NBDL Tour Side Quest: Texas Barbeque

Sausage and brisket plate at Franklin Barbecue. Live Oak's Big Bark Amber in the glass.

One of my hopes in traveling to Texas to watch basketball was that I would find some good barbeque while I was there. This was not my first quest to find good barbeque but I swore it would be my last if I didn't find something really really good. I've eaten barbeque (or barbecue or BBQ, if you prefer) in what I would consider to be some fairly significant destinations, including North Carolina, Kansas City, Memphis, Nashville and even once before in Texas, and I have never EVER found it to be worth searching out, with the possible exception of the totally delicious Original Barbeque Sauce at Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City. I could have eaten that stuff on cardboard and it would have tasted good.

But I can admit I've made mistakes in my searches before. I asked the hotel concierge for a recommendation in Memphis and I've randomly picked places in Fort Worth and just pulled into the first place I saw about 200 yards over the North Carolina border. Not very scientific or selective. For all I knew I could have been pulling into the Arby's of barbeque (if you know me, you know I justifiably have a very low regard for Arby's food). So this time I actually did some homework. I'd done that before a cross country trek that took me to Arthur Bryant's and it worked out OK so why not give being prepared another shot. Here's where I went and what I found.

North Main Barbecue's sign and pig.

North Main Barbecue, Euless

I picked this place because it was featured on Food Network's show The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Ted Allen raved about the brisket. I'm not a big Ted Allen fan but I figured there had to be some merit to this claim so I thought I'd check it out. It was also right near the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and I landed just before lunch so it was technically almost on my way.

North Main Barbecue is located in a strip mall type setting on the main drag in Euless. It's a cafeteria style atmosphere with rolls of paper towels on the table and dark window tinting film on all the windows (it faces west and I imagine the Texas sun is pretty brutal in the late afternoon). There's a center carving station where the all you can eat meat is placed buffet style with a couple of guys standing behind doling out the meat.

I have a few fundamental objections to barbeque I've eaten in the past and my experience at North Main Barbeque is a shining example of my biggest objection. My impression of barbeque is that most places present well cooked but fairly flavorless meat, slather it with sauce which may or may not be that good, and serve it on bread which is absolutely the cheapest white prepackaged hamburger roll you can find at any grocery store. The whole flavor profile is based on sauce and sauce alone. This is exactly what I got at North Main Barbecue.

Having said that, their sauce is pretty darn good with a strong vinegar base that I love. They also had some hotter sauce on the tables called Cowboy Ketchup which added flavor and heat. I left being impressed by the sauce but not by the rest of the experience. It's not the worst barbeque I've had but I don't think I'd go back.

Pecan Lodge's Pitmaster sandwich.

Pecan Lodge, Dallas

Pecan Lodge is located in Shed No. 2 of the Dallas Farmer's Market (not misspelled; that's the way they spell it) and has been voted by D Magazine as the Best Barbecue in Dallas for the last two years. The Best rating was the magazine's pick, not the readers' pick; important distinction to make there. In addition to the rating, the place is open from 11 a.m. to whenever they sell out. Any place having their closing time as "sold out" has to be good, right? To me, this sounded like a can't miss stop.

I got t0 the market early, figuring there would be something else there to check out so I strolled around looking at stall after stall of the same fruits, vegetables and Virginia peanuts (irony!) on every stall. While I was wandering around, a line had formed at Pecan Lodge. It was about 20 deep by the time I joined it at about 10:20 a.m., forty minutes before opening time, so I got in it. The party ahead of me was on a barbeque tour the last week. It sounded like Pecan Lodge was stop number 10 of 10.

The menu at Pecan Lodge.

By the time the dinner bell rang (yes, they ring a dinner bell), the line had grown. According to the woman in front of me (who counted) there were 64 people in line behind me. Good thing I got there early. The menu is written on a chalkboard at Pecan Lodge and features meat by the pound (a Texas thing apparently), sandwiches and daily specials. Because I'm a sandwich guy, I elected to go with the Pitmaster sandwich, which is brisket, pork and sausage with cole slaw and jalapenos on a roll. I also sprung for the pinto beans because I love beans and will get them pretty much any time I can.

