After hearing about Franklin’s Barbecue for a few years now I finally managed to sack the fuck up and roll down there. Nevermind seeing some friends go on a fat kid bbq tour of austin that really made me jealous but yeah it was time to man up. If you don’t know Aaron Franklin is one of the dudes really doing brisket proper, and I mean proper as fuck this dude’s brisket does not play. I’ve had a grip of brisket in my life, hell I grew up in Texas you couldn’t get away from it if you tried. Bad brisket sucks, it’s a motherfucker to chew and I hate it. Good brisket is nice, amazing brisket is harder to get but so worth it.
I hate lines but I didn’t want to chance them being sold out. If you show up at Franklin’s at 1 in the afternoon they probably won’t be serving. Dude sells out so buck the fuck up and get in line. They open at 11am Tues – Sun and it was the Friday of funfunfunfest. I’d seen some bands the night before but hadn’t gotten too crunk on beers so I got up early and manned up. I was in line at 9:30 am, this is not the time of day that I like to be outside but I did it because bbq is more important than me being around the daywalkers. A friend was gonna roll but he was up til 4am so I was rolling dolo.
There were about 25 people in front of me when I got there so I didn’t feel too bad. Figured fuck it, just stand here and listen to rap music and espn to pass the time. Well at about 10:45 the line was starting to hit the end of the parking lot so I instagrammed that bullshit. This was also when some one came out to let us know it would be about another 40 minutes or so. That’s when I said fuck time to start drinking beers. Dipped over the CVS across the street and swooped a six. I probably should have informed the people in line with me but I’m not concerned about them and I’ll get my spot back in line regardless, I don’t play doggie.
Anyways I got back in line and got to cracking beers by myself. Just about before noon they finally opened the doors and the line started moving inside. Half hour later I was at the counter and realized I had only 37 dollars in cash on me. Fuck, should have planned ahead. That’s when I saw a girl pay with a card so I made the decision to go in on this fucking bbq.
I ordered a combo plate of ribs and sausage, a pulled pork sandwich, 1lb of brisket (fatty, fuck lean cuts), 1lb of bbq turkey, sides were potato salad and beans. Oh and two coozies and a beer. I managed to somehow bring this meat mountain to a table in one hand as I still had a 6pack I was holding that I was working through. Sat down with a pile of paper towels and got to fucking work.
Buried underneath the ribs was a nice juicy piece of brisket so that was a little surprise of awesome. I ate that whole plate with no sauce it was just so fucking tender and moist that it wasn’t worth my time to really go playing around with some sauces. Honestly until I started going face first into that pulled pork sandwich did I even think about because I wanted more vinegar in it. Really that sandwich was the only miss for me. I’m not a fan of mayonnaise coleslaws, fuck that shit. I’d rather have it clean and taste pork juice and vinegar with a touch of tomato stuff in it. Also I would have liked more bark in the pork too but that’s just nitpicking really.
What I was here for was the brisket anyways and that did not disappoint. This shit would fall apart every time I went to pick up a slice, it was so dope. No dryness, no gristly chewathons, just straight smokey tender beef awesomeness that wasn’t doing too much, just shining the way central Texas brisket should. Outside of some memories of brisket as a kid that are more based on nostalgia than flavor this may have been the best I’d had. Totally worth getting up and standing in line for all the bullshit.
Oh man I almost forgot about the turkey, that was the look too. So many times I’ve had to eat some fucked up ass dry bird by some over enthusiastic circle prayer cook that I just do not fuck with it unless it’s some Yucatan steez. This though was proper, tender, juicy and flavorful.
As for the sauces I did end up tasting those a day later with my left overs that were still knocking pictures off da wall. The coffee joint I’d heard about and some think it might be weird but it reminded me of a coffee stout, smokey with out that burnt flavor that fucks up stouts. It was nice, I kept going back to the tangy joint as I prefer some tang and some spice. It wasn’t hot enough for me but that wasn’t something a little hot sauce couldn’t fix.
Anyways yeah that’s my trip to this spot, dudes serving some block beaters up in austin, you’re advised to fuck with it. Go early and stand there with the rest of the motherfuckers, it’s worth the wait.
I was in Texas last weekend so I stood in line for this.