I’m liking the vibe of the forum lately.
Although it’s been a few months I thought I’d give a trip report on my journey to Franklin BBQ. This was part of a larger trip to Dallas, Austin, and New Orleans. I went with my buddy Gooch, his dad Paul, and his dad’s friend, Brett.
This trip was all about drinking tons of beer, eating good food, and watching pro sports. I met up with the other three in Dallas. They were staying near the airport that night and the plan was to drive to Austin the next day. After arriving in the evening I rented a car at the Dallas airport and drove to the hotel which was just a few miles away. Of course, I got lost in a spider web of exits and ramps and 40 minutes later ended up in a weird residential area. No sign of badguy.
I finally got to our hotel and I was famished. I remember every meal of this trip so I’ll give a quick rating to each one. The only restaurant by our hotel was Whataburger. I’ve never seen this fast food place before although I subsequently saw about 100 locations throughout the trip. I had a patty melt that was tasty as fuck. Maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten in 8 hours but I give it 7 Cowboy Hats out of 10.
The next morning we started to head south to Austin but Brett suggested we take a detour to check out AT&T Stadium. Although they were going to the Cowboys game in a couple of days, they wanted to take a tour of the place. I wasn’t super enthusiastic about it but I’m glad I went. Holy shit. Jerry World is, without a doubt, the nicest sports venue I’ve ever seen. It’s unbelievable. The jumbotron itself is something to behold. The tour was just okay. Walked around most of the facility. We spent an inordinate amount of time in the Cowboys dancers’ dressing room where the tour guide bored us with inane details about the dancers. Finally, we got on the field which was cool. Even tried to kick a few short field goals which was humbling to say the least.
Next we stopped off for lunch at a Texas taco chain called Torchy’s Tacos. Unbelievably good. I had a “Trailer Park” (fried chicken) and a “Mr. Pink” (ahi tuna). 8 Cowboy Hats out of 10.
Then we headed down to Austin. Traffic is just brutal between Dallas and Austin. There’s no letting up at all. Took about 4 hours because there was some kind of construction SNAFU. We checked in to our hotel and headed off to Rainey Street for beers and dinner. First stop was Craft Pride which was pretty solid for local beer selection.
We were hungry and asked around for good restaurants close by and people kept suggesting some East Indian place. I’m sorry, but I’m in Texas for the first time. I’m not eating no curry in fucking Tejas. We ended up at a place called Banger’s which had another amazing beer selection and a bunch of different sausages for food. We ate outdoors near a fire pit while a honkytonk band with an Asian lead singer played country tunes.
This was the Austin I had always envisioned. Food was 5 Cowboy Hats but the ambience was 9 Cowboy Hats.
Paul and Brett packed it in for the night so Gooch and I went looking for trouble. We made the mistake of leaving Rainey Street for the more well known Sixth Street. It really wasn’t our scene at all. Too many young hipsters. I wish we had stayed on Rainey. We turned in after popping into a few nightspots that were way too trendy for their own good.
The next morning was BBQ day. We headed out around 8:00 AM to get in line at Franklin. Normally I wouldn’t tolerate standing in line for food but we were treating this as an experience. When we arrived at 8:30 AM there were already about 30 people ahead of us. They have a pretty good system in place. There are free lawn chairs available and they are BYOB friendly. I ran over to a nearby CVS and bought a six-pack of Lone Star tall boys. The “National Beer of Texas” is fairly shit beer, but it was $5. I’m used to a six-pack of beer costing between $11 and $15 in Canada. Seriously.
We met a few interesting people in line and it was fairly pleasant. They started letting people in around 11:30 AM and we had food by 12:30 PM. We got a little bit of everything: ribs, pulled pork, sausage, brisket, and two sides – coleslaw and beans. Franklin is known for his brisket and now I know why. It’s incredible. So moist and tender. In fact, everything was unimaginably moist. A lot of BBQ is dry as shit but this stuff is God. The ribs were excellent too (quite peppery), the pulled pork above average, and the sausage (which are not made in-house) were the only disappointment.