The sandwich is huge, but not too big that you can't bite into it. It's also gorgeous to look at: it's colorful, plated well and just looks delicious. And it didn't disappoint. This is the best barbeque sandwich I have ever had in my life. It was sweet and moist and you could taste the smoke coming through. The meat was cooked well, with a nice crust, without being dry. The sauce added the right amount of tang and the chiles added just a little heat. And it was a real sandwich, well conceived and well balanced from top to bottom. I'd return here for this sandwich in a second. I'd pass on the beans though: a little tasteless for me.

Salt Lick's off the menu sandwich.

Salt Lick, Driftwood
Salt Lick cropped up on so many "best of" lists that I thought I should take a journey off the beaten path to see what all the fuss was about. I also thought it would get me into Texas Hill Country, which my trip otherwise wouldn't take me. Normally I would avoid a place like Salt Lick strictly due to the fact that they sell bottled barbeque sauce and other products on line but I figured why not make an exception. Some folks clearly like this place. I had to see if I agreed.

I drove a ways off the beaten path to get to Salt Lick but after passing through multiple construction zones, I finally arrived. First of all, the signage at this place is confusing and it took me a few minutes to understand just exactly where I was supposed to go. When I finally figured that all out, I found a table based on the hostess' direction ("sit anywhere"). Knowing that I wanted more than one type of meat but also preferred a sandwich, I asked my server for some guidance. He suggested I go off menu and get the brisket and sausage sandwich, which sounded perfect to me because that's exactly what I wanted. I also kicked in an extra buck for three sides: beans, cole slaw and potato salad.

What arrived was a sandwich and some sides packed onto a single plate. The sandwich looked good. I was happy to see they didn't present it to me on the cheapest roll in the grocery store. The brisket looked good, with an obvious smoke ring. But ultimately the sandwich disappointed. I didn't get a whole lot of flavor or smoke out of the sandwich, even when I piled on the habanero sauce on the table. I pulled some of the brisket off the sandwich to see how it tasted which was a good idea. There was more flavor without the other components of the dish but it was dry to me.

The biggest objection I had though was that the sandwich didn't succeed at exactly what it was supposed to be: a sandwich. The bread couldn't stand up to absorbing the moisture from the sausage, brisket and sauce so it sort of fell apart rather quickly. They also sliced their sausage lengthwise, rather than crosswise like at Pecan Lodge, which meant that my teeth had to cut through the sausage to get mouthfuls of sandwich. I found this difficult to do so every time I bit into or onto a piece of sausage, I ended up dragging the whole thing out of the sandwich, leaving me with bread and sauce for my next bite.

I don't think I'd end up going back to Salt Lick if I had the chance. But if I had, I'd skip the sides. I know they were only $1 but they too disappointed.

Franklin Barbecue and part of the omnipresent line.

Franklin Barbecue, Austin

I picked Franklin Barbecue as my in-Austin lunch spot based on the Austin Food Blogger Alliance voting it as the top Barbeque spot in 2012 and I like to think that I can trust an alliance of food bloggers. It has also been featured on Anthony Bourdain's show, No Reservations, which I didn't realize until I googled it Thursday morning to make sure I knew where it was before setting out for a spot in line. I heard about the line from the barbeque tour guys ahead of me at Pecan Lodge so I figured earlier was better here.

The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. and, like Pecan Lodge, is open until they run out of meat. I arrived at 9:45 a.m., a full hour and 15 minutes before opening time and there was already a 29 person line (I counted - there's only so much Twitter I can read in 75 minutes). By the time the place opened, the line was much longer, easily three times as long, so I was glad I showed up early. As soon as they opened the door, this incredible smell wafted out of the place which was a good early sign.

Franklin Barbecue's dining room.

Rather than go with a sandwich at Franklin Barbecue, I elected to get a meat plate. I'd heard too many good rumblings about the brisket and knew I also wanted to taste the sausage. The meat plate was the only way I was going to get those two things based on my read of the menu. The brisket slicing process here is one you have to see. First of all, you can get fattier or leaner brisket based on questions asked of you and they know which is which without cutting into the meat. When the meat is cut, the knife slices through the brisket so easily that the knife has to be super super super sharp or the meat is that tender. It's the latter by the way; you can cut this stuff with a plastic fork it is falling apart that much.

