Some of you may have seen my request in the travel forum for ideas on a Texas BBQ Spring Break. I appreciate all the input and we ended up with a great trip. My 15 year old son and 13 year old daughter had never visited Texas before.
Sunday
We were planning to visit the San Jacinto Battleground on Sunday. On our drive through the oil refineries we were stopped and told that the road was impassable due to a recent fire. We quickly decided to visit the Space Center instead and rerouted ourselves. Rather than eating crappy cafeteria food at lunch, we found the closest BBQ restaurant – Lukas Barbecue and Steakhouse. This one wasn’t a scheduled stop but not bad BBQ. I had some very good pork ribs and my son loved the brisket sandwich. He was a huge fan of the sauce.
The Johnson Space Center was great. We went on both tram tours and saw some very historic landmarks. It was a full day for us as I eat this kind of thing up.
For dinner we went to Killen’s. The line was fairly short when we got there. This was the only place I was able to get a beef rib. I loved it and wish I could get them at more places. It’s not even easy to make at home since it’s a special order from the butcher.
Monday
We visited the Houston Natural History Museum. That was another full day. I highly recommend the Death by Natural Causes Exhibit. We had a lunch of very good tacos at Bodegas Taco Shop instead of the museum cafeteria. The museum district was extremely charming and we loved walking around Centennial Gardens.
For dinner we went to Luling City Market. There was no line and some very good BBQ. I really liked all the BBQ I ate in Houston. The beef rib at Killen’s was best of the bunch.
Tuesday
We drove to Lockhart and arrived at Kreuz Market for lunch. This place was huuuge. The town is not big and it looked like they could seat most of it at once. The aroma at Kreuz was awesome. The brisket was next level up from Houston. They had a little sign saying they had pork belly burnt ends so I added some to our order. It had this gooey BBQ-mustard sauce which was killer. Maybe the best thing I ate all week?
Next we drove to San Antonio (I enjoyed legally driving 85MPH and the kids were laughing at the 65MPH exit ramp signs) where we enjoyed the Riverwalk, the Alamo tour (best tour guide I’ve ever had and strangely reminded me of Daniel Johnston) and some Tex-Mex food.
Wednesday
We spent most of the day visiting the Missions, relaxing in the pool and eating In-n-Out Burger.
Thursday
It was on to Austin and the traffic. Oh the traffic! From my research it looks like Austin has about doubled in population in the last 20 years and from the traffic it looks like it about quadrupled. I was on the fence about waiting in line at Franklin but since we were going all the way to Texas for BBQ, I wasn’t going to miss out. We left early from San Antonio and arrived at Franklin just after 9. We started eating at about 12:15. Since we all knew what to expect, the wait wasn’t a big deal. We met people from all over the country while waiting in line. The line is so organized, you know you’re going to eat, you can drink beer, relax, the weather was nice, etc. It was kind of a fun experience. My daughter, up until this point, had been mostly eating mac and cheese at these places. They laid out some brisket samples before we ordered and she had some. She said, “oh wow, I can see why someone would want to eat that”. Melt in your mouth delicious and the best brisket of the trip. The ribs were spicy so the rest of my family was not a fan and I had them to myself. The sausage was really great. But the brisket, that was the best.
Thursday afternoon we went on a visit of the UT campus. Absolutely beautiful campus. No BBQ for dinner that night. I couldn’t eat after stuffing myself at Franklin.
Friday
Friday morning we went for a short hike near Barton Springs. It was a really pretty and relatively secluded place. You can actually see water shooting up from underground which was cool. For lunch we went to El Arroyo for tacos. Friday afternoon and evening we went to Rodeo Austin. We enjoyed this. The rest of my family had never been to a rodeo before so it was quite a novelty. I was a bit surprised at how much the ladies dressed to impress there. It’s like the Texas equivalent of a Las Vegas nightclub.
Saturday
Saturday morning we got up early and drove to Lexington. I really enjoyed seeing a place like this, in the middle of nowhere cooking world class food. Good food need not be complicated. We waited probably 90 minutes, maybe two hours. Who knows? The charm of the place was worth it. Everyone was in a good mood. There was a cooler full of beer for us. Awesome. I took a bite of the ribs and immediately said, “those are the best ribs I’ve ever eaten”. No question. The brisket was great but I’d rank it just slightly below Franklin. Almost everyone there had travelled a fair bit to eat there. Two places ahead of us in line some guy was filming a documentary. The place is amazing and Tootsie is like a living piece of folk art. What else can I say? I’m so glad I went.
Then it was back to Houston for the flight home. So much BBQ…
Some photos of the trip. And yes, we wore the matching shirts my daughter made for us…
Snows
Snows Cooker
Snows Pits with Tootsie on the left.
Me about to eat at Franklin
My son about to eat at Kreuz
Kreuz Pits
Daughter unhappy at Luling City Market
Beef rib at Killen’s