Having only just read about Snow’s Barbecue, I clamored for a visit — it;s only a bit outside of Austin (by Texas standards, at least.)
I felt like a real Yankee Poseur coming out here — visiting a country smoke shack because I read about it in the New Yorker. They didn’t seem to mind the business, though, and I certainly wasn’t out on a limb. Sitting at our table was a law professor (Dale Carpenter) from the University of Minnesota. And, when heading out we got caught in a mini traffic jam outside the shop, and directly in front of our minivan were two roundish guys with goatees in an XJ8.
Snow’s is only open on Saturday mornings. They start serving at 8AM and close when the food runs out. We got there at 10:30AM and they were already out of ribs and beans. They do not appear to be taking this opportunity to gouge… This pile of food (more than enough for two people, plus leftovers) cost less than $20.
Well… I say ‘leftovers’ but really we just ate it all and drove off in a stupor. A giant sausage, half a chicken, and a pound or so of pork butt. I don’t know a thing about Texas barbecue, so I can’t speak in relative terms. The chicken was salty and mustardy on the inside of the breast, which seems semi-impossible. The sausage was unlike any I’ve ever had — very crumbly and dry. This may not be what they were going for, judging from the murmering of those around us, but I found it to be about the best thing I’ve eaten in weeks.
The Bennigan’s next to our hotel is out of business and shuttered. So, perhaps justice still rules in this part of the state.
(Aidan, alas, is in a phase of eating only chicken nuggets and jellybread sandwiches. So he rolled around in the dirt for the duration of our meal, and is now in the tub.)
