OT: bbq in Lockhart

Sadly I never get that far south, I’ve heard they are all equally good in their respective ways.

although I haven’t been to Kreuz before. There’s another place called Chisolm Trail. Its not very good compared to the others so don’t bother stopping.

Smitty’s over Blacks any day of the week. There’s a reason why the wait for Smitty’s was about 30-45 minutes while there was no wait at Black’s. The wait for Smitty’s BBQ is well worth it.

Have a safe drive to Port A this week and watch out for the tropical depression/storm/hurricane that’s headed north from Mexico.

and its not even close. Black’s is 3rd easily IMO

Kreuz is also good, but Smitty’s is awesome.

I’ve eaten my way around Central Texas BBQ several times over, from Cooper’s in Llano to Louie Mueller’s in Taylor to Snow’s in Lexington and numerous places south of those.

If you have to pick one, pick Smitty’s.

We use to go to both regularly from San Marcos.

and make the drive to Corpus three times a month for business. Kruez is the one. Black’s markets well and used to be the place to go, but the family sold it several years ago and hasn’t bee the same since. The difference between Kruez and Smitty’s probably depends on your tastes. Both are good. Black’s is really no better than a Dallas chain anymore.

Pick up a couple of seedless watermelons for the family in Luling along the way.

It’s about 15 minutes out of the way, but you can also tour the Spoetzl brewery in Shiner if that’s your thing. Pretty interesting, actually.

maybe I should stop at both? Then I can tell for myself….from what I understand, they’re right down the street from each other, right? Well, I guess we’re not exactly talking about Lower Manhattan….everything in Lockhart is right down the street from everything else…

in Chickasha Oklahoma? worth the drive from OKC my man…

When you go through Corpus you should eat at Snoopy’s under the JFK Causeway. They only take cash but you will be glad you stopped, excellent seafood on the water. Get the crab stuffed jalapenos.

I forgot to take pics, Ryan…my bad. Bear in mind, I am not a trained cook and am not a foodie by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have a passion for good bbq (which was born from a few long winters in Toledo working at a “bbq” restaurant and missing actual real bbq). I’ve eaten at a lot of famous bbq places (like you’d see on the Food Channel) and a lot more places that no one has ever heard of that were awesome. So here it is:

Based on the latest poll results, I decided to go to Kreuz. Pretty much everything stewmack said was right on. I got the shoulder and a sausage link. I found the brisket a little dry, but not detrimentally so. The flavor was a bit more complex than that of most briskets. It’s kind of hard to describe…a little spicy I guess is what it was. And I don’t know what kind of wood they smoke on, but it was definitely a unique flavor. Not “unique” as in “bad,” but as in “out of the ordinary.” It was pretty good. The sausage was EXCELLENT. Very, very good flavor, a perfectly crisp casing and the right amount of “zing.” The clear winner of this trip, in my opinion.
On the way out, I convinced my wife (through using “guilt tactics,” like “I do shit you want all the time….why can’t we just take another 5 minutes out of our trip and go down the street to Smitty’s?”) so let me delay the 2nd half of our roadtrip and go to Smitty’s and grab some to go. Let me take a minute to say this: both places had pretty cool atmosphere. Smitty’s seemed more authentic, but both weren’t exactly like the inside of a Dickey’s in West Plano. But I don’t like bbq for the atmosphere…I like the hot meat in my mouth (hmmmm…). For the sake of comparison, I got the same thing at Smitty’s (half a pound of shoulder and a sausage). They wrapped it up and I took it to the car and started to head out. We stopped across the street to gas up, and I decided that I should probably sample the Smitty’s while it was still hot (I was pretty full from Kreuz). I found the brisket to be absolutely otherworldly. I’ve eaten a lot of brisket, and this was, by far, the best I have ever had and it’s not even close. It was as tender as prime rib…the juices were running down my face and hands (hmmmm…). It defintely had a more “traditional” texas brisket flavor. I can see how everyone says you don’t need the sauce. Even a good sauce would’ve ruined it. I bestow a very rare award to Smitty’s brisket – I proclaim that I would kill a hobo for another taste. It was unreal. It nearly changed my life. That’s how F’ing good it was. Now to the “not-so-good:” the sausage was not very good. Maybe my tastebuds were ruined by eating the brisket first, but I found the sausage to be slightly above-average at best. The texture and crispness were both good, but it tasted Hillshire Farms-like. For rizzeal. I took the rest to my parent’s house in Plano (where we stopped for the night until coming home today) and the Smitty’s brisket was still pretty damn good after being wrapped up for 4 hours in butcher paper. I need to look into whether they do mail ordering or not (I know Kreuz does).

Based on this, here is my conclusion: If you’re a brisket person and you have not gone out of your way to go to Smitty’s, you are a fucking asshole and you should hate yourself forever. Ok…maybe that’s a little strong. But, in all honesty, I’d go pretty far out of my way to eat at Smitty’s again. My brother’s family lives in north Austin (about an hour from Lockhart) and I wouldn’t hesitate at all to drive way the hell out of the way to go back. In fact, I would probably build my itenerary around going to Smitty’s. It was that good. The best I’ve ever ever ever had, and that’s saying something.

Next on my list…Snow’s in Lexington. I hear that place is the only place that rivals Smitty’s.