I grabbed my plate complete with sides (beans again, of course, and potato salad) and headed to my table. The brisket may be one of the most delicious pieces of meat I have ever eaten. It's juicy and full of flavor using only salt, pepper and smoke. The bark on this meat is salty and worth savoring. As a reminder, lack of inherent flavor in the meat is one of my fundamental objections to barbeque (until now). There was barbeque sauce on the tables but I didn't use any it was that tasty.

The sausage was juicy and greasy but without being disgusting. The casing snapped and there was something tangy and lipsmacking in there which I'd go back for again. The beans were also creamy and loaded with pork, which is not a bad thing. If there's a complaint here (and there is one), the portion size was just way too big. Three slabs of brisket was more than I needed. There were also some parts of the bark which were way too salty. I've waited in longer lines for food (Pink's Hot Dogs in Los Angeles) but this was worth the wait. I'd do it again.

Lamberts Downtown Barbecue: 401 West Second Street if you are interested.

Lamberts Downtown Barbecue, Austin

Two barbeque meals in one day was not something I thought I'd ever have. This place finished as a runner up on the Austin Food Blogger Alliance list. I was sort of doubling down on my bet above here but what the hell. The first place winner was awesome. If this came anywhere close to Franklin Barbecue, I'd be a happy diner.

Lamberts was a different experience from the other barbeque places I went to this week. It was more of a restaurant rather than a counter service (admittedly, I got served at Salt Lick) and I went at dinner rather than lunch. The menu looked amazing. I had to restrain myself from ordering the jalapeno hot links with hot pink pickled cabbage and the achiote lime rubbed half chicken and stick to the task at hand which was eating some barbeque  food comparable to what I'd had in Euless, Dallas and Driftwood.

Ultimately, I picked the hot links plate with two sides, in this case beans (what else?) and collard greens and with my food I was presented with three sauces: housemade barbeque, mustard and hot sauces. Despite my attempt to keep this food on an even playing field with the rest of the barbeque I've had this past week, this meal was clearly superior to all the others.

I know the photo's grainy. It was dark. What else can I do?

The sausage is smoked on the premises so Lamberts is doing what every other barbeque place I've eaten at is doing but the flavor was just incredible. The grind on the meat was perfect and the sausage had some great heat which went with both the barbeque and hot sauces really well. The beans were also the best of the trip; the addition of cilantro made these tastier, cutting the creaminess of the beans. I can eat my food fast and I have to tell you I ate slowly here, savoring every bite. If I lived in Austin, I'd come here a lot. And the 512 Pecan Porter went really well with the food by the way.

So after a week of trying, I am clearly not ready to give up on barbeque, although I've convinced myself not to shoot from the hip when it comes to food. I know I'm a food snob and it really helps me to be prepared with my restaurant choices as much as everything else in life. I still have my reservations about this style of food but as I think about it, I am no less disappointed in other types of food that I love (particularly Mexican) than I am in barbeque. There are some places I'd love to go back to that I've dined at this week.

In picking the places above, I read a lot of reviews and opinions and visited each restaurant's website, but I also checked my math, so to speak, with Daniel Vaughn's Full Custom Gospel BBQ blog. It's good to have an opinion from someone who claims to know what he's doing, I guess. I didn't always follow his advice and I'm sure he'd think I'm a novice at this stuff, but I definitely crossed some places off my list based on his blog.

Blues And Basketball In Austin

After Tuesday night's Vipers-Red Claws game, I awoke the next morning and headed out on the road again to see my third D-League game in four nights and the last basketball of this quick trip. The site of Wednesday's game was Austin, or more accurately just outside of Austin, a place I hoped would be very different from Frisco and Hidalgo. In fact I had so much faith that it would be different (i.e. better) that it's the only place I decided to spend two nights on this entire trip. My one and a half days and two nights in Austin started with the Austin Toros hosting the same Maine Red Claws (did I mention best name and logo in the NBDL, hands down?) that I saw face the Rio Grande Valley Vipers the previous evening some 300 miles or so south of Austin.

