on site. Today was a lamb mix, and it was fantastic. Seems like a great idea. The food I had was great, but lacking smoke. I feel I need to try the brisket and ribs to give it a fair review, but what I had (chicken, pork, lamb sausage) were all cooked perfect and tasted great.

White Christmas...white BBQ sauce!

First, Merry Christmas! Whether or not you celebrate the holiday, most of you are off today, and I hope you enjoy it. People are posting pictures online of snow on the ground, so some of you are getting the ever-so-enviable white Christmas. White snow got me thinking about white BBQ sauce, not least b/c I am in Alabama right now, and Alabama claims the mayonnaise-based white sauce as its own (pictures below from meals in Alabama). I only know of place or two in Texas that offer white sauce, but surely there are more purveyors of which I am unaware. Regardless, I'm curious whether those of you who've tasted white BBQ sauce like it and what those of you who haven't think of such a thing. Thoughts?

The pit at Johnny's (Salado, TX)

The pit at Johnny's Steaks & Bar-Be-Que (Salado, TX):

How would you price your meats?

After a break of more than 8 months, I'm back with another Build Your Own Texas BBQ Joint post. Today, I ask how you would price the meats on your menu? Brisket, sausage, pork ribs, etc. Whatever meats you would serve. This will probably depend on where you open your restaurant, so if you're unsure of location, feel free to list different menu prices for different locations.

Micklethwait Craft Meats (Austin, TX)

East Austin is now home to Austin's newest BBQ joint: Micklethwait Craft Meats. Today is Day 3 of operation for the colorful trailer, located at 1309 Rosewood AVE (behind Hearts & Robots Hair Studio). Our friend The Scrumptious Chef has already sampled the fare & was really impressed. Read his writeup here. Looking forward to getting back to Austin to try it myself. If anyone goes, I'd love to hear about it. Take pics!

Mark Schlereth's Green Chile Sauce is in the house - literally!

Earlier this month, while in New York for Visa's "Make it Epic" Super Bowl video shoot, I had the pleasure of meeting ESPN NFL analyst Mark Schlereth. Such a nice guy. I was so impressed by how down-to-earth he is, how personable he is, and how gracious he was with his time. We chatted for a while, and he told me about his green-chile-sauce company. What's more, he offered to send me a sample of all of his sauces. Well, he's a man of his word, as you can see from the pictures below. THE DAY I get to Alabama for the holidays, the package arrived. Fortunately, Brad was there to unbox and put the sauces, which arrive frozen, in the freezer. Soon after I return to Austin, I'll gather some mouths for a tasting of all the sauces and report back with more pictures. In the meantime, check out Mark's website. Thanks, Mark!!!

Pork sandwich at Full Moon Bar-B-Que (Fultondale, AL)

Landed in Birmingham yesterday around 11:30 AM. Got my bag and, with my blood sugar dangerously low, dad drove me straight to Full Moon Bar-B-Que. Didn't have time to dine in, so I got a sandwich & tea to go. Large pork sandwich. Outside chopped. Chow chow & pickles. Sauce on the side. Ate it, and then finally told my dad "Good morning."

$100 Texas BBQ gift card

I'm flying home for the holidays - literally...using Southwest's onboard WiFi - so I'm thinking about gifts. I've purchased zero of them, by the way. Lots of people take the easy way out and just give gift cards. Let's say you were given a $100 Texas BBQ gift card, good at any Texas BBQ joint and/or caterer. How would you spend it? As always, feel free to adapt the question to your own wishes. For example, a $1,000 gift card. But at least answer the original question: How would you spend a $100 Texas BBQ gift card?

Counter pics at Stiles Switch (Austin)

Some pics that Brad took during our latest visit to Stiles Switch:

What's the most underpriced BBQ in Texas?

Yesterday's post asked which Texas BBQ joint is the most OVERpriced. Today, the opposite: Which Texas BBQ joint is the most underpriced? Now, most of us probably do not wish that we would be charged more - for BBQ or anything - but surely there's a place where you think to yourself, "Man, this is a steal." Which place is that?

What's the most overpriced BBQ in Texas?

Simple question, but feel free to answer it as non-simply as you feel. Which Texas BBQ joint is the most OVERpriced? Meaning, across the board, whose prices are too inflated? If you want to go down another road, feel free to name certain menu items from various places you feel are too costly.

Burnt ends at Rub BBQ (New York City)

This past Tuesday, before I caught a plane back to Austin, I stopped by Rub BBQ in Chelsea. Apparently, they've just reopened, after being closed to repair the damage that was done when a Hummer crashed into the front of the restaurant. (Anyone have pictures of the damage?) I stopped in to grab some fresh-brewed iced tea (which, by the way, was delicious - strong brew) before heading to a lunch, but I ended up ordering a quarter pound of beef burnt ends. So glad I did. They were delicious. Charred on the outside, nice smoke ring beneath, and excellent moisture within. Great flavor. Juicy. I'll probably lose some readers for saying that I had tasty burnt ends in Manhattan, but I cannot tell a lie!