A long drive to stand in line

Hello Everyone,

If you are the best hockey player in Canada, you are one hell of a hockey player. We care about hockey, and there are millions of us that play the game, so to get to the top of that pyramid is a steep climb. But here in Texas, they don't care about hockey. Texas cares about BBQ.

As you may know, my friend Kyle is something of a BBQ fanatic. He's currently got 8 in his average-sized backyard. He is also current on rankings of some of the best BBQ places in North America, and it just so happens that Austin is close to the place that is at the top of his list. He told me I should check it out, so last night I looked it up and decided to change my plans and make a pilgrimage.

I also planned to go and only order a salad, just to get his goat, but that didn't quite pan out.

Snow's BBQ is rated either at the top or in the top 4 BBQ places in all of Texas. That's saying something, because this is BBQ country. It was an hour's drive to the town of Lexington and I had to go today. Not only did I have to go today, but I had to get up early and go today. You see, they only open for 4 hours during the week, from 8 am on Saturday morning until they run out of meat, usually by noon. The line up starts at 6.

I didn't get there that early, but was there shortly after opening. I was in line for about 2 hours and got a sampling of their brisket, ribs, and sausage. They were out of pork shoulder. They didn't serve salad.

I don't know who makes these rankings, and I can't compare it to other BBQ in Texas, but it was very good. I took my slab of meat, which falls apart in your fingers, outside and sat at a picnic table and enjoyed. Also, now my clothes smell like smoke.

It was a whole experience just getting there and waiting around. The drive takes you through ranch country, the kind you see in truck commercials. The clientele is a mixture of tourists with cameras, like me, and hardcore BBQ aficionados. T-shirt sizes, it must be said, come in a wide, wide range. The whole operation is literally a couple of corrugated tin shacks with a series of huge meat smokers made out of steel and congested arteries. It looked post-apocalyptic. It was awesome.

Lastly, contrary to stereotype, it was a mostly female operation. The pitmaster, actually the title of the person in charge of cooking, is an old lady named Tootsie. Most of her assistants and the servers are women as well. They make some mean BBQ.

wes