Austin, contrary to what the Lea Thompson's character in the original Red Dawn movie believed ("Wrong, Commie! It's Houston!), is the capital of Texas. It is also the music center of Texas which is why I've wanted to visit Austin for years. I've already checked Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans off my list, it was time to hit Austin. Austin's music history is one of country and blues, with Willie Nelson, Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan all having associations with the town. I hoped I could hear some good music while I was in town in addition to watching hoops. I was determined to find some after the Toros and the Red Claws game and then again the next night.

The Austin area was first settled in 1830, the year that Mexico decided to close then Tejas' border with the United States to stem what had become a troubling number of American settlers crossing the border. In 1839, the capital of what was at the time the Republic of Texas was moved to the Austin area and incorporated as Waterloo. The name was changed shortly thereafter in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," who brought the first significant number of American families to settle in the Texas. Today, Austin is big to support the state capital and the University of Texas. There are about 650,000 residents in Austin, a far cry from the 11,000 in Hidalgo.

Unlike the Legends and Vipers who joined the NBDL as expansion teams, the Austin Toros are one of the three surviving original D-League franchises, along with the Tulsa 66ers and the Canton Charge. And just like those other two original members of the league, the Toros didn't begin life where they are now. The team started out in Columbus, Georgia as the Riverdragons in 2001 but moved to Austin after four seasons in 2005. The Toros are the defending NBDL champions although last year's championship won't necessarily translate to success this season as teams in the D-League tend to change over personnel fairly quickly. There is exactly one player, Jamarr Sanders, on this year's team who spent time in Austin last season.

The Toros actually play a little more than 20 miles from Austin in a suburb called Cedar Park. Their arena, the cleverly named Cedar Park Center, seats about 8,000, so it's larger than the arenas in Frisco and Hidalgo and it shows. The Cedar Park Center is the only one of the three D-League arenas I went to with a center scoreboard and instant replay. It gets closer to an NBA experience but with the replay on the scoreboard, there's no space left for stats, which are displayed annoyingly infrequently. As I did the previous night in Hidalgo, I once again sat center court second row for the game and paid far less than I would for an NBA ticket, in this case $40. Beers at the Cedar Park Center are $7.75 for a 24 oz. Budweiser about the same as the other two arenas. My friend Mike texted me during the game with the rhetorical question "Why is beer so expensive everywhere?" Because people buy it at that price, that's why.

The game was competitive into the fourth, when the Toros managed to break the Red Claws' spirit and pull away for a 111-94 victory. The game experience was a good one just like the night before in Hidalgo. My disappointment in the overly kid catering environment in Frisco didn't carry over to Austin or the Rio Grande Valley. I'd go back (but probably won't) to games in either of those places. I managed to track the Wizards-Pistons games on my phone during the game. Our winning streak was ended at four. Just can't beat Detroit this year.

The interest in Wednesday's D-League game for me was to see former Wizard Shelvin Mack play again. And I saw Shelvin play a lot Wednesday night as he logged all 48 minutes with the Red Claws down to only eight healthy players. Shelvin was the Wizards second round draft pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. He lasted all of his rookie season before being cut in training camp in favor of either Jannero Pargo or Earl Barron, depending on your perspective. Shelvin is consistently on the top of the D-League's prospects call up list and has had stints in the NBA twice this season, once with the Wizards and once for two 10-day contracts with the Philadelphia 76ers. 

Watching Shelvin's game, it's clear to see why he's bouncing between the NBA and NBDL. He's clearly the leader of his team. He calls all the offensive sets and defensive assignments, handles the ball every time up and makes sure his team is paying attention to the shot clock. There's no doubt he understands the game very well and he's serious about what he's doing. But he's also physically limited. He's not really quick enough or skilled enough to play point guard in the NBA as a guy with heavy minutes and he's not really long enough to defend or rebound against taller shooting guards. Shelvin's invariably in place to rebound or right in his guy's face on defense but he lost rebounds to an opponent taller than him and couldn't reach a few fadeaway jumpers from his counterpart. I hope the D-League serves him well and he gets back to the NBA again this season. I appreciated Shelvin coming over and saying hi to me before the game. As Royce White told me the night before, Shelvin's a good dude.

