This past Saturday was 1701 BBQ's one year anniversary. Their story starts several years ago as a collaboration between James "Blue" Broussard and Dave Thompson: Blue Dave's BBQ food truck. I first tasted their wares at the grand opening of my second home: Neches Brewing Company in Port Neches, Texas in 2016. This food truck served the best Central Texas style barbecue that I've had since moving to SE Texas. I made it a point to tell them so and recommended that they open a brick and mortar joint. Fast forward to 2020 and Blue Broussard opened up in a vintage building at 1701 Calder Ave. in Beaumont, Texas. They had a line out the door from day one and within 10 months 1701 BBQ was named to the Texas Monthly Top 50 list. During this time they also expanded their menu by adding boudin, sausage - regular beef and beef jalapeno cheddar, and smoked chicken.
For their one year anniversary they set up a large tent in their parking lot and invited several local businesses to attend and offer their wares and services, plus free samples of Yuengling beer from Giglio Distributing. These businesses set up tables at the event: Alligator Sausage Co. (yes, the sausage is made with alligator and it is awesome!), The Avenue Coffee, Sure-Shot Game Calls (bought a duck call for a friend's Christmas gift), Birdstrap Leather Co., Boerne Brand Hot Sauce (bought a three pack), Down To Earth Natural Products (shampoo, soap, etc.), Mock Ranches (real estate company specializing in ranches), Texas Beard Co., Travelin' Babe Cave (clothing and custom t-shirts), and Giglio Distributing. Musical guest was Running on Credit, a great local band.
Inside it was basically business as usual. I've been there several times but this is the first time I got the chicken before they ran out. It was delicious! Tender and juicy - both the white meat and dark meat. Their beef sausage is great but this was the first time I've had the jalapeno cheddar - even better. I've had their boudin twice and it is good, kind of a hybrid between Texas Boudain and Louisiana Boudin. Texas tends to have more rice and grinds the meat, Louisiana uses less rice and often just lets the meat fall apart while cooking.
Here is my plate:
Finally, they had a special guest in the house: Bill Dumas, noted pitmaster and considered by many to be the Sausage Guru of Texas. He currently works at Liberty BBQ in Round Rock and Brotherton's Black Iron BBQ in Pflugerville, He was at BretFest in Rockdale with a pork carnitas sausage that was really good. For 1701 he made a crawfish and shrimp boil sausage (top right on my plate above - yes, that is corn in the sausage) which was interesting and good. I was able to talk to him for a few minutes, very friendly guy with a lot of knowledge and experience. He offers a sausage class which 1701 took advantage of.
All in all this was a fun afternoon. 1701 has accomplished a lot in one year, here's hoping year two is even better!
For their one year anniversary they set up a large tent in their parking lot and invited several local businesses to attend and offer their wares and services, plus free samples of Yuengling beer from Giglio Distributing. These businesses set up tables at the event: Alligator Sausage Co. (yes, the sausage is made with alligator and it is awesome!), The Avenue Coffee, Sure-Shot Game Calls (bought a duck call for a friend's Christmas gift), Birdstrap Leather Co., Boerne Brand Hot Sauce (bought a three pack), Down To Earth Natural Products (shampoo, soap, etc.), Mock Ranches (real estate company specializing in ranches), Texas Beard Co., Travelin' Babe Cave (clothing and custom t-shirts), and Giglio Distributing. Musical guest was Running on Credit, a great local band.
Inside it was basically business as usual. I've been there several times but this is the first time I got the chicken before they ran out. It was delicious! Tender and juicy - both the white meat and dark meat. Their beef sausage is great but this was the first time I've had the jalapeno cheddar - even better. I've had their boudin twice and it is good, kind of a hybrid between Texas Boudain and Louisiana Boudin. Texas tends to have more rice and grinds the meat, Louisiana uses less rice and often just lets the meat fall apart while cooking.
Here is my plate:
Finally, they had a special guest in the house: Bill Dumas, noted pitmaster and considered by many to be the Sausage Guru of Texas. He currently works at Liberty BBQ in Round Rock and Brotherton's Black Iron BBQ in Pflugerville, He was at BretFest in Rockdale with a pork carnitas sausage that was really good. For 1701 he made a crawfish and shrimp boil sausage (top right on my plate above - yes, that is corn in the sausage) which was interesting and good. I was able to talk to him for a few minutes, very friendly guy with a lot of knowledge and experience. He offers a sausage class which 1701 took advantage of.
All in all this was a fun afternoon. 1701 has accomplished a lot in one year, here's hoping year two is even better!
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