One additional point Panhead John made about the TX meat-ups is that they are focused around a Saturday BBQ lunch meal. I think what PJ's design for this is for it to be a meal planned to be attended by everyone at a specific location to showcase the fare for the area. Correct me if I'm wrong on this point PJ. Moreover, it would give day-trippers time to drive over, have a midday meal, meet with the larger group and drive home if that is their desire. That's not to say this meat-up has to be done that way, but apparently it works well for many.
That’s right Wayne, the main BBQ meal is generally focused around Saturday lunch. We’ve had a couple of people meet us for lunch on a Saturday, then leave afterwards, but it’s not done that way for the day tripper reason. With a short stay such as Friday night thru Sunday morning, it just kind of worked out that way for us. You can certainly eat wherever you want at any time of course, but most of the best BBQ spots here close at 2:00 - 3:00 pm or whenever they run out of meats. So our evening dinners were mainly at other types of restaurants. That’s fine with most of us because let’s face it, who wants to eat BBQ 3 or 4 times in a row? Not me….
Here’s what we did for our meals last weekend. The idea for Friday night Mexican food and margaritas was thrown out there on the post, right before last weekend. At our Happy Hour get together on the deck we all talked about where we wanted to eat our meal for that night. Everyone said hell yeah on the Mexican food! We knew there was a good little place right down the street and went there. The food was great, but they didn’t have a liquor license so we didn’t get our margaritas.
Friday night after dinner we went to the deck for cocktails and discussed where we wanted to go for BBQ on Saturday. The idea of The Burnt Bean place came up, and being #4 on the Texas Monthly Top 50 List made it a no brainer for us. None of us had eaten there either, so we were dying to try it. It was an hour’s drive there and an hour wait to get in……still worth it!
After lunch a few of us took Kevin to an HEB right down the road, then returned to our rooms. I took a little nap before meeting everyone on the deck for cocktails. A lot of us were still full from lunch and didn’t feel like a heavy meal. Around 6:30 or so, someone said hey, let’s have pizza delivered! Great idea. We spent a lot of time on the road that day and no one felt like driving again…..
I guess the whole point of this is, don’t stress out on where you’re gonna eat till you get into town. Have a couple of Q joints picked out ahead of time as an option to dine at. Everyone has always been relaxed and open to what the rest of the group wants to do.
And we've splintered off into smaller groups and tried other places based on interest. No hard and fast rules or obligations and it can add to the experience.
I didn't post it but I cooked one of the t bones I picked up from HEB yesterday. It was pretty good, but nothing I can't get around here. The HEB experience was awesome though.
I work for a contract engineering firm and my group does work for Duke. I spend lots of time traveling to substations in the Carolinas, usually around Charlotte but sometimes up near Winston Salem and Raliegh. If I can finagle a site visit around that time I may be able to stop in. I'll keep an eye on this thread and let you guys know.
For those interested in attending the proposed NC Meat-Up, please go here to vote on lodging price point preferences. The poll ends on midnight this Sunday.
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