35
to outside. It was excellent!
On to Fort Worth to meet up with our fellow traveller – Pete. We had booked another Air B n B and were loving the format – it was much more like living there that being tourists and Uber made it all easy to do. Our first night the SCA had invited all the international teams and judges to party in a brewery – it was great to meet friends new and old.
The next day saw us joining an organised tour of Fort Worth and surroundings. Of course, no tour would be complete without a bit of BBQ – 3 BBQ places were included in addition to the Fort Worth Water Gardens, The Stockyards to see the cattle drive and a couple of margarita stops. Billy “All my Exes Live in Texas” Delp was our roguish raconteur – stopping the traffic for our pictures, sharing the history and introducing us to pit masters as we toured the city. Most excellent.
And so to the SCA World Championships! 180 teams from all around the World competing for a $10,000 first prize! Ty and Georgina were competing, ably supported by Pete. They had managed to borrow a gazebo, grill and equipment from a local team so set up to cook in the qualifier on Saturday. Competition was fierce – I had managed to secure a place judging some of the best completion steaks in the world! The ProQ guys didn’t qualify for the finals on day two but went on to cook in another open round running in parallel. It was an awesome event!
Our next target was Austin – we couldn’t come to Texas without getting to Franklins. First stop was Red Rock Dounts for their world famous donut the size of your head. Then on too a shooting range where we were handed a Kalashnikov, a Glock and a couple of boxes of ammunition. It was incredibly easy to arm ourselves and let off some rounds with little control or instruction. We had read about a restaurant called Lomo in Austin – collaboration between Aaron Franklin and Chef Tyson Cole of Uchi. After a week of grilled and smoky meat some delicious meat fused with sharp and spikey Asian flavours was just what we needed!
The next morning saw us up at 6. Our Air BnB was just 200 yards from Franklins so it was an easy walk with our chairs and coolers of cold beer to wait in line for them to open at 1100. We had heard they often sell out by 2 and the queue starched right across the parking lot by mid morning.
You need to pre order so make sure you have thought about what you want – a helpful waiter passed along the line and took our order, helping with our choices. We were quickly at counter ordering wet and dry brisket, ribs, sausage and sides. It was sublime! No, better than that. People will tell you they have the best brisket here and as we travelled towards Austin we really couldn’t believe Franklins could top the ones we tried. But it did!
Our last day Pete and I headed to Valentina’s, a Tex Mex BBQ place in a food truck on eth outskirts of Austin for one last hurrah! We had heard that this si where Aaron Franklin goes for Brisket! It was so good!
In 10 days, we tasted amazing BBQ at 11 spots – some big, many famous, some small family run places and attended the SCA World Championships for 2 days. Fabulous trip!
Kreuz – Lockhart
Blacks – Lockhart
Smitty’s – Lockhart
City Market – Luling
Paynes BBQ Shack
Angelos – Fort Worth
Off the Bone – Fort Worth
Smokeys BBQ – Fort Worth
Loro Asian BBQ – Austin
Franklins – Austin
Valentina’s Tex Mex – Austin
Plus a few chicken fried steaks and random taco’s ;)
One last tip, there is a chain of service stations called Buckey’s on the Interstates. Reputed to have the cleanest rest rooms in Texas and selling everything from cold craft beer through brisket sandwiches, BBQ’s, lodge pans and clothing it became our lifeline on the road – one of the few places we were able to source much needed fresh fruit and vegetables.