Kevin's BBQ Joints

I’ve been out of the loop for about a week with the opening of JMueller BBQ in Austin while stories and photos have been backing up for me to get out on my blog. Here’s a quick list of what you can look forward to this week.

-Photos and first impressions of Taylor, TX
-Winners announced for Southern Soul Barbeque Small Batch Sauce Giveway
-Photos and review of Smitty’s Market – Lockhart, TX
-Photos and review of Black’s Barbecue – Lockhart, TX
-Photos and review of Kreuz Market – Lockhart, TX

It looks like Southern Hospitality BBQ is expanding beyond it’s two locations in New York. Per the article from Nation’s Restaurant news here, Rocker and frontman for the band OneRepublic, Ryan Tedder, has signed on to become the first franchisee of the Southern Hospitality BBQ brand out of New York, with plans to bring the Memphis-style barbecue concept to at least 10 cities across the country.”

The article goes on to say, “The first 10 markets Tedder has targeted for a Southern Hospitality BBQ unit are Denver, Colo.; Nashville, Tenn.; Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.; Dallas, Austin and Houston, Texas; Washington, D.C.; Palo Alto, Calif.; New Orleans and Atlanta.” They are”planning to continue growing company locations of the brand in New York and other select cities, as well as bringing in other franchisees, both domestic and international.”

I haven’t been to either New York location yet, but I’ve heard the atmosphere is a big part of the reason people go. Here’s a review of their BBQ by Gary at Pigtrip.net.

Here are links to their two New York spots:
Southern Hospitality BBQ – 2nd Ave.
Southern Hospitality BBQ – Hell’s Kitchen

I’d love to know what your thoughts are if you’ve visited either location.

Follow them on twitter HERE

I have a busy BBQ week ahead of myself, but wanted to drop some highlights on what’s in store (there are a few things I can’t mention as they aren’t set in stone yet). Here’s what’s coming up:

1) Review of Pig of the Month BBQ Sauces

2) Interview with a true BBQ Legend

3) Gnary Head Wines / BBQ and Wine pairing – Los Angeles BBQ Joints

4) 5 Great BBQ Joint Pics

5) New Contest Details

6) Review of The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint – BBQ Sauces

And if you didn’t get a chance to read my interview with Danielle Dimovski (Diva Q) on her favorite BBQ joints, you are missing out. Her choices (and insight) are top notch and extremely detailed. You can see it HERE.

I’ve been a big fan of Guy Kawasaki for a long time and find myself linking off of his tweets to his site Alltop which is incredibly chalk full of stories on countless subjects. About a month ago I was lucky enough to make the list for the BBQ section of Alltop. You can see it here. They have a collection of top BBQ blogs with links to the (5) most recent stories by those blogs. It’s definitely worth bookmarking. Let me know what you think?

Can you figure out what this is and where it was eaten at? Is it even BBQ?

A friend of mine emailed this to me to test me so I thought I’d pass it along to you. Any and all guesses accepted.

Leave it to Moby to mix up South by Southwest. From his website, “i’m hosting a vegan bbq in austin next week for south by southwest. thursday march 17th, if you want to come by. it’s a fundraiser for ‘compassion over killing‘.”

He’s hosting this Vegan Barbecue at Cheer Up Charlies. Here’s the flyer:

See additional details on facebook here

Here’s the spot if you want to check it out Thursday

View Larger Map

I was finally able to stop by and meet (meat?) Neil Strawder from Bigmista’s Barbecue Catering last week and try his BBQ. I am going to be doing a full report over the next couple of days, but here’s a couple of pictures.

Neil (smiling like always) and Me (squinting and mid smile)

Bigmista’s Barbecue ‘Big Ass Meat Plate – Brisket, Pulled Pork, Ribs, Turkey, and Pig Candy

Neil and his team are cooking up their top notch low and slow BBQ around Los Angeles every day except for Monday at Farmer’s Markets. You can see his schedule here

A friend of mine pointed out great article in The Economist in mid December titled Barbecue and American: Fire in the hole. It’s a great read for anyone that is a fan of real barbecue and how the world of barbecue is changing and progressing.

From the article, “IT IS a noun, not a verb. You do not barbecue meat; you smoke it until it becomes barbecue. And it is not a meal so much as a meditative process, perched somewhere between science and art, dependent on reserves of judgment. The science lies in building a fire that will smoulder steadily without flaring, and in constructing a vessel that will bathe the meat in smoke without subjecting it to too much heat. The art lies in the butchering and seasoning. The judgment comes in knowing precisely when a cooking process that may last as long as 18 or 24 hours should end. Barbecue is the art of turning tough cuts tender (“Need no teef to eat my beef” is a popular boast among smokemasters). None of these facts brook disagreement, but here the unity ends.”

The only joint specifically mentioned in the article is Blue Smoke in New York City.

Photo of Blue Smoke courtesy of Daniel Krieger

You can see the piece here. Would love to know what you think about it.

The Q Card is at it again with an even better contest than last week. It’s pretty insane. Here are the details:

“We had such great response to last week’s giveaway of a brisket smoked by John Mueller that we’re having another giveaway this weekend, courtesy of John. And it’s an awesome one. The closest prediction for the final score of this Sunday’s Titans @ Cowboys game (3:15 PM Central) gets a meal for 10 catered by John during the Texas-Nebraska game (Sat, Oct. 16, 2:30 PM Central) – brisket, sausage, & trimmings. And The Q Card.”

More details, “Again, like last week, this is not a joke. John Mueller will cater your party of 10! (In case of a tie, we will draw a name from a hat.) Don’t live near Austin? No worries. As John said, “BBQ flies.” If you win, he’ll ship it to you, so wherever you are, enter!!! The only thing that is bad about this giveaway is that I can’t win it.”

Who wouldn’t want an entire BBQ meal prepared for you by John Mueller for you and 9 of your friends? You’d be crazy not to enter for a shot.

It’s really easy to enter. Here are the ways:
You can email Drew your prediction at drew@theqcard.com
You can leave a comment under the post here
Post it to Facebook here
Or Tweet it to Drew here

It really confounds me that there are so many bad Mexican restaurants in Southern California. It convinces me that the Hispanic community here is most likely cooking at home instead of going out as I think they’d find most of these places unacceptable. Come to think of it, it seems that a lot of restaurants (Chinese, Italian, Japanese, etc.) just seem to phone it in, figuring mediocre is good enough for the masses. It’s sad actually, but I guess that’s what makes a gem of a place even more special. I digress though.

I wanted to do a little piece on a Mexican joint near me that takes great pride in putting out quality food that is far superior to almost anywhere I’ve been. Taqueria Cuernavaca in Ventura, California (on Ventura Avenue) is one of those places that you don’t want others to know about because it’ll get too crowded, but since they’ve made me happy with meal after meal I figured I’d return the favor. One thing that I love about this place (other than the food, the sauces, and the scratch made chips) is that they have a sign that says ‘this is not fast food’, which pretty much lets you know it’ll take some time, but it’ll be worth it.

Michelle and I get tacos every time we go (although I’ve never seen a dish come out of their kitchen that doesn’t look amazing), so just I’ll let the pictures of these tacos speak for themselves.

Potato tacos

Carne asada, pastor (yes that’s a pineapple slice on top), and suadero

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