Pits Happen: Pit Stop Across Texas

Steve just returned from Texas and brought us a gift. A poster with a montage of BBQ pit stops signs from all across Texas. The website is Pits Happen and has an image of the poster as seen here. The website is pretty cool check it out.

Thx Steve!

Junction: Cooper's BBQ

On our wading trip on the head of the Llano river, we headed over to Junction (about eighteen minutes away) to try Cooper's BBQ. We were hungry from wading the river in warm sun and wind.

Interestingly enough we unsure what the JR's Restaurant sign above the green roof building is about unless it is left over from the restaurant before Coopers. The building is a nice limestone rocked building consistent with the Texas Hill Country style. The wood burning pits are at the back where it appeared to be mesquite and maybe liveoak but we did not stop to inspect the wood this time. But it was wood and the meat is smoked and cook by fire!

When you enter Coopers you are served cafeteria style with plenty to choose from meat. Brisket, sausage, chicken, cabrito (kid goat), and ribs. They serve by the pound, plate, or sandwich. The plate comes with two meats and two sides. The sides where beans, tater salad, or cole slaw.

We order one plate with sausage and brisket along with beans and tater salad. And a half pound of goat which was mostly bone but plenty of meat to pull of for our needs. We had enough food for the three of us with our main intent on reviewing the BBQ. None of the meats needed sauce so we cannot rate the sauce....this is a good thing.

The brisket was moist and tender and had a nice rubbed flavor on the outside but the inside did not have a lot of flavor. It was a nice brisket but nothing to get carried away with around here.

The sausage was definitely not store bought and had a nice flavor. Definitely a meat we would return for seconds. But M.E. and D.B. both think Rudy's sausage is better.

The goat was excellent. Moist, tender, and had a nice flavor inside and out. All three of us (M.E., ALB, and D.B.) really enjoyed the goat and rate it the best of the three meats we tried.

The sides were good. The beans were pinto beans with a bit of black pepper in them. All of us like the beans and would get them again. Very nice. The tater salad was good for what it is. It was more of a mayonnaise tater salad with a hint of mustard. But even so it was a nice tater salad that would be ordered again. Gwen would enjoy the salad a lot.

We did not try the ice-tea since they had Big Red and RC at the fountains.

Overall we would eat here again and found the BBQ to be good. The atmosphere was definitely Texas Hill Country style with plenty of mounted wild animals indicative of a hunters economy. There was a small but nice kids playground outside.

We all enjoyed the food. :)

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Rating:
Goat (cabrito) 4.5 (The best of the best. Tender, moist, sweet.)
Brisket 3.5 (tender, moist, with a nice rubbed flavor on outside with mild to no flavor on inside.)
Sausage 3.5, 4.0 ( okay but definitely not store bought with a nice flavor)
Tater salad 4.0 (More a mayonnaise but very good for what it is)
Beans 4.25 (Larger helpings would be nice)

Would definitley stop there again. Good Texas-style BBQ.

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.

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)****