Is Barbecue Station still at Harry Wurzbach and 410? Was great years ago when we lived there. It was a Texaco station when I was growing up.IIRC
You are right on Kreuz’s Market in Lockhart. it is good.
Still there, still popular.
I used to take my dog on brisket runs to Lockhart - get in the truck, put Mackie (our Scottish Terrier) in the back seat… and, oh, how she loved that truck… and drive to Lockhart or Austin or elsewhere just to get brisket, sitting in the bed sharing our meal, and then driving back, a 90 mile road trip with beef in the middle, just me and my dog.
Beautiful story, JohnT, and I believe the right person could turn that into a song or something along those lines. I already have some neat mental images from just your description!
Thanks! Like I said, she loved that truck.
This thread inspired me to go look at the online reviews of Parker’s in Wilson, NC, probably one of the most famous eastern NC barbecue joints*. They get mostly four and five star reviews, but it’s amusing to see the occasional one star reviews from people obviously from out of state and have no idea what eastern NC BBQ is supposed to be like complaining that their sandwich didn’t come with barbecue sauce. Eastern NC BBQ isn’t supposed to have barbecue sauce, apart from seasoned vinegar!
*And probably the one the article should have picked if they were going to go with the obvious one usually picked by food critics.
Sally Jo’s is long gone; it’s a T-Mobile store now, I think.
Dickey’s is abhorrent; it’s like if someone set out to make something that was barely within the rules of being called barbecue, without actually being anywhere close to the real thing. It’s not smoky, it’s often not particularly tender, and it’s pretty bland on top of that.
Dickey’s, Grady’s, freakin’ Bill Miller… ugh. These are the three worst offenders here in San Antonio. At least County Line (mentioned above) is good - it’s just touristy overpriced.
Yes, Texas has bad BBQ, probably more so than most states.
As far as I can tell, Dickey’s is like the McDonald’s of barbecue. Make a cheap, generic, barely passable product that can claim to be called barbecue, sell franchises all over the country, profit!
We had a Dicky’s franchise in my neck of the woods as well, although they appear to have closed now. For a while I think they were the only barbecue place in town if I didn’t want to travel all the way to Sacramento proper.
I live in (near) St Louis…most locals would say I should say Pappy’s it is good but not the best I ever have eaten.
I lived in Tulsa in the mid '80’s…a friend told me about Slick’s BBQ outside of Muskogee OK. Slick was opened when he wanted to be opened, often closing to go fishing or whatnot. It took us three tries but I finally tasted nirvana! There was not pretense at Slick,s…not plates, Just plastic cafeteria trays covered in deli paper and the best ribs on earth. RIP Slick (aka Alonzo “Slick” Smith)
I felt the urge to make the sign of the cross at that last sentence. 
As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, northern California seems to be something of a barbecue desert. But the Mexican food here is amazing!
If you ever get the urge, Franklin’s does preorders where you go to a trailer in the back, just a couple minutes wait while they cut your order.
I’ve been in the Asheville area for 10 years and I just went to 12 Bones for the first time two weeks ago. Color me unimpressed. Then again, I did spend the decade before I moved here in Eastern NC where I learned what BBQ is supposed to be.
I’ve not been to Okie Dokie’s but I can attest that the best ENC-style BBQ in Asheville is at Luella’s.
And on that note, a Sacramento barbecue resturant appeared on Gordon Ramsey’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back a few years ago. They almost immediately reverted back to their old menu after Ramsey left, and are now closed.
Yeah, we went to that place two times. Once to give it a try just after they first opened, and the second time to give them another chance, but it only confirmed the first experience. Horrible.
I don’t understand why BBQ places in our area have such a hard time surviving. Is it that a lot of people are good at backyard BBQ themselves and don’t feel it’s worth it to go out for that food? Are food truck operators in the BBQ space better and more mobile?
They don’t seem to always have a long lifespan around here either; I think it’s mostly that you get people who can successfully barbecue in their backyards or at a small scale catering level, and then try and scale it up, but fail because they don’t actually know how to run a business, and in particular a barbecue one.
I imagine that one particular challenge of running a barbecue joint is knowing how much of each sort of meat to start cooking in advance, since there’s a significant cook time.
And every time you miss that mark, you either leave money on the table, or spent money you can’t get back. The ideal situation would be to have demand such that you can fill ALL your cookers completely and then sell everything you cooked. At that point, it’s a question of expanding the size/number of your cookers. But in most other situations, it’s a question of “do I cook 13 or 15 briskets today?” and with each costing upwards of 30 or more dollars, you’re looking at a non-trivial question for small business with very thin margins.
The rib truck we patronize used to run out on weekend nights. They urge you to call/order ahead, so I started doing that. I call at noon for a full rack, baked beans, and coleslaw for a 6:30 pickup. At 6:30 I arrive and there are 12 people walking around waiting for their just-placed orders. The barbq lady sees me and loudly says, “OK KAYAKER, YOU ORDERED AHEAD I HAVE YOUR RIBS READY”, hoping more people follow my lead.
Thanks for the information. I’ll definitely give those a try. I’m in Seabrook from time to time, and Dickinson isn’t that far away—despite the traffic mess—when we’re talking good 'que.
Dickinson Barbecue (closer to 45 than AJ’s) wasn’t atrocious, but it wasn’t awesome either.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Salt Lick in Driftwood, TX yet. No less an authority than Bobby Flay has declared it the best barbecue he’s ever eaten. Having been there multiple times myself, I agree with him.