slow cooked
Unique Austin barbecue joint makes USA Today's first 'Restaurants of the Year' list
Mum Foods Smokehouse And Delicatessen made USA Today's national list.
Another national publication has thrown its hat into the ring of food lists with USA Today's inaugural Restaurants of the Year list — there are 47 selections for 2024. One Austin restaurant, Mum Foods Smokehouse and Delicatessen, made the list. It is the only inclusion from Texas.
Mum Foods is a great representative for Austin food culture, having picked up its first loyal customers at farmers markets and continued slowly building heat ever since. It now resides in a brick-and-mortar shop and receives recognition from around the country, including a nomination in this year's James Beard Awards.
This smokehouse and deli is mostly devoted to barbecue, but it's famous for its juicy pastrami — something Austinites almost never see on menus. And the lunch tray dining is basically as casual as a restaurant can get.
The publication uses an interesting system for introducing its selections. Rather than assigning a few internal editors to write blurbs, it borrows them from other local publications. Mum Foods' entry props up an analysis by the locally famous food critic Matthew Odam at the Austin American-Statesman.
"The pastrami is popular, but the coriander-buzzed corned beef is my favorite," Odam writes in part of his longer review. "It’s steamed to a tender finish but doesn’t hit the smoker, giving it a purer, beefy, deli meat taste. Stacked high, draped with Swiss cheese and served on a slightly malty and sweet house-made sourdough rye, it makes for the perfect sandwich."
USA Today also commissioned a mostly wordless video of workers slicing meats, with a few shots from around the space. Interestingly, pitmaster Travis Crawfords lent a hyper-specific regional identifier to describe the cooking style: "traditional North-Central Texas barbecue."
In addition to being the only Texas restaurant, Mum Foods was the only Western barbecue restaurant on the list. Technically, it shares the overall barbecue category with Nami, in Louisville, Kentucky — but this style is distinctly Korean.
For more recommendations on national restaurants, check out the list at usatoday.com. For more Austin recommendations selected by local chefs, browse the 2024 nominees of CultureMap's own Tastemaker Awards.
And that's what an Asian-inspired pizza looks like.Photo courtesy of Sterrato Italian Specialties