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Last edited by Panhead John; April 20, 2024, 01:05 PM. -
We tried a new hot spot in Lockhart, Barb’s BQ. Below is a pic of my wife and daughter leaving with some take home.
The lines were long but nothing like when we went to Snows BBQ in Lexington, Texas. They were too long for some of our crew, so they left for another well known place in Lockhart. Unfortunately they missed out on some really good Q.
I usually try the ribs but this time I passed. However, Tom Mosca reported that the ribs were excellent. Here was our order with commentary to follow.
The Charro beans were good, but I am a bigger fan of the pinto version. The green spaghetti was special made with poblano and cilantro was special.
We got both the lean and fatty brisket both of which were moist and good. We liked the brisket and turkey better than what we had at Hayes Co BBQ. The brisket was significantly better, and the turkey edged out Hayes Co BBQ, because it was significantly less salty. The bread was lightly sweet.
i considered the fajita cheese sausage to be the star of the show. I really liked the cheese jalapeño sausage at Hays Co, but this sausage was a notch above. It was really special.
I would highly recommend this place to everyone. I am now contemplating a weekend tour of all the Lockhart BBQ joints.Last edited by LA Pork Butt; April 20, 2024, 03:35 PM.Comment
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I just told my wife that we should do a long weekend in Lockhart. Seemed like a really cool town, and plenty of ‘Q to sample. Of course we’d have to make at least one trip to Burnt Bean… -
I went to barbs during Texas monthly bbq fest. Easily the best ribs I’ve ever had. I was told by a friend of the owners the lamb chops are insanely good. The green spaghetti is a south Texas/border tradition and theirs is outstanding. This place is absolutely worth the wait. One of my favorites for sure! And a standout during the BBQ fest which had most of the heavy hitters selling food.
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Well, today I decided I wanted to try some good BBQ that was actually served hot…
The whole gang went to Lockhart today and we wanted to try a new hotspot there, Barb’s BQ. It’s received a lot of positive press so we decided to give it a shot. After waiting for an hour with little progress being made in the line, Sid P, Oak Smoke and myself decided to head down the road to Terry Blacks’s. Uncle Bob and wife Lee went also. Barb’s was a tiny place and we were concerned with even having a place to sit. Terry Black’s was only a mile down the road so off we went! The place is huge and there were only a few people in front of us, we were served in less than 3 minutes.
After taking a few bites of our food, everyone was glad to have changed locations! I ordered the big 3…brisket, sausage and pork ribs, they had plenty of ribs and sausage and were not sold out… Anyway, the brisket was extremely tender with a nice smoke taste and good flavor…I gave it a B+. The pork ribs were also pretty good, although a little too “fall off the bone” for me….I gave em a solid B. The cheese and jalapeño sausage was pretty darn good too! They didn’t skimp on the cheese and it has a nice snappy skin with good smoke flavor ….I gave it an A-
My sides were a very good bowl of brisket pinto beans and some Mexican rice. The pintos were exceptional, with chunks of brisket in em along with just a great overall flavor…A+. The Mexican rice was just kind of standard fare, nothing exceptional but still ok….C+
I’d never been to Terry Black’s but we were all glad to have eaten there and everyone gave positive comments about the food. I’m sure they’ll chime in later with pics and their opinions also. The service was friendly and extremely competent, very little waiting and great food!
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Terry Black's was pretty dang good. Brisket was good, ribs good, turkey solid, but the jalapeño cheddar sausage and the tater salad...fan-friggin-tastic.
Amanda and I wanted to walk around and visit a boot store and the clock and watch museum. Along the way she got some banana pudding pudding from a little Cafe on the square that had signs extolling their banana pudding. According to her, it's the best restaurant banana pudding she has ever had, and she knows her puddin'.Attached FilesComment
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Panhead John like I said, get em young and they don't know no better. Davek8282 she is for sure my better half!
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During the tour at Natural Bridge Caverns I shot a couple of videos. It was an absolutely awesome experience which has to be seen in person to really appreciate the beauty and wonder of the place. Pictures and video is nice, but it can’t touch the in person experience.
