This past Saturday, my family and I treated my Dad to a little pre-Father's Day family road trip to Lockhart. Thus began our Marathon of Meat, our Convoy of Cow, our Parade of Pork, our... okay okay, I'll stop
Living not too far away in San Antonio, it was our first trip to Lockhart, so we decided if we were gonna do this thing right, we'd have to hit all of the big three: Kreuz, Black's, and Smitty's. Here's my impressions of each:
KREUZ: This was the first place we stopped. Knowing we had a lot of eating ahead of us, we tried to pace ourselves a little. So among the five of us, we shared, 1/2 lb of brisket, 1/2 lb of pork ribs, 1/2 lb of prime rib, one link of regular sausage, and one link of jalapeno sausage.
We seemed to agree that the brisket was pretty good, though a little on the dry side. It had a nice smoke ring, and good flavor, but we all agreed it should have been more moist. The pork ribs...WOW..the pork ribs. I am not normally a huge fan of ribs, but these were by far the best ribs I have ever eaten in my life. Hand me a big plate of those, and I will be a happy man. The prime rib was quite tasty and very juicy. The regular sausage was quite flavorful. The casing had a nice snap when you bit into it, which I liked. Nice flavor, nicely packed filling. Some thought it was a little on the dry side, but I thought it was quite good. The jalapeno sausage was better, though. It was jalapeno and cheddar sausage, I believe, and every time you bit it, the warm gooey cheese flavor would ooze out. Very tasty. Overall, we loved this place. Great place to start our little BBQ pilgrimage. We will definitely be back here. (And soon, if I have any say in things
)
BLACK'S: Our second stop, we arrived here to find a practically empty restaurant, just one other couple there. Here we sampled 1/4 lb of brisket, 1/4 lb of pork ribs, a link of regular sausage, 1/4 of a chicken, and one 1/4 lb turkey (along with a few non-meat things like cornbread, potato salad, and peach cobbler, but back to the good stuff).
The brisket here was only passable. Not good, but not bad. Very little smoke ring evident, and the flavor and moistness were kind of lacking. The ribs were terrible. The sausage was practically inedible. They were too loosely packed, leaving a soft wrinkly casing. They were so incredibly greasy that any attempt to cut or bite them left a nasty trail of grease in its wake. Just disgusting. The chicken was juicy and pretty flavorful, and the turkey was boring and dry. We were not terribly fond of either. After all, Texas BBQ is about beef, not birds, darnit.
FWIW, the sides were very weak as well. And unlike Kreuz and Smitty's, Black's offers BBQ sauce. Says something about the quality (or lack thereof) of their meat if you ask me, but that's just my two cents. I really doubt we'll be back here next trip to Lockhart.
SMITTY'S: Our final stop. By this point, they were getting pretty full, but my appetite and I were ready to pick up the slack
. Here we ordered 1/2 lb of brisket, 1/4 lb of ribs, and one regular sausage (we wanted prime rib as well, but they'd run out by then
).
Wow, this was some wonderful brisket. Easily the best of the bunch, in my opinion. Soooo juicy. Great flavor. Yep, this is the life. The ribs here were passable. Definitely way better than Black's ribs, but nowhere near the incredible ribs we'd had earlier at Kreuz. The sausage was pretty good. Not a grease festival like Black's, but still a little more loosely packed casing than I prefer, and nowhere near as flavorful as the sausages at Kreuz. Finally, we capped the day off with a few nice cones of Blue Bell ice cream, at a whopping $1 each. Nice way to end a nice day of eating. We'll definitely be back here again as well.
Overall, definitely a great trip. We had some great BBQ, and it was a nice day to spend together as a family. Kreuz became our immediate family favorite. Black's was not up to our expectations, but hey, at least we got to try it. And Smitty's left us with another fine option for BBQ when we go back to Lockhart.
We're still hoping to try some other BBQ places around Texas as well. City Market in Luling, Southside Market in Elgin, Salt Lick, Cooper's, etc. Maybe a visit back to east Texas where I was born, to see what we can find up there. Who knows. (Man that reminds me, we still miss that place in Caldwell, TX on the highway that runs through that little town. A little old-timey grocery store that sold some darn good 'cue, it was closed the last time we drove through there. Ah, memories).
So much BBQ, so little time...
Edited by tupac17616, 24 June 2005 - 06:30 AM.
). We went to Lockhart for lunch one day. It's a short easy ride from Austin.
