Where Should We Have the Next MeatUp? POLL

[Panhead John]

At the very first MeatUp in June 2021, it was only scheduled for a Friday-Sunday affair. CaptainMike came in on Thursday, so I decided to come a day early also and give him some company. After meeting each other for the first time that night, we had a beer and chit chatted for a while, then went to a local grocery store for some fast food dinner. After eating back at my room, we had a couple of drinks and he then went to his room for the night. Here was our first exchange online after meeting each other…😂

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/member-gatherings/meat-ups-and-member-gatherings-aa/1039934-meat-up-in-texas-updates-and-latest-info?p=1040506#post1040506

[CaptainMike]

That's a great memory right there!!

[Oak Smoke]

I can only speak for myself. I’ve made it to only one meetup, the one in San Marcos last year. The food was great but the real reason to attend one is the people you will meet. I found a group of people from all over that I would have never have met otherwise. They were wonderful! I treasure the friendships I made there. It broke my heart to miss this last one because of meningitis. The bottom line is go for the people and enjoy the food.

[CaptainMike]

Hear, hear!!!

[Sweaty Paul]

Concur. Although, good food is fun too! Seriously, I'd love to put faces with names.

[Andrrr]

I vote Fairchild Kitchen in LaCrosse, WI

[Andrrr]

I'm sure he won't mind if 50 of us show up, just bring some flour or a pack of short ribs! Draznnl

[Panhead John]

I say we all just show up… 🥸……SURPRISE!

[Purc]

I believe he has a complete family of Webers and several pizza/bread ovens so we could all lend a hand at meal time for a crowd of hungry Pit members.

[Panhead John]

Alrighty folks, we have a winner…Houston it is! I know that at the beginning of the post I said I was going to let this simmer a few weeks and I would only vote myself, if needed as a tiebreaker. It’s been neck and neck between San Marcos and Houston for a few days and was actually tied since last night and into this morning. After speaking to Uncle Bob and 58limited we decided to go ahead and pick Houston. It’s 10-8 for Houston as of now anyway, yeah I went ahead and voted also. I honestly thought San Marcos would be chosen over Houston, but it looks like there’s more interest in a new place. After giving it a lot of thought, I realized there’s now been 6 MeatUps in the Hill Country area or fairly close to it…maybe it’s time for some new blood!

I’ve mentioned this earlier but there’s at least 3 top notch BBQ spots in 3 little towns on the North side of Houston, specifically in Spring, Tomball and Montgomery Tx. One of the reasons for choosing North Houston is we'll be away from the core of Houston and won’t have to deal with any traffic issues, so don’t let that stop you from going. It’s a pretty nice area too with lots of trees and fairly upscale, for the most part. I’d like to find us a hotel in the Spring/Woodlands area that’s comparable to where we stayed in October at The Residence Inn.

As I mentioned earlier, Corkscrew BBQ in Spring recently won a Michelin Star in the latest voting and is also a Top 50 in Texas winner from Texas Monthly. But, the highest accolades I can think of came from our own Steve R. ! Back in July Steve messaged me and said he was coming in town, to Spring actually, to visit his daughter and asked for any referrals I might have on car dealerships. His daughter was needing a new car. Anyway, I messaged him back and said don’t miss Corkscrew BBQ! After Steve got back home he messaged me saying he ate there. This is Steve’s reply, word for word…..

“Corkscrew was our lunch today and we were blown away by the quality. Holy Shit, Batman! I thought I knew a thing or two about cooking a brisket, but my wife said theirs puts mine to shame. 😲 What hurts the most is she's right. 😂 It's easily the best I've ever had. Sausage was to die for as well.”


Don’t feel bad Steve, I’ve said the same thing about the brisket at some of the places I’ve visited. 😂 Anyway folks, Howdy From Houston!

[Beefchop]

Sounds like a winner! Thank you for putting this together. There are several pit manufacturers in Houston as well. I have a pit from Gator Pit of Texas. Maybe they'd give us a tour of the shop.

[Panhead John]

Beefchop Good idea! In fact at our last MeatUp when we were discussing where to hold the next one, Uncle Bob suggested a possible tour of LSG Grillz if we held it in Houston. It’s in Conroe, which would only be about 25 minutes from Spring. Gator Pits could be in the mix too!

[Beefchop]

Panhead John Lonestar is another good one! Would be down for visiting any one of the pit makers.

[MBMorgan]

Here’s a couple of possibilities just off the Hardy toll road in Spring:

[Panhead John]

Thanks Mike! I’ll check em out. I’m only about 45 minutes from the Spring area, so when the time comes, I’ll be able to visit a few places in person ahead of time.

[Jfrosty27]

Well, only 1,128 miles by car for me. Man I sure would like to make it. I can make it a three day drive. Stop #1 would be in St. Louis at my best friend’s house. It’s more or less right on the way and at 400 miles, just about 1/3rd of the way. I will start planning for a potential stop #2. 🤔

[Panhead John]

Just a little food for thought for anyone who might fly in for the MeatUp. Houston has 2 major airports, George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Houston Hobby Airport. Intercontinental Airport is on the North side and only about 20 minutes from the Spring area. I wouldn’t even consider Hobby Airport unless you’re saving some major $. It’s all the way on the opposite side of town and is almost a 1 hour drive to Spring, and that’s with light traffic.

