Oh. My. Heavens.

Best meat I have ever had.  Hands down.  No doubt.  Insane.

Sorry.  Getting ahead of myself a bit.

Woke up relatively early to work out, shower, and then walk to Franklin BBQ.  I was walking thru Austin by 8:35 and reached my destination at 8:55am.  Once there, I stood in line…for 3.5 hours.

Line stretched around the back of the building.  My rental chair is the pink one.

A little backstory is probably needed here.  Austin is known for its BBQ.  The process of smoking meats is something that people take very seriously.  It is an art and a science.  It is also a religion.  In 2008/9 a dude in a food truck started pumping out BBQ that quickly gained local star status.  People would wait in line for hours to get some of his meats.  Aaron Franklin's BBQ was special and he soon opened a brick and mortar restaurant.  The store is open from "11:00am till gone" and the line forms as early as 6:30am, according to local lore.

For a newcomer to impress Austinians is impressive.  But to impress the nation is insane.  Franklin's is the best.  After eating there, I truly believe that.  I just don't know how it could be done better.

Sorry, I will slow down.

Duder's clipboard.  B is for Brisket.

Finally the front door.

I got in line behind a couple that had driven straight thru the night from Isanti, MN.  I was in front of a guy from Melbourne, Australia.  This place is famous, and everyone knows the drill.  I stood for about a half hour before renting a chair for $5 (a local entrepreneur, not Aaron Franklin, rents out chairs to people standing in line).  At about 9:30, the employees start milling around outside, chatting with the people in line.  At about 10 a dude with a clip board canvassed the line to get an idea how much meat was going to be ordered.  They get a good idea and tell the end of the line the good or bad news regarding the brisket.  The brisket rarely makes it all the way to the end of the line.

I was told by the dude with the clipboard that I would make it to the door by 12:00 or so.  He was right.    That is when Janna and the girls met me after they had done a tour of the Capitol.  From the door it was a half hour before we hit the counter where you can order.

Inside.  Only 25 minutes to go!

Let me just say that the employees were over the top friendly.  It made the experience even more entertaining.

We over ordered as always.  Brisket, Pulled Pork, Ribs, Sausage, and Turkey (made into sandwiches - good choice).

Out.  Ra.  Geous.

The meat is so tender and so perfectly seasoned (only salt and pepper!) that I could not put sauce on it.  I hope you heard that correctly.  No sauce.  Sure, there is sauce on the table, but I could not do it.  And I LOVE sauce.  Love it.  But I couldn't do it.  The meat was falling apart and every bite was seasoned perfectly.  Every meat I tried sucked me in.  I could not stop eating the ribs (with no sauce!), but then I tried the brisket again.  My mouth is watering just rethinking it.  Then the pulled pork.  Oh, and that turkey sandwich - I only got one bite because my kids devoured it.


Confession: I ate with my hands.  A fork seemed out of place.

It would be very difficult for me to think of a better meal that I have had.  Certainly there has never been a meat that I have eaten that could compare to this.  The 3.5 hours I waited in line did not seem enough.  I would have waited 24 hours - easily.

I could go on and on.  Totally insane.

On campus at UT.  Quinn is smiling!

From there we went on a walking tour of the University of Texas campus.  Quinn was in heaven.  She so badly wants to go to college, and now she has a new favorite school.  Students were milling around between classes.  It was fun.

After that we hopped in the car and went to Allen Boots - a local, famous boot shop.  We bought some stuff and then decided to make Shelby's dreams come true by going to a mall and seeing the new Muppet movie.  I slept thru most of it.

Waiting for the bats.

We then raced to the Congress Ave Bridge so that we could see the bats.  They fly out at dusk by the hundreds of thousands.  Kinda cool (I was expecting more).  After some crepes from a food truck (love the food trucks!), we headed home.

A good day.

Crepes.