Franklin BBQ

I remember being out to eat with some friends of ours about 2 ½ years ago, when our friend Matt told us about his cousin. He said that his cousin had just opened up a BBQ trailer on the side of the road in Austin. He told us how we all needed to go up and give it a try sometime.

Now, I would call anytime between 2004 and now the “Food Trailer” era. Food trucks are everywhere these days and they’re complete hit or miss. Sometimes you can get food that’s delicious and sometimes you can eat a taco from the trailer out in front of a Wal-Mart and regret the decision for days. Hugh and I wanted to go, but anytime we headed up to Austin involved us going straight to the north side, making this BBQ stop inconvenient. During all of this non-bbq eating time we kept hearing from Matt about how amazing his cousin was doing and how people were waiting for two hours at a time to get his BBQ. In fact, he ended up moving his trailer into a permanent building off 11^th street in Austin.

Fast forward to December of this year and Hugh and I just happen to in Austin with some time to kill. We decided to head on over and try to get lunch at Franklin BBQ in their new digs. We got there at about 11:00 and waited in line for about 45 minutes to get our food. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! I’ve eaten BBQ my entire life and I have to say that this is by far the best brisket, ribs, pulled pork, and turkey that I’ve ever had. The owner makes 3 different types of sauces, but you don’t need them. It’s just that tender and flavorful.

Hugh and I decided to take a little road trip during my Spring Break vacation this year. First stop?? FRANKLIN BBQ. We left our house very early on a Saturday morning and got into line about 10:00 A.M. We had wanted to get there earlier but were a bit late leaving that morning. It was POURING rain, but we came prepared. We had our rain jackets and an umbrella, plus we were hungry. We didn’t get our food until 12:15 or 12:30, but I will say that it was well worth the wait. We met some very interesting people that were in line next to us and it was enjoyable. There were several groups of people in line that had brought their own coolers and were drinking beer while waiting in line. Hugh and I got around 4lbs of meat (for the two of us) and left with less than a pound of turkey. We ate like pigs. It wasn’t pretty, but DEAR SWEET JESUS IT WAS DIVINE!

Here are a few photos of our day:

Early the next week I got a text message with a photo attached saying: “Look who’s at Franklin today…”

Anthony Bourdain.

How awesome is that?

p.s.: Aaron Franklin was featured on the cover of Texas Monthly this past February.