chefrodrigo

Nick Get there early. It was a Wednesday night and we arrived at about 7:30 and they were turning people away. Rodney

I thought it was particularly funny that the rude guy was lecturing the waiter on what a good business person would do, as in giving him free drinks, in the middle of a packed restaurant with a constant flow of new customers. It seems Brian might have some business sense to me. I have to say it was hands down the best pizza I have ever eaten. The crust was crunchy, chewy, blistered, thin, and beautiful. Absolutely a masterpiece. Rodney

I think its mostly the cost of the food here. You can buy brisket and ribs at any supermarket in Texas for half of what they cost wholesale here. If any of you want to go to a big bbq cookoff this month there is one in Lincoln City on the 17th and 18th at the Chinook Winds Casino. That will be the only one that Kyle and I will enter this year. It looks like it should be a good time. Rodney

I'll go along with Jaymes. The building that houses Smitty's is a must visit. Get a pork chop at Smitty's and then down to Blacks for brisket. Blacks has a much smokier brisket than Smitty's but I found no faults at either place just different styles of cooking. For coffee I like Flipnotics over on Barton Springs just off Lamar. Ruta Maya is also good but I like the patio at Flipnotics. Also with Jaymes on Fonda San Miguel for brunch. I haven't been there since Roberto Santibanez left but I'm sure its still a fantastic experience. Rodney

I found Robbs quote. pg 28 "Some of the best smoked meat in the Lone Star state is cooked at 600F". He doesn't mention Smitty's or Kreuz but I believe that is whom he is referring to. Rodney

Have you seen there pit? I don't think I would describe it as typical. If I remember right in Robb W's book he said their pits run closer to 600F. I'll have to look that up again. We can get our offset up to 400F pretty easy, not that we try to, and Smitty's fire is a lot bigger than ours. Rodney

I agree with all the above advice. I'd just like to throw in that John Fullilove of Smitty's in Lockhart told us that he cooked his brisket in about 4.5 hours and he keeps the temperature high. He didn't define high but I've heard their pits run around 500F. Its contrary to everything I've heard about cooking brisket but that was the finest meat we had on our 2 week trip of eating bbq everyday. I also think they only use the fat end of the brisket. If I remember right there is not a choice of lean at Smitty's. Rodney

spinalis dorsi?

You could ask the guy where he picked them. I was told you only have to worry about bugs from the ones picked at the lower elevations. If they were picked closer to the snow line the bugs won't be up that high. The omellete is pure morel pleasure. You only need handfulls of butter to help it out. I really want the foie stuffed morel though. Rodney

My 2 favorites are Belle Pente and Bergstrom. They are both pretty small but if you are in town on memorial day I believe they will be open. I've never visited the vineyard but Drouhin makes very fine pinot. You can also go by Oregon wines on Broadway if you want to taste some samples before heading out to the valley Rodney

I was talking to one of the mushroom guys at the market on Saturday. He said this is one of the best morel seasons he has seen and the boletus this year should be outstanding. He thinks they will show up in the next few weeks. It was the older guy who sells potatoes and mushrooms in the SE corner. George, the wine jelly guy, has been giving me some morels each week that he didn't feel like cleaning. I've been having some monstrous morel omelletes. Rodney

That was always a real treat when I lived in NYC. We used to go there after work and have bone marrow/oxtail marmelade in the wee hours. They had a great steak tartare also. Always a good time. Rodney

Maybe a big "jars" of freshly made ice tea and lemonade like you see aguas frescas on carts in Mexico. I bet that itself would bring in customers and would help the profits, especially as summer heats up. Toss some fat on the wood, too, and get some yummy smelling smoke rolling out into the crowd. Maybe take some pictures of the food and print them out on 11x17 in full coor at Kinko's and put them on cardboard stands to entice people. Not sure. I recognize that it's a pain because they have limits that some others don't. But they need to make the booth look more active. I used to go to guerilla marketing schools for political campaigning and we learned all kinds of tricks to get people to stop at booths. Basically, all of them involve actively or passively intercepting potential customers. Some things are as subtle as putting your booth out farther than the others so that people have to walk around it. Some might be gimmicky, the equivalent of the having people place stamps on a piece of paper to send in their free Columbia House selections. Maybe you get all those dog owners to your table by offering free bones with orders. Etc. I'm just brainstorming. One thing they definitely need is signage. I just want you folks to know that we realize how bare we were. We're working on it. eem is giving me some lessons right now. Hopefully next week will be a little better. All of our friends made fun of us that day And Trillium, my friend Ramona at the booth next door has promised me some plastic white bread and plastic pickles. Rodney

