San Angelo: Old Time Pit BBQ

The Old Time Pit BBQ has been in San Angelo now for more than a decade. My understanding is that it was model, or part of, Cooper's BBQ which started in Mason/Llano, Texas. In 1997 Texas Monthly they ranked this Old Time Pit BBQ in the top 50 BBQ places in Texas.

Over the years I have enjoyed their BBQ though over those years they have been a hit and miss. I have heard several folks say that their BBQ is awful. I have never found it to be awful.

So while here in Angelo for Thanksgiving I decided to go over and try their brisket and sausage and nothing else.

The Old Time Pit BBQ is typical of several BBQ places in Texas now. It looks like a long shack that at one end you will find the BBQ pits and at the other end you dine. When entering the place you come in by the pits and pick your meat directly off one of the pits. Then you move into the dining area to pay and get sides and extras.

I ordered two links of their regular smoked sausage though they do have jalapeno sausage too. My rule of thumb is that if it needs jalapeno then there is a problem. The regular sausage is definitely NOT store bought and has the immediate look and flavor of homemade stuff smoked sausage. A very nice flavor and texture. The regular already has a bit of spice to it .... enough the kids do not like eating it because of the hot. And though the initial flavor is just as I like it, the after taste is a bit lardy and left a slight after taste that I did not care for. But the sausage is almost exactly what I remember from Old Time Pit and what I expected.

Now M.E. did care for the sausage and says Rudy's is better. She said she could eat it if she had to.

The brisket was about a quarter-pound and about one-third of it was fat (note for a tad bit more you can get a lean brisket too.) The initial pulling of the meat was moisture and had a nice look and flavor. The brisket was as good as Rudy's (which is a good baseline) but lost it moisture quickly and was left a bit dry after that.

As far as other items then they have chicken, ribs, tater salad, taters, beans, and so on. But I did not order any this time.

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Rating:
Brisket 3.75/3.5 [ME] (tender, moist, nice smoked/rub flavor)
Sausage 3.75/2.0 [ME] (definitely not store bought and nice flavor)

A Texas Love Story: Texas BBQ Stops

I gather that a film called Barbecue: A Texas Love Story has been made that looks very interesting.

Even better they list off many of the Texas BBQ stops they made.

Duke BBQ (Utopia, Texas)

June 7th, 2008

Duke Ranch near Utopia, Texas. Utopia Shoot-Out





The Duke family served up BBQ for the lunch time meal to accompany the Utopia Shoot-Out. Since it has been almost six months since the meal then I will not rate each item.

They served up (to name a few):

Sausage
Brisket
Tater Salad
Beans
Ice Tea Sweet
Peach Cobbler
Naner Pudding

It was all good. The sausage was definitely not store bought. Yum.

The Brisket was outstanding and had all due care in its making. The taste said it all.

The Pudding and Cobbler was great. I think I got several helpings of cobbler which I had not had in a long time.

They definitely served up an outstanding meal and BBQ. It was good to be home and get a home cooked meal. The Duke's are great hosts who are proud of their BBQ and well they should be.

Overall I would rate the BBQ: 4.5

This leaves them room to improve, I am not sure how, and grow.

The BBQ Song

This says it all! :)

Josh's Barbecue in Santa Fe (* * 1/2)

Note this is an older review from September 2007. I have heard that Josh's has gotten better and we need to go try it.

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Location: Santa Fe down Cerrillos Road in the San Isidro Plaza across from a Lowe's Home Center and adjacent to the new Regal Cinema 14.

Style BBQ: Southwest (Oklahoma and Texas) with a bit of New Mexican flavor.

Meats: Polish Sausage, Hot Links, Brisket, Turkey, Ribs, Pulled Pork

Sides: Tater salad, Green Chile Corn Bread, Cowboy beans, cole slaw, corn on the cob, baked tater

Today a friend at work, knowing that I love good BBQ especially Texas style, told me about Josh's. He said he thought the brisket was as good as it gets in New Mexico. So I could not stand it and called Gwen and arranged for us to have dinner down in Santa Fe.

