While I've not eaten at Franklins due to time requirements when I've been in Austin, I have made the short trek to Lockhart, Tx and had the best Bar B Que experience of my life at Smitty's. Post Oak smoked burnt ends were like buttery ambrosia of the gods. (I live in Fort Worth, have eaten at Rudy's, Blacks, Saltlick, etc.)
The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
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Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Salt Lick and Franklin have fundamentally different approaches to brisket. Totally cool if you don't have a preference, but it's sort of like saying programming language X is no different than language Y. Franklin dudes have been grinding for years and I'm so stoked that they are starting to get national recognition outside of foodies and chefs.
Can you elaborate on their differing approaches to brisket? I've been to Salt Lick in Driftwood - though it's been a while - but not to Franklin.
I'm not an expert, but I've had both (and dozens of others), I smoke my own brisket, and I feel like I have a decent understanding of it. Salt Lick mops their brisket with a mustard based sauce. They smoke their meats indoors over a direct heat, open pit. Franklin uses a "domino rub" of just salt and pepper (for brisket). They're dry smoked (no sauce) in closed, indirect heat, offset smokers (the wood is in a chamber to the side of the grills). Franklin can control the temperatures of his smokers MUCH better than Salt Lick can. You can taste the meat and smoke better on a Franklin brisket. Salt Lick has a lot more sauce flavor though, and the mopping does add moisture but not tenderness. I have a very strong preference to Franklin's. I think his is the best brisket I've ever had, but that being said, it's not so much better that I want to wait in line for 4 hours (It's a guaranteed wait of 4 hours whether you show up at 7AM or 10AM, but show up after 1, and they're sold out) more than once a year or so.
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#13Yeah, I waited in line for 2 hours one day to taste the holy Franklin sacrament - lo and behold, no better than Salt Lick. And as a bonus, no hipsters.
I think you should give Blacks a go. Lockhart isn't too far of a drive.
Black's opened a second location in Austin on Guadalupe near the University of Texas. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm curious.
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate on their differing approaches to brisket? I've been to Salt Lick in Driftwood - though it's been a while - but not to Franklin.
I'm not an expert, but I've had both (and dozens of others), I smoke my own brisket, and I feel like I have a decent understanding of it. Salt Lick mops their brisket with a mustard based sauce. They smoke their meats indoors over a direct heat, open pit. Franklin uses a "domino rub" of just salt and pepper (for brisket). They're dry smoked (no sauce) in closed, indirect heat, offset smokers (the wood is in a chamber…
Try La Barbecue, smaller queues and now rated higher than Franklins
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#15Ya'll come to KC for real BBQ.
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#16I think the market is right for a national chain that serves real deal Texas [1] barbecue. Rudy's [2] may be that chain but their expansion still seems really slow. I guess it's just tough to grow pitmasters in new places and still keep the quality up. Rudy's quality is nowhere near as good as Franklin (which is about as good as most of the well-regarded South Central Texas places) but Rudy's has figured out the dist…
I've been disappointed by the Rudy's in CO Springs every time I visit. The brisket's good, but it seems like they changed the experience to suit a different expectation of barbecue than I was used to getting in Austin. It's hard to describe my issues. Maybe it was as simple as seeing cobbler available?
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#17Ya'll come to KC for real BBQ.
Oh boy here we go...
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#18I think the market is right for a national chain that serves real deal Texas [1] barbecue. Rudy's [2] may be that chain but their expansion still seems really slow. I guess it's just tough to grow pitmasters in new places and still keep the quality up. Rudy's quality is nowhere near as good as Franklin (which is about as good as most of the well-regarded South Central Texas places) but Rudy's has figured out the dist…
My friend started a BBQ joint[0] a couple years back, I'll try to add some insight from what I learned talking with him (this is all second hand obviously). (1) Quality of meat, (2) quality of the cooker, (3) wood used, (4) temperature/time spent cooking the meat.
For meat quality, as the article calls out, you want to buy from good suppliers. Franklins gets this right, and I believe Rudy's does as well (they have some of their own farms). Side note: with the explosion of BBQ in Austin and Texas area, prices of meat has been going up (probably screws with quality you can get too).
My friend's joint actually bought Franklins old cooker when he started up. He had a new one built later that can hold more meat for a given footprint. The newer cooker also did better at having more even temperatures throughout the cooker (since the woodbox is at one end, making sure the heat circulates properly can be difficult).
Wood quality is interesting and difficult as called out. For the restaurants outside of Austin (ones in Lockhart), they can get a ton of land for cheap and can dry/season all the wood themselves (they have a year+ worth of wood on their lots out there). Places in Austin will need to either have their own land outside the city or source from different places to get the right kind of wood they currently need.
Temperature is what differentiates places like Franklins (and Blue Ox) from places like Rudy's and restaurants. Franklins will be cooking the brisket they serve for 12+ hours. They cook at a lower temperature, as the final goal is 145 degrees, so they run their cooker at something like 180-200 degrees (I forget what they set it to. Also, this is the temp at the point where the meat is, not the woodbox itself). While places like Rudy's will cook at a much higher temperature so they can have meat ready in 4-5 hours of cook time.
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#19Franklins is tasty but what made it the mega-hit it is today is the wait times.
"I waited 2 hours yesterday."
"I waited 3 hours and they ran out of brisket!"
"I got up and in line before dawn and wasn't even 15th in line!"
People talk about the incredible wait times they or a friend have experienced and certainly someone else in the conversation or nearby has a similar story to share. It fuels a Frankslin's must be the absolute best kind of mythos.
Re: The Specialists: Franklin Barbecue
#20I've had Franklin's, but it was a couple hours old by the time I had any. Let's say I don't have memory of it being good or bad. Stiles Switch on the other hand, left a really good impression on me with their brisket.