My Spring vacation (pics)

first time poster. here is my extensive photo album from the family trip to Austin in April


this is from our first night. we had a quick dinner at Ironworks downtown. this is the wife's plate. Despite me telling her that Texas is beef country, she insisted on getting pork ribs wherever we went. these were pretty good.


this was my plate. Only beef ribs i had on the trip. excellent. Brisket was good but a hair dry.


Salt Lick. Not bad. not a huge fan of the pre-smothered sauce. good brisket. So-so ribs. I did buy some rub on the way out.


Kruezs in Lockhart. If you're looking for a front porch sofa, this is your town. otherwise, BBQ is the name of the game in Lockhart. We went to Black's first (not pictured). Great brisket. Ribs were tough. Kreuzs was the hands-down winner. No Sauce (the way i like it) brisket was moist. ribs were very tender.


couple of items:
every place served spareribs, no babybacks or even St. Louis cuts. i never thought about this until i started reading about BBQ and i guess just about every place i've been to serves spare ribs. no place seems to strip off the underside membrane.

also, when i asked how long each of these places smoked their briskets, the answered ranged from 6 to 24 hours. saltlick cooks their brisket at 375 degrees.

with practice, i think i could get my brisket and ribs to a quality as good (or even better) than some of these places. I think one missing element is the actual smoker grill and oven itself. i don't even own a smoker yet, but these places have been using the same oven and grills for decades. I imagine they're never cold either.

Welcome aboard, scrambro! Great pics!

Rob - TX Sandman

Welcome to the board scrambro!

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I think most places in Lockhart serve their meat sans sauce. I've been to Smitty's and Kreuz and both were sauceless (the way it should be).

Welcome to the board!

Nice family vacation photos! My favorite kind, in fact!

Thanks for sharing!

thanks for the warm welcome. we had a great time in Austin - wonderful city. Honestly, at first i was only on board with the trip because of the BBQ. Plenty of other things to do (and eat) in the city. My biggest regret is that i wasn't able to see ZZ Top. ( my all-time favorite band - they were playing just outside Austin when we were there. couldn't secure a babysitter)

For about 5 years, i have been experimenting with rubs and meats, especially pork butts. problem is i only have a gas grill, so i have been doing all of this in the oven or a slow cooker. i used to be a big sauce guy (sweet baby ray's is my favorite) but now it is all about the rub and the meat.

we have such a diverse restaurant scene in san francisco, stretching from every region in the US and every corner of the world. The SF bay area does NOT, however, even attempt to establish itself as a BBQ mecca. there are a couple of places in SF that are decent (one is Big Nate's owned by NBA great Nate Thurmond) and outside of the city there is Steve's BBQ and Bo's BBQ. These places are good, but are well known because they do a wide variety of meats (goat, turkey) and not necessarily because the brisket, links or ribs are outstanding.