Also, we’ll probably do this the first or second weekend of April. The closer we can get to March, the cooler the weather should be….and it won’t interfere with Easter weekend.

EDIT TO ADD: For anyone flying in on your private jet, let me know and I can recommend the small airport nearby that I use. 🤓

[captainlee]

Shoot, my new Gulfsream G800 won't be delivered until May. Maybe next MeatUp.

[Panhead John]

,,,

[Beefchop]

Now that looks like a place that serves good BBQ.

[Panhead John]

Beefchop Stay tuned good sir! 😉

[Jim White]

I presume they only cook and serve pig tails?

[realdocBBQ]

First or second weekend of April. that would work pretty good for me and The Wife. Not sure if we'd drive or fly - it's about 8 hours to Spring, TX from here.


<edit> We might want to bring the dog, I dunno which hotel(s) ya'll might look into, but if we could get a place that would let us bring our GSD, that would be a plus, as we don't have anyone really to watch her (whom I TRUST). So she'd have to be boarded. Big city like that, there're doggy daycares we could put her up in during the day, likely. Or... oh wait, we do have a lady we've used a couple of times as a dogsitter. I forgot, it's been so long since we went anywhere. But we could leave her here. She likes it there. Got hooked up with the sitter on some doggy babysitting website, it's worked out pretty well a couple times. Similarly, we could bring her with us and pick someone from the website down there for daytime pupsitting.

[58limited]

There is (or was - I haven't checked in several years) a place in Spring called Heidelberg that raises and boards shepherds. Pretty nice place. My parents used to use them.

[Uncle Bob]

Panhead John there's another interesting pit builder in Montgomery that could be tacked on to going to Bar A; Pig Iron Patina, if there were any interest. Looks like he does mostly big units rather than patio size, but he looks to be very innovative.

[Panhead John]

Impressive! LSG Grillz and most of the other pit builders are closed on the weekends, so realistically the only time to tour one of them would be Friday after lunch. With most people coming in Thursday afternoon, that day probably wouldn’t work. Luckily we have plenty of time to decide on which pit builder we could visit. I’m going to call Chris tomorrow over at LSG to ask about the possibility of a tour….

[realdocBBQ]

Oh man, Pig Iron Patina - that dude builds some freaking INCREDIBLE work of art creations!

[Panhead John]

UPDATE ABOUT THE HOUSTON MEATUP….

It’s about time for us to choose which weekend in April works best for the most people. My first choice would be the first weekend …..Thursday April 3 thru Sunday April 6. Second choice would be the next weekend, Thursday April 10-Sunday the 13th. Easter is the 3rd weekend so we want to avoid that one. The closer to the first part of April we can do, the cooler [not hot] the weather should be. Next week I’m going to visit a couple of hotels in the Spring area and see what I can do about having one decided on. I’m leaning towards a Homewood Suites by Hilton that’s in Spring, but I won’t know what our discounted rates would be until I contact them next week. Anyway, if you’re interested in attending let me know if you can or can’t do the first weekend…3rd thru the 6th.

I like this Homewood Suites because they have nice rooms with a kitchenette and a full size fridge in all the rooms, a great looking outdoor seating area and they’re close to I-45 in our chosen part of town. I’m going to include a link to the hotel as a preview for everyone, but don’t book a room yet. Also remember, if you check the rates of our April weekend/s on their website, those wouldn’t apply to us, we would be getting a discount off the posted rates. Anyway, I’ll make a new post one day next week with a final decision on our hotel and which weekend.





https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/iahsphw-homewood-suites-north-houston-spring/?SEO_id=GMB-AMER-HG-IAHSPHW&y_source=1_MjI0NjE3OS03MTUtbG9jYXRpb24ud2V ic2l0ZQ%3D%3D

[Panhead John]

Didn’t know that Sid, thanks! If that weekend is decided on, maybe they could watch them on the TV’s in the downstairs seating/gathering area. 🤷♂️

[LA Pork Butt]

Thanks Sid P I missed that, and I think I might find myself wanting to watch the finals rather than hanging with the group.

[Panhead John]

We can do the second weekend if y'all prefer, not a problem at all! I’m not a basketball fan myself, but I know we have a lot of folks here who are. You ain’t gonna hurt my feelings, 🤓 just say it…..I want to watch the Final Four at home, let’s do the second weekend. 🥸

[Panhead John]

After Sid P ‘s suggestion about The Final Four being the first weekend of April we’ll go ahead and do the second weekend for The Houston MeatUp, April 10-13. I remembered afterwards that we do have a lot of basketball fans here in The Pit, no sense trying to compete with that. Even though the Men’s Badminton Championship is the second weekend, I don’t care!

[realdocBBQ]

You don't expect to make it to the Finals this year, PJ???

[Panhead John]

You didn’t hear?! I’m on injured reserve…stubbed my toe and I’ve got a paper cut on my racket hand. 🥸

[Panhead John]

BREAKING NEWS! …..


I’ve found us a great hotel with very good rates….only $699. per night for a twin bed! It also comes with a sleeping bag if you have more than one in your room. Free donuts and coffee for breakfast. 🤓

I’ll have the link to the hotel for our special rates sometime midday tomorrow. I’ll be starting a NEW post for us to start booking our rooms tomorrow…stay tuned!

[Mosca]

Uh huh.