All-in-all, it was worth the wait and highly recommended. Of course, I didn’t eat at any other BBQ places in Austin so there could be better places in the city, but it’s the best BBQ I’ve ever had. 10 Cowboy Hats.
Now we had a long drive back to Dallas and boy were we dropping some putrid bombs for the next few hours. A small child surely would have died from toxic gas inhalation if they were in that car. It was a nightmare. I didn’t need to eat for the rest of the day.
The Mavericks were playing the Grizzlies that night and we managed to grab super cheap seats (about $15 each) on StubHub. American Airlines Center was only a half hour walk away. Our hotel was a couple blocks from the JFK assassination site so I kept walking by it over the next couple of days. It was amazing to me how there were ALWAYS people there, looking around, taking photos, chilling on the grassy knoll. There was always a dude on the corner trying to sell his conspiracy newspaper to passersby. I wanted to check out the museum but we didn’t have time.
The Mavs game was pretty good even though I’m not really a basketball fan. Gooch and I needed a sweat so we put some money on the Mavs to cover the spread (I think it was Mavs -4). After a slow start Nowitzki took over and helped the Mavs cover easily. One weird thing about Mavs games is that they have these guys called the Mavs “ManiAACs” (Get it? It’s the American Airlines Center and they are Maniacs). Anyways, it’s just a bunch of morbidly obese men in halter tops making synchronized hand gestures as they watch the game from one end of the arena and then they also did a dance at halftime. So it’s funny because they are fat, you see. Terrible.
We were all still experiencing some severe meat sweats so we went back to the hotel after the game. The next day Gooch and I walked just outside of downtown to a neat new restaurant called Chicken Scratch. It’s a hipster take on fried chicken sitting in a gentrified area just beyond a slum riddled with Bail Bondsmen and Check Cashing Stores. The food was delicious. 8 Cowboy Hats and a lasso.
Then we walked over to Four Corners, a small craft brewery, for a free tour. It wasn’t a tour so much as it was a 20 minute overview of their product followed by copious sampling. So it was basically perfect. We were both pretty snozzed at this point and Gooch had to catch up with Paul and Brett to head off to the Cowboys vs. Jets game. They were taking a shuttle bus to AT&T stadium and it was leaving something like 5 hours before kickoff. Being a hockey man myself, I was going to the Stars vs. Canadiens game back at AAC. So fortunately I got to have a couple hours nap before the hockey game. I had an amazing seat for the game. It was about 10 rows up, inside one of the blue lines. Ticket was only $80. Eighty bucks wouldn’t get you in the door at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
There was a strange mix of people sitting around me. To my left were two straight up hippies and their infant child. Both had dreadlocks, wore wool ponchos and bellbottoms, and smelled of patchouli. Not exactly a look that screams, “I love me some ice hockey.” In the middle of the second period the woman whipped out her titty and started breastfeeding her kid. What?!
If that was weird enough, to my right were four of the most unlikely looking hockey fans in their own right. They were all super overweight white women in their 50s who looked like they just left the beauty salon. All had big bouffant hairdos and had makeup for days. None seemed to be really interested in the game. The one directly to my right spent most of the game on her phone. I found her phone wallpaper to be incredibly random/curious. It was the image of a VERY minor celebrity and this woman did not appear to be in the demographic of his fandom. Give it a shot but I’d be very surprised if the forum could figure out this celebrity using 20 yes/no questions (I’ll answer your question as rep).
Of course, the Habs got their shit pushed in. They lost something like 6-2 and I became very well acquainted with the Stars’ goal celebration song. I will say that despite having every right to be obnoxious about it, the Stars fans were very respectful. In fact, I’d say that everyone I encountered during my stay in Texas was incredibly nice. Some of the nicest people I’ve met in my travels. This would be in stark contrast to the surly assholes that inhabit New Orleans.
I was pissed (both in anger at my pitiful Habs and drunk) after the game so I walked back to the hotel and went to sleep. In the morning we caught a flight to New Orleans. I had breakfast tacos at Dickey’s BBQ Pit at the airport and they were average. 5 Cowboy Hats.
Next post I'll summarize the New Orleans portion of the trip.
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