They say never meat your heroes…. meet your heroes, well, something like that. Since watching Franklin’s Masterclass online I have wanted to roll to Austin and give it a try. Last weekend we were in in town for a concert and decided we would do the thing and go to Franklin Barbecue on the way out of town. Was this joint all hype or the true Texas treasure we’ve all heard about?
The Wait
Forewarned by tales of an infinite line and the lamentations of eager eaters arriving too late only to be greeted by the “sold out” sign, we showed up a moderately aggressive 3hrs early. This put us about 30th in line.
Mistake #1: We did not get coffee. There was a coffee shop a few blocks away that… well… sucked. However this coffee was medicinal, not recreational, so it somewhat sufficed. Note to self, find coffee on the way.
On the upside, Franklin supplies chairs for the unprepared. As we scanned the queue we saw folks making mimosas and pregaming with various beverages. Pro-move… well played.
So we settled in, took the obligatory selfies, stood at the corner to capture the expanding queue and planted our butts in our hospitably provided chairs for the wait. As with any such line, we started conversing with our fellow queue-ers. We found the bulk of the patrons to be either tourists or college kids. We rapped for a while with a cool couple from Michigan and another from Portland to talk beer, bourbon, bbq and how we were all thankful to be there in February and not August.
The Franklin staff do a great job of kindly managing the eager patrons and make it an overall enjoyable experience. Believe me, with the number of people queuing up, this could easily have been a complete shit-show. Bottom line, even for an impatient dude like me, it wasn’t that bad.
As the doors opened and we started filing in The anticipation was palpable and hungry levels were approaching defcon 1. Thankfully, the joy of knowing what was just on the horizon kept the hangry at bay.
Our Order
- 1lb Brisket (of course)
- 1 Beef Rib (for real, get this if you can)
- 2 links of Jalapeño Cheese Sausage (because, hell yeah)
- Potato salad (superfluous)
- Pinto Beans (they threw these in for free)
Jalapeño Cheese Sausage
The sausage was outstanding. It had good spice from the jalapeños, gooey cheese permeating the very well seasoned link. I highly recommend the sausage. The also have a more tame garlic variety for the weak of palate.
Beef Rib
Next, the beef rib. If you’ve never had a Dino rib, or a beef rib, you need to experience this at least once. These things are gargantuan, unctuous, and the bark… good Lawd. A cardiologist’s nightmare, but as one of the more decadent bbq delicacies it is a must try. That is, if you can call a 2lb hunk of cow a delicacy. The beef rib was amazing, and I don’t throw that word around lightly. We all know that’s not the star of the show.
The Apex Cut of BBQ Meat
To be perfectly honest, my true motivation for the pilgrimage to Franklin BBQ was to get a benchmark of one of the most heralded pit masters in the nation. 99% of bbq joints serving “Texas Style” brisket have sad, spongy or tough offerings devoid of any meaningful flavor that are just embarrassing attempts which serve only to disrespect the apex cut of bbq meat. Not sorry, it’s the truth.
So, finally, the million dollar question….
Is Franklin’s brisket just hype or is it the real deal?
I could use ham-handed hyperbole to say how truly good this brisket was but I’ll spare you the “to perfections” and “transcendentals”. I will say that after one bite, the 3 hrs of waiting was 100% without a doubt worth it. It is exceedingly rare, especially with eateries focusing on grilled foods, that I am floored. This was most assuredly one of those times. The others, Lewis BBQ in Charleston and Fox Brothers in Atlanta.
If you truly love bbq, are honing your craft as a pitmaster or just want to know what real deal no-bullshit brisket should taste like… go. Just go. Do it. It’s worth it. If you think all brisket tastes the same, go anyway, if that still doesn’t change your mind, there’s no help for you, and you get chicken nuggies at my next bbq. You know who you are.
This brisket is the ZZ Top of bbq. 100% Texas to the bone and three ingredients – salt, pepper, and smoke – coming together to transform something theoretically simple into into something truly magnificent and astounding.
The Sides
Who cares. Seriously, we’re not here for the sides. The potato salad was good. It reminded me of my family’s potato salad recipe. Good mustard twang and some mayo creaminess. It is a nice contrast against the smoked meats. I would definitely grab a single serving. They threw in the beans for free. They were decent but I wouldn’t order them.
Takeaway
Once the afterglow faded I asked myself, Is it worth going often? Probably not. Its an experience but not one to repeat regularly. You’re burning half a day, not to mention travel. It’s also not a cheap day. Between the 5lb of meat, beer and merch we forked over $200+.
But… if you’ve never been or you want to treat some friends to something truly special it is abso-f**king-lutely worth it. Just get coffee on the way and maybe bring a cooler if you wanna pregame.
My biggest takeaway… the leftovers. Sorry, had to do it. Seriously though, like I said, I wanted a benchmark to measure my brisket against and I got that. We also had a great time talking to some cool folks and accomplished the mission of eating some damn fine bbq. And.. now that we’re back in TX it’s only an hour away. Hell yeah.
Cheers to Aaron Franklin and the staff at Franklin Barbecue. Not only for a tremendous meal and a case of the meat sweats, but for the inspiration to continue honing my pitcraft. We’ll be back! But first a food-coma nap.
