Where to Eat Barbecue
The Green Mesquite BBQ & More, Austin
The most difficult part of dining at this joint is deciding what to eat: the menu is enormous for a smokehouse. In the plate section alone, you can select beef brisket, pork ribs, chicken, smoked turkey, sausage, ham, and combinations. Then there are the sandwiches, and the burgers, and the “and more” section, and…
The Barton Springs location has an outdoor biergarten where you can dine at picnic tables and listen to some homemade blues. One thing’s for certain, though. There’s no reason to be blue after a visit to the Green Mesquite.
Iron Works Barbecue
When ironsmith Fortunat Weigl opened his foundry in 1935, he probably never envisioned that one day Austin’s movers and shakers would gather here for power lunches. In those days, this was an ironworks shop where the German immigrant and his sons produced handwrought decorative items that were used in many stately homes and the Texas State Capitol.
In 1977, the ironworks closed its doors and the shop was transformed into a popular smokehouse. The building, complete with historic marker, is decorated with hundreds of brands, a reminder of its earlier life. Today diners fill the restaurant and its deckside picnic tables over the banks of Waller Creek to enjoy tender brisket, smoky ribs, and sausage, a spicy combination of beef and pork.
Franklin Barbecue
Black’s Barbecue
Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q
Rudy’s calls itself “the worst barbecue in Texas” but you sure wouldn’t know that from the taste of its barbecue or the size of the crowds that flock to this popular eatery.
Rudy’s has an extensive menu: pork, baby back, St. Louis, and beef short ribs, plus chicken, prime rib, pork loin, chopped beef, sausage, turkey, and brisket.
Start the day with breakfast tacos until 11.
This restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily (and takeout is available as well), and you’ll find several locations around town.
The Salt Lick, Driftwood
Two things make The Salt Lick unique; the first is its cooking pit. This restaurant boasts one of the few open pits left in the state, plopped right down in the middle of the restaurant for all to see. There’s no questioning whether the meat is really smoked here or perhaps sneaked into an oven; you can see (and smell) it for yourself.
The sauce is the second aspect of The Salt Lick that everyone discusses – ya’ either love it or hate it. Real barbecue hardliners sometimes object to the sauce because it has a slight Oriental taste. If so, it comes by it honestly. The owner is of Hawaiian descent. His mother, Hisako Roberts, founded the restaurant in the late sixties and developed the secret sauce. We think it’s great, and from the size of The Salt Lick’s crowds, so do a lot of others.
The sauce is used in both the potato salad (really) and on the meats. Because the meat is cooked on an open pit, the flavor is less smoky than meat cooked in a closed smoker, subtler but still hinting at its trial by fire. You can select from brisket, chicken, and beef and pork ribs, all cooked over oak. We dined here with a group and enjoyed family-style service, with side orders of coleslaw, beans, and potato salad.
The Salt Lick is in a dry precinct, but diners are permitted to bring ice chests stocked with beer and wine.
Sam’s Bar-B-Cue
Sam’s is a smokin’ place. In 1992, it was literally smoking — in fact, it was on fire. A kitchen inferno resulted in the closing of this classic Austin pit.
But local citizens weren’t about to let a favorite East Austin eatery go up in smoke. A volunteer group got together and rebuilt Sam’s. Soon it rose like the mythical phoenix, and Austin once again boasted one of the finest barbecue joints on the planet.
Go to Sam’s with a big appetite because you’re going to get a big plate, one loaded down with meats and side dishes. We ordered plates of ribs and brisket and ran out of room long before we ran out of food. You can also choose from chicken, spicy sausage, and even mutton.
Stubb’s Bar-B-Q
The Stubb’s menu says “There will be no bad talk or loud talk at this place.” Well, there’s no reason to talk bad, but after a few bites of this tasty ‘que, it’s mighty hard to keep quiet — this is some of the best barbecue in west Texas.
Today Stubb’s restaurant serves battalions of happy diners from around the state who’ve learned this is Mecca for both meat and music lovers. First originating in Lubbock, Stubbs moved to Austin and has been a welcome addition not only to the local barbecue scene but the music scene as well. Diners can enjoy live music several nights a week.
But blues is only half the story. The rest is the smoky product of the pits: brisket, sausage, ribs (both pork and hefty beef ones), and chicken. We’re happy to say that we’ve tried them all, served up with sides of beans, potato salad, rolls, and serrano peppers. The barbecue is accompanied by a delightfully peppery sauce that’s available by mail order.