The place smelled of a wood fire BBQ pit. You can order the meat by the half pound or they have one meat and two meat plates or family style. Between the four of us we got the brisket, polish sausage, and hot links. Sides were tater salad, green chile cornbread, corn on the cob, baked potato, and cowboy beans. And I got ice tea. :)

Of all this the most notable was the brisket and cornbread. Both were good. The brisket was definitely moist and had a good yet weak flavor. I think they did not have a good rub on it if at all. Gwen enjoyed it too. I think Rudy's is better ... not as moist but stronger flavor.

The cornbread was very good. It was a sweet cornbread but with green chiles in it but not overwhelming. Actually a nice combo but why does everything in NM have to have chiles in it? Chiles are not THAT good. Good for variety but terrible when overwhelming everything else.

The most disappointing was the iced tea, polish sausage, and tater salad. The iced tea was a flavored one like a cross between a weak Earl Grey and prickly-pear flavor. It was NOT sweet and it was NOT plain ole iced tea. I switched to pop after I finished that glass.

The polish sausage was a huge disappointment. Gwen and I both were not impressed. Gwen said it tasted like a grilled hot dog. That should sum it up. Even "store bought" is better.

For my personal tastes the tater salad was a disappointment. But with that said I have to say that for its type of tater salad it was good. It was a mayonnaise based salad with taters and celery. I forget what else was in it. It was good for what it was but I just have a strong preference to a yellow mustard based salad. Gwen on the other hand liked it a lot saying it reminded her of her mom' s tater salad.

This all does not mention the BBQ sauces. They had three on the table.... seasonal, traditional mild, and traditional hot. The seasonal was nice but it was not really a BBQ sauce...it had a strong taste of bourbon or something. The other two were not what I think of for BBQ sauce.
So be warned.

All in all I would say this is a place to visit every now and then. NM is not strong on BBQ food in the first place. It cannot replace Rudy's right now as my NM BBQ place to head for. But I can give it 2-1/2 stars. It is a order at the window and sit down to be served kind of place. Not as much atmosphere as Rudy's at all.

We still have not visited the Whole Hog BBQ which is a Arkansas BBQ style. But then again I am not a big fan of pulled pork.

Here is a review I found on the web at Gil's Thrilling Web Site.

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Rating:
Brisket 3.0 (tender, moist, very mild flavor)
Sausage 0.5 ("hot dogs" are not sausage)
Tater salad 2.0/4.0 (not mustard salad/Gwen liked it.)
Tea 0.5 (needs standard ice tea)

Bob's Bodacious BBQ - Los Alamos, NM

Fortunately in recent years Los Alamos has a nice BBQ place called Bob's Bodacious BBQ. The place is influenced by Texas in part. The family developed their style from the south, Texas, and Kansas City primarily Kansas City Style.

Bob's is comfortable place to visit with a southwest style decor. The people are very friendly and helpful and have a great little restaurant that makes Los Alamos proud. They serve a good product.

With all of this said this review may fall short since we are looking for Texas-style BBQ and Bob's specialty is pulled pork which is not a traditional Texas-Style BBQ. So we will offer ratings from two Carolina boys on the pulled pork.

Bob's offers up a variety of meats. Pulled pork, brisket, sausage, and ribs. Along with BBQ they offer standard fare for NM and TX like chili con carne, Frito pie, and chili dogs.

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Rating:
Brisket 3.25 (tender, moist, very mild flavor)
Sausage 2.5 (more like store bought but good for that type)
Pulled Pork 4.0 & 3.5 (two Carolina boys say so) ****
Tater salad 3.0 (needs more mustard)
Beans 2.5 (ranch style like baked beans)
Tea 3.0 (Caroline boy says need sweet tea, he is right.)
Frito Pie 3.75

Albuquerque Rudy's (On Carlisle)

In New Mexico it can be hard to find good Texas Style BBQ so when you find a place then you visit it alot. Rudy's is one of those places that fills the Texas BBQ niche.




The Carlisle Rudy's is one of our (DB) favorite Rudy's. We usually make at least one stop here when we visit ABQ or if we are closer we stop at the other Rudy's over on Coors which is not much different than the Carlisle location.

