FabbieFoodie: Barbeque for Breakfast

This past weekend, Carl and I went to Austin. As per tradition, every time we go to Austin we must try at least one barbeque joint somewhere in the Hill Country or Central Texas. On this trip, we decided our barbeque of choice was going to be from Snow's barbeque in Lexington, Texas. In 2008, Texas Monthly selected Snow's barbeque as "The Best Barbeque in Texas". For those of you non-Texans, winning this award is equivalent to winning the Triple Crown or Miss America. In case you didn't catch the importance, winning that title by Texas Monthly is a big freakin' deal! Snow's barbeque is only opened on Saturday's, and barbeque crazies like us flock from all over Texas to try this stuff, so they typically run out of meat before noon!

Snow's Barbeque has been a topic between Carl and my father for some time now, but the idea of voluntarily waking up at 7:00 am on a Saturday morning to eat a meat feast always made me wince. My father cajoled Carl into it by sending him article after article from Texas Monthly to the New York Times all about Snow's, and that's how my Saturday morning fate was sealed!

The three of us woke up at 7:00am and hit the road by 7:45 to make the hour-long drive to Lexington, Texas. As we turned onto Main Street in Lexington, my expectations where shattered. I had imagined a large market like Kreutz or Smitty's in Lockhart with a DisneyWorld sized parking lot and a line curling around the door. Boy was I wrong. Snow's is quite literally a shack, and Lexington is a town that didn't even appear to have stoplights. At most, Snow's can probably hold up to 30 patrons. Luckily, since skyrocketing to barbeque fame they have built a fabulous outdoors area with several picnic tables overlooking the smoker so barbeque aficionados can blissfully view the barbeque as it is being prepared.

Keep in mind, it wasn't even 9:00am by the time we arrived at Snow's, but their barbeque operation was in full force. We stood in a short line and after about 3 minutes we were up. Sticking to our normal routine, we ordered brisket, sausage, and ribs. I knew as I watched the meat master carving us the moist brisket that this place was going to be above and beyond what our stomachs were expecting. As she carved the brisket, juices were flowing all over the counter. The morning was unusually brisk, so we decided to eat at one of the 6 picnic tables inside. Each of us more eager than the next, we all grabbed for the brisket immediately, and then silence ensued. It is not often that I agree with all the hype surrounding certain foods, but all the hype about Snow's isn't enough hype! Their brisket is perfection. The juices from the brisket are a smoky cocktail that burst in your mouth and make you dismiss every piece of brisket that came before. This is one of those barbeque places that offers sauce on the table, but doesn't actually intend for their meat to be eaten with sauce. This meat didn't need anything extra, because Snow's figured out the perfect equation for smoking their brisket to absolute perfection. The bar has been set very high, and this is the brisket that I will now use as comparison for the rest of my life in determining whether or not I'm consuming decent brisket.

Now onto the sausage. For me, sausage is hit or miss. I sometimes think that for some places sausage is an afterthought, but not as Snow's. They serve a jalapeno sausage (which is common in Central Texas). This sausage hit all the right flavors. It was spicy, but not overwhelmingly spicy. The texture was not crumbly like some sausages I've tasted, and upon biting into the sausage, juices bursting with flavor exploded. The owner of Snow's confirmed to us that they do not make their sausage on site, but that it is a special recipe that they've been tweaking for quite some time, so it is unique to Snow's.

Now onto the mediocre part: the ribs. I tend to favor ribs over brisket, but I've learned that ribs are tough to perfect. Personally, I'm a sauce kind of gal and if the barbeque sauce is great and the ribs are cooked in the sauce, I'm usually a fan (hence my love for the Salt Lick). Since Snow's is one of those "no sauce needed" type places, their ribs have a whiter appearance as opposed to the deeper red appearance of ribs cooked with sauce. The ribs were slightly plastic in appearance which is usually a red flag for me. When I bit into the ribs, they were tough and didn't fall off the bone. I chose to skip the ribs and focus my calories on the succulent brisket and spicy sausage! However, don't let my unflattering review of the ribs deter your from trekking out to Snow's. Their brisket and sausage are by far the best I have ever tried in the great state of Texas!

I would be lying if I said the ambiance and the people didn't positively sway my experience at Snow's। The people at Snow's were friendly, and treated us like old friends. The woman who served us our meat insisted that we try the pork, and before we even had a chance to say "yes" or "no" she had already cut us a big slab of pork and encouraged us to eat it with our hands. This, of course, did not go onto our bill. We chatted with the owner, and made friends from Houston and College Station. On the walls, they have pictures of people ranging from Major Applewhite of the Texas Longhorns to Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live which made me feel like I was eating somewhere truly special. If you ever find yourself in Texas with several hours to kill, making the drive out to Lexington, Texas to eat Snow's is not a bad choice. Just remember to rise and shine early because if you get there too late, they'll be out of meat and you'll be out of luck!