Fans in Austin are hard core. Some dude brought a giant Shelvin Mack head to wave at Shelvin and taunt him.

I didn't stick around much beyond the final buzzer for this one. I needed to get a beer or two in a blues club somewhere quick. Wednesday night I decided I'd take about any music played competently whereas Thursday I thought I should be more selective and serious. Austin's main drag is Sixth Street, sort of an equivalent to Memphis' Beale Street or New Orleans' Bourbon Street, although way smaller scale than the latter. Wednesday night I bounced between a couple of clubs with bands playing bad George Thorogood or Tom Petty covers before settling in at Latitude Thirty, a club on San Jacinto Boulevard, for a couple of Lone Star beers and a partial set. At one time while I was there, the club actually had four musicians and three patrons; most people were stepping in for $2 shots before quickly moving on, probably for another $2 shot somewhere else.

Sixth Street by day. It looks much different (i.e. drunker) at night.

Thursday night I weighed my options more carefully, ultimately choosing to see the Big Guitars From Texas at Antone's on Fifth and Lavaca over Tift Merritt and David Wax Museum on Sixth Street. If there is a club to know in Austin, it's Antone's. The place was founded by Clifford Antone in the mid-1970s and has been played by many blues legends, including Clifton Chenier, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Stevie Ray Vaughan. So as this may be my only night spent in Austin, I had to not pass this one up.

Little did I know but Big Guitars From Texas were nominated for a grammy in 1986 in the Best Rock Instrumental Category (they lost to Jeff Beck) for their instrumental Guitar Army. This show was a reunion and benefit show for one of their members, Evan Johns, who played but who clearly was ailing, preferring to sit through the show. And ultimately the show was a great ending to a quick trip, a four guitar mostly instrumental show to send me back to D.C. with some good memories. I clearly didn't spend enough time in Austin. Live and learn.

Paying Tribute To Stevie Ray

In the spring semester of my senior year at the University of Michigan, I bought a ticket to see Eric Clapton at the Palace in Auburn Hills, MI. I couldn't find anyone sufficiently motivated to go with me so I went solo, not the first or last time I went to a show by myself. Before the concert, I was talking to a guy sitting next to me who raved about a Stevie Ray Vaughan show he had seen two nights earlier at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. He questioned if Clapton would measure up to Vaughan. I thought this guy was insane to question Clapton's preeminence since I really didn't listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan's music or understand how good he was at that time.

Halfway through Clapton's show, which I thought was lackluster to that point, Vaughan joined EC on stage and sat in on "Before You Accuse Me" and "After Midnight." Without question, Stevie Ray torched Clapton that night; he absolutely blew him off the stage. And when he was done hosting, Clapton, as if embarrassed, picked up on the energy brought on by Stevie Ray and finished the show strong.

Almost 23 years later, Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my favorite guitarists. I have every one of his solo and Double Trouble studio albums but his live stuff is what I really love. His Live at Carnegie Hall is one of my favorite albums of all time and the double album which documents his 1982 and 1985 shows at the Montreux Jazz Festival is almost as good. I never got to see Stevie Ray Vaughan play a complete show by himself because about three months after I saw him that night in Auburn Hills (from waaaaay back in the Palace, I might add), he died in a helicopter accident after leaving an outdoor show near Milwaukee.

Vaughan was born and raised in Dallas, Texas but dropped out of high school at 17 and moved to Austin, where he really cut his teeth playing clubs in various groups. So Austin, which has such an amazing music scene, became his home and he likewise became a son of that city. In October 1993, a little more than three years after his death, a statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan was erected in Auditorium Shores park in Austin. I just had to make the walk from my hotel, across the river to the park to see his statue, listen to my iPod and think about the great music Stevie Ray left behind for me and everyone else to enjoy. Gone 23 years now, I hope he's still playing the blues somewhere.