Step one: Buy a copy of Robb Walsh's book: Legends of Texas Barbeque Step two: PM Robb and let him know you're coming. We'll get to the rest of the steps after you've accomplished the first two. Good plan. Robb was kind enough to give me some tips for my trip. Rodney

Where did you get it? I think I might need some of that. Rodney

Oak We're central Texans. I hope you get to Portland. That would cause a great feast in the PNW. Rodney

We were at Cha Ba just the other night. We were so close to ordering that catfish and now I wish we had. Great report. I love that place. Rodney

markf I saw your post and wished we had tried it on the day you were there. I've heard they do have on/off days and we definitely caught them on an OFF day. Please do give Smitty's a try. I'd be interested in how you feel about it since you caught Coopers on a good day. Rodney

I don't think there was that much gain on the trip. I put on about 4lbs in 2 weeks. We did decide early on to stay away from the sides and only have the meat. If we could have just stayed away from the beer we probably would have lost some weight. You'll probably recognize the trailer if you drive down Hawthorne its been there for years. Its caddy corner to the Multnomah County building. Rodney

That really sucks. Buckman is my goto place where I know I won't be disappointed and I don't have to break the bank. Rodney

We're starting out about as small as you can. We bought a concession trailer at the corner of SE 6th and Hawthorne. The name of the place is going to be LOW Barbecue. We are also going to be selling at the farmers market downtown on Saturday and that starts May 1st. We hope to have the trailer open for lunch on the following Monday May 3rd. We'll put some updates on the PNW board if anything changes. See You Soon Rodney

We just wanted to sum up the trip and thank everyone for their replies. It has been a lot of fun keeping this thread going. Our favorite place on the trip was Smitty's in Lockhart. They had the all around best meat. A very close second was Luling City Market. We would highly recommend any of the others with the exception of both Coopers(maybe we caught them on an off day). Austin finally has good bbq in the city limits at John Muellers. Apart from the bbq one of the finest meals we had was the chicken fried steak and catfish at the Country Inn in Sommerville. Raynickben you guessed it early. We are opening a bbq takeout spot in Portland. We wanted to come down and taste the best Texas spots because that is the style we will be cooking. The trip really paid off. We ended up getting pointers from several people. We learned a few things and also reinforced some things we already do. Thanks Again, and let us know if you are ever coming to Portland. Rodney/Kyle

We made it back to Smitty's yesterday after picking up eem at the airport. We were happy to see that their meat is just as good later in the day, around 4pm, as it is early. We ordered brisket, sausage, and pork chops. We tried to get some prime rib but they were out. Smitty's Jaymes, we did make it to Blacks right after Smitty's. They make a fine brisket over there. Nice and black on the outside and very smokey inside. Its one of the better briskets we tried on the trip. We both preferred Smitty's but Blacks was a contender for second place. Blacks brisket We kinda overdid it yesterday by starting with a breakfast of brisket tacos at John Muellers. By the end of the day we called mercy and went to Central Market and bought a cart full of fruit. Rodney/Kyle/eem weekend vegetarians

We are coming to the end of our trip now and this will be it until next week. We'll be visiting family thru the weekend and have Monday and Tuesday of next week to eat. This post comes with great difficulty. We were looking so forward to the 2 Coopers. First we went to Mason, one of the top 5 in Texas Monthly, and on the way back Llano. In Mason we ordered brisket, pork ribs, jalapeno sausage, regular sausage, and beef ribs. The brisket was dry, dry, dry, the pork ribs were tough, the regular sausage was average, the jalapeno sausage was good but nowhere close to Muellers, and the beef ribs were the only winner of the day. We were so confused after that meal we headed to Llano hoping for something better. We had read the sirloin and pork chops were the highlights so we ordered that since we had just eaten 30 minutes before. What to say?? We watched them pull both meats out of the smoker. The pork chop looked impressive but lacked any smoke flavor. The sirloin was a nice medium rare but tough as a boot. We have tried to refrain from negative posts for the whole trip but this was so disappointing we had to tell the truth. The meat sure made a pretty picture though This boggles the mind. Why would any respectable bbq establishment have this on every table? Eem is arriving tomorrow and we are going back to Smitty's in Lockhart to make up for the ordeal we went through today. We'll let you know if its as good as the first time. Rodney/Kyle

I still promise. Oh how I love Mexican wheat gluten.