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Sid P I have been to Luray, Natural Bridge and another in North Carolina I can’t remember in that order, and they all do look a lot alike. -
LA Pork Butt Thanks Sunny, I passed that along to my daughter that lives in NC.
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We got to Lockhart about 15 minutes before Barb’s opened, and got in line. Some shots from around Lockhart:
After the doors opened, the line moved sloooooowly… slooooowly… while waiting, TripleB went next door and bought this excellent sausage from Smitty’s:
Seating is limited to 50 people! Half of us decided to move on, and half of us figured we had sunken cost into the wait already. I stayed at Barb’s.
Troutman working his magic, chatting up one of the Barbs:
I ordered brisket, a rib, and the green spaghetti. But LA Pork Butt and his family ordered a big plate, so here it is:
The brisket was pretty good. The sausage was excellent! The green spaghetti was a poblano/cilantro/cream sauce, and it was really different and wonderful! The ribs were excellent! The Barbs take a lot of care in composing the tray, and right before serving, Barb grates a little lime zest on the ribs. Nice touch. It makes a difference.
Barb’s is worthy, but the small storefront means there will be a wait. Just take that into consideration.
On to Terry Black’s!
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Terry’s is HUGE compared to Barb’s. You actually have to walk past the pits to enter, and the pitmasters will talk to you and walk you around the pits if you want.
Terry Black’s is very efficient: rather than placing a counter order, it’s cafeteria style. You order your sides, then your meat, then select your drink, and pay. TripleB and I split sausage and brisket, and we each got an order of the EXCELLENT creamed corn:
The brisket was excellent, the sausage was OUTSTANDING, the creamed corn was delightful! This was where TripleB and I punked out; we ate about half the sausage and brisket. I finished my creamed corn. If the only place you went to in Lockhart was Terry Black’s, you’d be doing fine!Last edited by Mosca; April 20, 2024, 03:45 PM.Comment
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Troutman, TripleB, 58limited, and I went to Kreuz’, not to eat but Troutman wanted to get some sausage to take home and we wanted to see the place. Kreuz’ is HUGE, about 4x as big as Black’s, like as big a grocery store!
I grabbed a couple shots of the pits, which are not the big tanks but brick, with a strong draft:
Purc grabbed a nice shot of the open pits:
And Purc grabbed an impressive shot of the woodpile!
I couldn’t force down another bite of barbecue. But these praline treats were tempting.
That’s all I got.
Last edited by Mosca; April 20, 2024, 04:10 PM.Comment
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If you ever get a craving for pralines this place in does mail order. We stumbled upon the store while driving through Sinton TX. https://auntaggiede.com/
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After all that meat, I needed a smoke so we headed over to The Republic Cigar Lounge. I smoked one of their house sticks (yes, I'm a stickburner myself) while amanda shopped the strip. One of the owners is also a bladesmith, and is going to custom make me a couple skinners for my hunting knife roll. Grabbed a couple sticks for the road and some pipe tobacco. Amanda ended up with some fancy ass coffee drink, a couple t shirts, a sweater, and a rodeo jacket (modeled below). She was going to get her nails done, but it started raining, and she didn't want to get rained on while walking to the car so we headed back to the house. I highly recommend The Republic Cigar Lounge. The fact the owner shared a couple glasses of 4 roses with me while we smoked, talked guns, tobacco, and knives and amanda wasn't looking might have been factored in though...Attached FilesComment
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Ah I’ve been looking out for a meat up, and totally missed this! I’m just up in Austin. Hope y'all had a great time!Comment
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If I make it to Windy City Smokeout this year I’ll have to reference this post. Leroy & Lewis and Terry Black were both there the year I went. Food was fantastic that day but I didn’t really know much about any of these places. So this will be helpful if I go again. Looks like a great time!Comment
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Well J-Melt and I were able to meat up at KG. We had the brisket, lamb kaftka, lamb bacon ribs, Egyptian Mac and cheese, and Mediterranean rice. KG is a unique blend of Texas style bbq and Egyptian cuisine. It’s absolutely fabulous food. And it was great to get to meet another member of the Pit! Look forward to the next meat up!
