Two Days in Austin

A couple years ago, I did the research on a Texas barbecue road trip, just for fun. I noted that I’ve always wanted to go to Austin. It seemed like a cool town, good music, good vibes, good food.

As luck would have it, my company needed to send me to downtown Austin to edit a commercial for two and a half days, two nights. I left bright and early Tuesday and returned Thursday afternoon.

I quickly learned through yelp and talking to people that the one barbecue place I had bookmarked for Austin, Franklin’s, is indeed the most popular place. So much so that you have to get in line around 9 in the morning if you want to get food around 1pm. I’m sure it’s fantastic. But even if I could—and I couldn’t—I’m not going to wait in line for 4 hours.

The first night I went with my co-worker to dinner at Stubb’s. They had an all-you-can-eat meal. 3 meats. 3 sides. All you can eat. We got brisket, pork ribs and sausage. Mac & cheese, fries, and fried okra. We called it the king’s feast. All of it was pretty good, but the ribs were phenomenal. There was very little meat on the bone. Which usually is not a good thing. But in this case, that meant a fantastic ratio of delicious, heavily seasoned outer bark to meat. And because it was all you could eat, I didn’t mind plowing through rib after rib.

On the whole I had a great time in Austin. I would absolutely come back, try some more places, see some shows. But I don’t know that I’ll ever make it to Franklin’s.