Pit Barrel Cooker
Weber Master-Touch
Blackstone Omnivore 4 Burner Griddle
Thermoworks: Signals, Billows, Thermopens, Thermopops, Nodes, bunch of silicone stuff, and more!
OnlyFire Rotisserie w/ Basket attachment for the Weber
Vortex for the Weber
Both of Meathead's books!
Way too many BBQ related accessories, tools, and doo-dads!
Panhead John is right. We actually get quite critical of the food, and it doesn’t always live up to our expectations. But that isn’t why I come. I come because I look forward to reconnecting with old friends and connecting with new friends. The food is the reason we gathered together; after that, it’s just the background music that is playing while we have fun and cement our relationships.
My old car club we had the club logo on the back and our screen names on the breast pocket.... while obviously we could easily make our own, I wouldn't mind paying a little brand tax so AR can get their cut. Yeah you can currently do it with the bowling shirt, but that's a bit pricey for some folks.
Panhead has submitted one recite, just curious of the cost of these glories BBQ meals. I agree with yakima, a group shot with names. I have really enjoyed this thread.
Glad you liked it Randy! From my experience and asking a few folks just now, the majority of the meals run from $40-$50 with a drink and tip. It sounds like a lot but many times we can get 2 meals out of that. In fact, a few folks are eating leftovers tonight for dinner.
For the first few trips, I naturally wanted to try one of everything, while knowing I wasn’t going to eat it all and that it was going to be costly. But I wasn’t there for sustenance, I was there to learn some flavors, to experiment, and to be on vacation.
After a while, with a firm foundation, you can get by for around $20. Five or six folks can go in on a sampler platter for $120, or three can agree to get different smaller things and share.
Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Fireboard Drive, 3 DigiQs, lots of Thermapens, and too much other stuff to mention.
Purc, theroc and I spent a couple hours Saturday afternoon at the Central Texas Wing of The Commemorative Air Force. It was really amazing. They have a small collection, and their C-47 was out on the air show circuit. But the highlight of the tour is their museum, which focuses heavily on the Doolittle Raid; several major players were from central Texas. Our guide knew a lot, and presented it really well. I was too engrossed in the tour to take any snaps, except for the model of the Yorktown with her deck full of B-25s. But here are some plane snaps.
My dad was certified B-25 mechanic, spring of 1943. He then volunteered for gunnery school and went to war in the ball turret of a B-17, from Dec 43 to April 44.
BTW, under the command of Admiral William Halsey, my great uncle Rear Admiral William R, Cooke, led the destroyer escorts for carrier that launched General Doolittle's raid on Tokyo. I shared a copy of my uncle's obituary stating his role with Doolittle's Raid with the 2 tour guides.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself with these co-pitmasters. If you can make one of these, I highly recommend it. They are memorable, even though i forgot that I attended one of them. Age is no joke. Everyone get home safe, and I'll see you at the next one. If I remember.
I left this morning at 8:30 and arrived home just before 12:30.
We decided not to go to Burnt Bean for brunch: we heard that since being declared #1 by Texas Monthly that their brunch line is as long as the regular Saturday line (couple of hours) plus I think we were all barbecued out.
Well another Meat Up is behind us. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with Pit from previous Meat Ups and get acquainted with Pit members for the first time along with all the significant others. As always it was a fun event, and we haven’t found any bad BBQ yet. All was good, and everyone had their personal preference. Lockhart has great BBQ and south Austin has a number of great places. There are still more places to explore.
Lockhart has a population just under 15,000 and has five BBQ joints. So, how does a town that size support five BBQ joints? In addition to the local population and folks who commute in from the surrounding area, there are tourists like us who travel to this BBQ mecca to check things out. So Far, it has been well worth the trip.
Purc and I have eaten at four of Texas Monthly’s top ten, Next stop for us in Goldie’s in Fort Worth. There are a lot of places to checkout before the next Meat Up.
jayjordan that would be great if you check. I am hoping that the lines aren't as long as their website suggests. I can’t make this coming Friday, but am hoping we all can the following week. I have a few more places in the area I would like to hit.
I sure had a great time with everyone this weekend! A special thanks to all our long distance members who flew in from California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Illinois! I hope y’all had as much fun as I did. Anywho, I made it home around 12:45. Made a couple of stops on the way and one of them was for breakfast in a little town west of Houston called Sealy. I was getting hungry so I pulled into Sealy and found this place, Tony’s Family Restuarant. The parking lot was huge and it was packed! I almost didn’t stop but decided to go in anyway, I figured a restaurant with a packed parking lot must be good…..and it was.
Here’s what I had, the Mega Breakfast….😳
They even has salsa for my eggs…
Please don’t bother me for a while, I’m taking a nap.
Last edited by Panhead John; April 19, 2026, 02:52 PM.
Reason: Forgot to add Ohio….😵💫
I actually saw it on the way home for the first time but I was already past the exit. I thought the same thing, a Buc-ee’s wannabe. I have no regrets stopping in Sealy though…..
Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Fireboard Drive, 3 DigiQs, lots of Thermapens, and too much other stuff to mention.
Sid and I weren’t done yet. After everyone else left today, we hit up San Marcos BBQ for lunch. I’m telling you this, it is every bit as good as the Texas Monthly list joints, but without all the pressure to shuffle people through and pressure to be great; just relaxing bbq in a laid back restaurant.
Big ol’ smoker alongside the building.
Very straightforward setup: tables, chairs, cracking linoleum, signs on the walls, people eating bbq on Sunday after church services.
A platter,
Sid will chime in about the ribs, I didn’t taste them. The brisket was mostly excellent; I say mostly because about 10-15% of it on one end was dried out.
a sausage sandwich.
The hatch-Gouda sausage is incredible. It was the best sausage I had this entire trip.
Sid asked what their best side was; the girl answered, “Braised cabbage.” I didn’t like it when I had it a couple years ago, but today it was really good, nice and buttery and onion-y, with pieces of sausage.
We have been missing this boat! If we come back to San Marcos, and don’t come here just because it didn’t make the list, we are cheating ourselves.
I agree, it is very good. I went to San Marcos bbq and the now closed Hayes County bbq on the first trip there, Hayes was on the top 50 list. San Marcos was better.
I just got home and I also want to send out a large thank you to everyone for traveling so very far to attend this Meat Up. It was a blast and I'm already looking forward to the next one....whenever and wherever. Thanks again everyone.
The receipt for the platter shown above by Mosca. Their menu refers to “sausage rounds”, which I assumed were the usual 5” pieces, but as you can see they gave me 4. It was a hell of a lot of sausage. If I’d known about that my bill would have been < $28 - easily the cheapest lunch of the week.
The rib was excellent, but not quite as good or meaty as the one I had at Terry Black’s, the braised cabbage and brisket were excellent , but the hatch chile/Gouda sausage stole the show.
I wish we had a place like this near me back home.
After having lunch with old shipmate I haven’t seen since 1980, we departed San Marcos around 1:45 and arrived home at 5:30.
Jill and I both enjoyed the weekend and meeting everyone. Thank you to all for making us feel welcome.
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