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I second what sarredon said about KG BBQ! An amazing fusion of bbq and Egyptian food! Onmy way to the car, I saw a crowd with the owner talking around the pit, so I joined in. I accidentally ended up in a BBQ class!
The owner was talking about how to maintain a wood fire, which was fun to hear. He said that they are hoping to do a brick and mortar place north of Austin where there is very little good bbq.Attached FilesComment
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Any of you folks who are thinking of "someday" making a trek to Central Texas to enjoy the BBQ experiences as discussed in this thread and others in the past, I would encourage you to make sure you make time to visit Lockhart. As the sign on one of the buildings says in the pic above, it IS the BBQ capital of Texas. There are lots and lots of great places to get good bbq, and a few duds as well, and whether you think that Franklins, or Goldies, or any of a couple dozen others of high notoriety are your preferred destination, I want to put in a word and explanation on behalf of including Terry Black's. First a word of warning, there are multiple locations of joints run by members of the Black family, so you need to be mindful of looking for the one in Lockhart with Terry's name on it.
There are some good pictures above of components of the whole operation. But what struck me was how much of a spokesman/ambassador Terry, or his key staff, are true marketers of the entire BBQ experience. When you park in their spacious lot you are directed to enter right next to the fire house where there are several very large offset pits. As commented above, the pit master staff is very willing to engage you in conversation if you show interest, to the point that the one young master pulled that brisket from the pit just to add to his discussion of their process. If you're someone who is bold enough, you might be able to hang with the pit masters for a short time at other joints, but the guys at Terry's have obviously been trained to make maximum interaction with the patrons. Next you'll pass the huge wood storage of Post Oak that gets burned in those pits. Once you cross the courtyard like area and enter the service portion of the place, as noted above it was well organized for service flow. Even more impressive was the team like coordination of the service staff, each well trained in their function and knowledgeable of the products with ready answers to any questions from customers. Some might think that's "normal" and happens everywhere. Unfortunately, in today's employment universe it's not........which again show how sharp the management of this facility is. For those who are interested in process as well as product, it's a thing of beauty to observe.
A block or so away is Kreuz, commentary above from the guys that stopped there even though we didn't this trip. The pits pictured above are an excellent example of the older style, direct fired pits that were the norm before huge offset became the trend. If you've any familiarity with Chud's Bradley Robinson and his Chud Box, that device is a backyard version of the Central Texas direct fire style of smoking/cooking. While it's not a well packaged for demonstration as the Terry Black's location, it is still very informative if you make just a bit more effort.
To close this post I want to mention some thoughts on the interpersonal dynamics of these Meat Ups. For all that we mostly focus on the food aspects it's really the people involved................those of you who make the effort to break away from the rest of your life to convert a virtual interaction into a good, old fashioned, face to face get together. This was our sixth Meat Up in recent times, and, as you likely know, it's inauguration and ongoing scheduling is due to the committed efforts of Panhead John. Some of us have worked with him and been to each of the get togethers since their inception. We, and the spouses involved, have come to know what to expect from one another and know what's of interest for the most part. We even enjoy each others company
. But what puts some spark and excitement into the unknown is when those of you from somewhere in the State of Texas or locations near and far from here, make the effort to join us. This time we had a good turnout of member newbs; Sid, Tom, Lynn, Mitzi, Dean, Josh, Adam and a few non-member family (if I've forgotten anyone I'll hide behind my advanced years) each brought new perspectives and "war stories" to brighten our lives. You'd be surprised at some of the wide range of topics we discuss, colored with personal experience stories that broaden our perspective of these former internet only friends. Thanks to all who make these Meat Ups a fulfilling experience.
Last edited by Uncle Bob; April 21, 2024, 01:12 PM.Comment
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Well said Uncle Bob. I'm quite some distance from Texas but I do like to follow the meat up threads so I can attend vicariously. Panhead John has been a very active member and has brought a lot to the table. One of his biggest strengths is the ability to take a joke, and respond in kind. Not only did he get the Texas meat ups going but there are several other meat ups that have occurred based on his work.
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