On The Road Again

Barbecue Odyssey: Six barbecue road trips to take this summer

Prause Meat Market
R&G Bar-b-que
JMueller Barbeque
Franklin Barbecue
Photo courtesy of Franklin Barbecue

Road trips are an intrinsic part of the American experience. Ever since the creation of the Model T, people have packed up their vehicles, filled up the gas tanks and rolled down the windows to experience the wonders and delights of the open road ahead. In the past five years, Texans have become quite serious about integrating delicious barbecue stops along the way to their respective destinations.

Barbecue road trips are a popular way for people to escape the chaos of city life for a day without having to pack a bag; most Central Texas trips can be completed over the course of a morning and afternoon. With so many restaurants and meat markets to choose from for a meat-centric odyssey, we enlisted the expertise of Daniel Vaughn, the BBQ Snob, to help us compile six themed barbecue road trips for Austinites to set out on this summer.

The Historic Tour (Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, The Taylor Cafe in Taylor, The Old Coupland Inn in Coupland and the Cele Store in Cele)

Vaughn says: Louie Mueller in Taylor is one of the older big barbecue joints that's still around. The restaurant is in its original building and remains run by the family. Louie Mueller is all about great brisket, and I love their beef ribs.

When you're done with Louie Mueller, you have to go to Taylor Cafe right down the street. Vencil Mare, the owner, is like the Godfather of Central Texas barbecue. Their homemade sausages are great. [Vencil] opened the place in 1948, and the restaurant isn't a whole lot different now than it was then, which is a good thing. It is like a little time capsule for barbecue.

The Coupland Inn actually just reopened recently. The town of Coupland itself, though, is very historic. Just ten miles west of Coupland is equally historic Cele, TX. The Cele Store building was built in the late 1800s. The operation or the barbecue joint itself has changed hands a number of times, but they're still putting out good barbecue from this really old pit. The building is in the middle of nowhere, which makes it unique, but it's always packed.

Saturday Morning Tour (Snow's BBQ in Lexington, Sons of Hermann Hall in Deanville and Southside Market in Elgin)

Vaughn says: You can only go to Snow's and Sons of Hermann Hall on Saturday morning. That's rather convenient though, because Snow's opens at 8 a.m., and Sons of Hermann Hall in Deanville, which is about 30 minutes away, opens at 10 a.m. You can roll into Snow's around 8:30 a.m., spend an hour there and then head your way over to Deanville.

I included Sons of Hermann Hall because it's a special place to go. I happened upon it through a friend of mine and a good Central Texas guide. There is this old Czech guy who sits out in front of Sons of Hermann Hall every Saturday and cooks up pork steaks, pork ribs, sausage and chicken on an open pit. There is no brisket or beef at all, but it's incredible barbecue and it was something I had never even heard about. It was a stunning find. It reminded me of what Snow's was before Texas Monthly gave them the number one ranking of barbecue in the state.

Southside Market is the oldest barbecue joint in Texas. They opened in 1885, and they also open their doors pretty early, too. On your way back to Austin, it's the perfect place to stop in.

Any Morning Barbecue Tour (City Meat Market in Giddings, Prause Meat Market in La Grange and Zimmerhanzel's in Smithville)

Vaughn says: I love these places because they epitomize the meat-market mentality of Central Texas barbecue, meaning they open up before the lunch crowd. City Meat Market opens at 7 a.m., Prause Meat Market in La Grange opens up at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. and Zimmerhanzel's opens at 9 a.m.

These are really great places that have kept that old meat-market mentality going. Prause is probably the biggest of all the meat markets; it truly serves the community and isn't just kept up there as an homage to the past. The barbecue is obviously the side business.

City Meat Market has a pretty pitiful looking meat counter with the barbecue in the back, so it's easy to tell that the barbecue is really what is going on there. Zimmerhanzel's doesn't have a meat market, but right next door is a slaughter house that I happened to tour.

Hill Country Tour (Cooper's in Llano, Opie's Barbecue in Spicewood and The Salt Lick in Driftwood)

Vaughn says: This is the popular one that most everybody has probably done. These are the places you're going to hit when you go west of Austin. If you've never gone on a Texas road trip for barbecue, this would be one of the coolest ones to do. You're getting away from the city and going into the Hill Country, which is always nice.

Cooper's and Opie's are the obvious joints to visit. The beef ribs and the big chop at Cooper's are two of my favorites dishes to get. These two restaurants serve really great barbecue, and if you are out that way, you might as well finish things off at The Salt Lick. That way you'll get your great barbecue early in the day, and you'll get your great atmosphere later at The Salt Lick.

I'm not one that thinks that The Salt Lick is the best in the state or anything, but they certainly create a great experience.

The Austin Tour (Franklin Barbecue, JMueller BBQ and Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew)

Vaughn says: These three are the reason why the Austin barbecue scene is on the national map. Without these three places, I don't think anyone could make a claim that Austin has great barbecue.

Whenever people tell me they are going to be in Austin for a little bit and want to know where to drive in order to get great barbecue, I tell them to stay in Austin. Between JMueller BBQ and Franklin barbecue, there isn't anything much better in the state.

The brisket that I've had at either of those is better than most brisket I've ever gotten in Lockhart of Luling.

The All Out Tour (City Market in Luling, R&G Bar-B-Que in McMahan, All four in Lockhart and Wilhite's in Creedmoor)

Vaughn says: Most of the people are going to have heard of Lockhart and Luling barbecue. When people ask me if I had to pick one place to eat in Lockhart or Luling which would it be, my answer is always I would never pick just one. You're there already, so just go sample a couple of places to compare them.

I like to go to Kreuz Market and get the jalapeño cheese sausage and the pork chop. At Black's Barbecue, it's all about the beef ribs and the brisket. Smitty's Market is about the pork ribs and the sausage. Chilshom Trail Bar-B-Que has great sausage. And if you're going to be in Lockhart, you might as well go to Luling because it's only fifteen minutes away.

These six trips ought to be enough to keep your stomach and your summer schedule full for quite a while.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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