This Rudy's uses Live Oak for its cooking as the website claims, "Our pits are 100% wood fired with oak, a slower burning wood as opposed to mesquite." We were doubtful that Live Oak could be had in NM but upon one of our visits they had the back gate open while wood was being delivered and sure enough it was Live Oak.

As a family we all enjoy Rudy's. Our usual order is sausage, brisket, tater salad, beans, and taters. We cannot remember a time at the Carlisle Rudy's that the food was not good. Though our usual order is our favorite there are several other meats available. They serve ribs, chicken, and pork.

This Rudy's serves one our favorite smoked sausages which is hard to beat unless you head to Texas where there is so much more selections. It is definitely NOT a "store bought" style sausage. The brisket is very good with a nice flavor, moist, and tender. Rudy's uses a rub on their brisket and no sauce. Our rule of thumb is that if you need sauce on your brisket then you may be in trouble already. This Rudy's brisket definitely stands on its own without sauce.

Also it hard to say you have a BBQ shack unless you have good ice tea especially sweet tea and this Rudys definitely has that which comes in Rudy's trade mark large plastic cups.

Rudy's tater salad is just how we like it. It is a mustard salad in the traditional style from Texas. One of us (DB) has to add just a tad more mustard since he is used to a bit more mustard. Their beans are different but very good. Pinto beans boiled with some meat for seasoning and a touch of spice like jalapeno to give it a nice flavor.

If you like boiled taters (as E.M. does) then you are in luck. Rudy's uses red new potatoes that are very nice and covers them in melted butter if you ask for it.

Here is the general Rudy's Menu.

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Rating:
Brisket 3.75 (tender, a little dry, nice smoked/rub flavor)
Sausage 4.00 (yum, definitely not store bought) ****
Tater Salad 3.5 (good, needs a tad more mustard)
Beans 4.0 (nice, good with fresh onion and bread)****
Taters 4.0 (delicious even without extra butter)****
Sweet Tea 4.5 (Hits the spot, nice large plastic cups)****

Lubbock Rudy's

Well, this has been a longtime coming since I (DB) setup and started this blog a couple years ago but never posted anything to it even after eating at many BBQ places. So it is appropriate I start with a Rudy's since they are the prime source of Texas style BBQ in NM for me. Though this one is in Lubbock.

It is part of my tradition to stop at BBQ while going to and from Texas. In Lubbock I almost always stop at Rudy's too. This trip to the Utopia Shoot down in Utopia, Texas was no different.

I pulled into Rudy's parking lot here near the corner of Slide and the south Loop. As always there is a tempting Free Birds right next to Rudy's but so far it has not pulled me away from Rudy's. The Lubbock Rudy's is of the same style of most of the Rudy's I have visited, especially the ABQ ones, with a large dining area that is long tables with folding chairs with the look of the inside of a nice shed or barn. There some wooden picnic like benches along the outside with large windows that can be raised during the appropriate time of the year. The usual long bin of iced down drinks and the usual butcher/meat market like style of serving you the meat.

Though the brisket is pretty good at Rudy's I am watching my girlish figure and went with a half link of sausage, two slices of bread, a little cup of mustard tater salad, a cup of beans, and a sweet cup of ice tea.

This Rudy's has been a hit and miss for me over the years with their sausage changing brands or style and I am less pleased at times with some of the sausage. But this time the sausage was up to snuff and I really enjoyed it. Eating it plain is good in itself but I like to eat it between a halved piece of bread with mustard and a dab of the Rudy's Sause. It is down right delicious.

The tater salad is good but I always feel it needs a tad more mustard so I squirt some into it and mix it all us. The beans are very good and I like to cut up some onions and put it into it. The sweet tea is always good and I love the big Rudy's cups they sell it to you in.

All and this Rudy's visit in Lubbock was better than I expected. More like the ones in ABQ that I favor.

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Rating:
Sausage 3.75 (definitely not store bought, sometimes hit and miss)
Tater Salad 3.5 (nice, might need a tad more mustard)
Beans 4.0 (good, nice with onions and bread)****
Sweet Tea 4.0 (hits the spot, though they experiment with different brands of tea)****