Battle of the Texan BBQ

After some relaxation in Texas hill country we headed for Lockhart, a small township between San Antonio and Austin that sports a very big reputation.

Here, we were told, we would find the best BBQ in Texas (and thereby, if you're a Texan, the best in the world).

This was a promise well worth several hundred miles of detour, but as luck would have it, Lockhart happened to fall nicely on our path eastwards.

Spreading our tasting over nearly two days, we ordered fatty brisket and hot sausage from all of Lockhart's four BBQ joints.

Our verdict...

• Best Brisket - Black's
• Best Sausage - Black's
• Best Value - Chisholm Trail
• Best Fire Pit and Serve-Up Style - Kreuz

Chisholm Trail

(Highway 183, heading south)

The first joint we tried looked like an oversized mobile home sitting close to the highway.

It was 6pm on a week night and already there was a line-up of five cars waiting to use the drive-through order window.

At about $8 per pound of brisket, this was by far the best value in town and the variety of fixin's (sides) to choose from was huge.

The brisket and sausage were tasty too but only our second favourite for taste.

Black's

(Corner of Pecan and Church Streets)

If TASTE is king, then Black's was the winner. The brisket just melted in our mouths and the sausage was the perfect degree of spicy and bursting with flavour without oozing oil.

We 'dined in' at about 11am and the atmosphere, even at this time in the morning was grittily authentic.

The place is soaked through with the oil and dirt of eighty years of operation. The red and white picnic table style plastic linings on each of the tables evidently don't often get a wipe down.

History lines every wall. The framed photograph behind my head was of the local high school football team from 1921.

A stand-out feature of the decor was the collection of deer heads mounted on every wall.

The alfresco area is a wooden picnic table sitting on the grass between the restaurant and the neighbour's yard.

At about $13 per pound, this brisket was the priciest, but it was definitely worth it.

The only thing Black's lacked (which you might miss if you went to this joint only) was a view of its fire pit in action.

Kreuz 

(Highway 183, heading north)

The motto here is "no sauce, no forks" and they're serious. There is no sauce here.

The smokiness and heat of the meat ordering room is testament to the wood-fueled cooking pit directly behind the servery.

With your brisket and sausage served up butcher style on to your paper, it's only when you emerge out of the smokey haze into the clean, modern cafeteria-style eating area that you realise that's where the cream of the experience lies.

The price here was $12 per pound of brisket.

Smitty's

(Highway 183, centre of town)

Though Smitty's also had an authentic wood-fired smoking pit, the brisket and sausage here weren't our favourites.

I don't think it was because we were "barbecued out". In fact, we turned to each other later that day and commented we could each 'go' another bit of brisket.

The value was about the same as Kreuz', at $12 per pound of brisket.

General Observations

All brisket comes wrapped up in layers of paper and by the time you get it to the table, the oil will have soaked its way completely through.

For this reason, all eat-in options have a roll of paper towel on the table. If you're getting your brisket 'to go', don't let it sit on your lap!

It's also worth mentioning that though we talk about the best 'value' even the most expensive option still made for a cheap meal!

My recommendation would be to head to Kreuz to see the BBQ pit working its smokey magic and buy a small serve there. Then head over to Black's and buy a big serve and sit in that gritty old dining room and let the meat melt in your mouth, the oil drip through your fingers and the atmosphere seep into your skin.