First Cup Diner!

[Ramrod]

Yep, I used to go to the original one which is in Leon Springs, just north of San Antonio. My workplace was nearby so we tried to go there fairly often. San Antonio is not a city known for great BBQ places and Rudy's was good. Some of their franchise joints are worse than bad so I rarely go there since moving to the Austin area. There are some local joints where really excellent BBQ can be had. Brisket is the specialty here and this is pretty well considered the BBQ capital of Texas. I usually go to a little town a few miles east of here, Taylor, Tx, to a place called Louie Muellers. It is consistently excellent.

Franklins was worth the 2 hour wait!!
Mark

[jerryd6818]

I just looked up Franklin's online and noticed they do that odd Texas thing of serving the meal in separate piles on butcher paper. When we were in San Antonio, I believe someone told us that it has something to do with differing Texas law regulating meat markets and restaurants. Served on butcher paper as a build your own sandwich it's a meat market and served on plates already put together it's a restaurant?? Does that sound about right? Maybe one of you Texans could clarify that for us.

[Paladin]

I am not really up on what laws might apply but I always considered the serving on butcher paper to be a little bit of a practical practice and a little bit of tradition based on the fact that much of the BBQ was served in butcher shops. For the customer, there seems to be something of a fascination for eating it that way. The story is that the butcher shop would use his unsold meat and cook it there in the shop, or out behind the shop and the normal thing for him to do was put it on the existing paper that he used in his trade.
Now Franklin's has clearly never been a meat market nor has John Mueller's. Both are very popular joints here in the Austin area. I have been to John Muellers and it is some of the best I have had. I haven't been to Franklin's because of the mandatory wait in line. I have to assume that they use paper for the asthetics and likely for the price difference between paper plates and the butcher paper.

[jerryd6818]

The Rudy's we went to in San Antonio also served it on butcher's paper. I think that's where we were told the butcher shop/restaurant story. It doesn't matter as long as it's good. If it's bad, you could serve it on fine china with gold plated flatware and it still wouldn't be fit to eat.

[Paladin]

Yep! Right about that.
Rudy's started in a little service station in Leon Springs and I am not sure if it was a functioning station at the time it kicked off with the BBQ business. If I recall correctly, it had the old timey narrow driveway at the gas pumps, etc. It caught on and the rest is history. I heard that Phil Romano bought it out and then franchised it as he has done with several restaurants such as Fudruckers, Macoroni Grill and several others. Not sure if that rumor was correct or not but the franchise has sure blossomed. I always think of Rudy's as having average BBQ with really good sauce.

[jerryd6818]

I'm sorry Scott but this thread seems to have been hijacked into a Texas Bar-B-Que discussion and I'm afraid I have to take partial responsibility. What can I say? If you're gonna run a thread off the rails, what better subject to do it with than Bar-B-Que.

If I were a wealthy man, I think the ideal summer would be spent visiting Bar-B-Que joints across the nation. Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, St. Louis, North Carolina and on and on until I was so fat I couldn't fit in a 1 ton pickup truck. I wonder if I would get burned out on it after a while. I don't know but I sure would like to try and find out.

[whitebuffalo58]

Hey Jerry, you could always walk off that BBQ by hitting all the fleamarkets, antique and pawn shops in each town!! Work up an appetite lookin' for great knife deals, then off to the next BBQ joint! Then all you'd need the 1 ton truck for, is to haul all your new knives home. (and maybe a few doggy bags for later)

WB

[jerryd6818]

By gad WB, you're a bloody genius. Why didn't I think of that. Now all I have to do is become wealthy. The devil is in the details, ya know.

[whitebuffalo58]

Jerry, it's that same little detail that gets me everytime!
First cup long gone. Tryin' to get an early start. 3 days in a row at 100 degrees+, 104 yesterday! Boys, summer is here!!

WB

[treefarmer]

Wife and I just finished our 1st cup sittin' on the front porch. Got to reflecting on the storm that we have had for the last few days. We dodged a bullet, 'cause over 3 days we only got a total of 1 inch of rain, while folks 2 or 3 counties east and south through the state of Florida have reported many inches of rain. We need the water, Florida was about to dry up and blow away, but that much water at one time can be devestating to farms and ranches as we all know. We really feel blessed, as our sweet corn and southern peas are just about ready for picking and the 1 inch rain really helped out! Treefarmer

[TripleF]

On my second cup TF. We got our ACES handed to us here in the Tampa/Clearwater/St.Pete area.
We probably got close to 10" of rain where we live.

Personally, we had no prpblems, but plenty of family members had flooding.

[jerryd6818]

They were calling for 104 deg for a high on Thursday but I see they've backed off on that a little.

[jerryd6818]

Phil -- What are Southern Peas? Are those what I call Crowder Peas?

[treefarmer]

Jerry, there are many varieties of southern peas or cow peas, as some folks call them. The list includes blackeyes, pinkeye purple hull, crowders, white acre, etc... What we have planted is called Zipper Creams. They are a white pea that is very easy to shell and the hulls are tough enough to afford a little protection from various bug damage. Our biggest problem with our pea patch is that Bambi and all his tribe will wait till the night before you pick and beat you to the crop.

TripleF, glad to hear you had no damage. Treefarmer

[whitebuffalo58]

Rain?! Isn't that where water falls out of the sky? Seems I remember seeing that here a couple of months ago.

WB

[jerryd6818]

Jerry, there are many varieties of southern peas or cow peas, as some folks call them. The list includes blackeyes, pinkeye purple hull, crowders, white acre, etc... What we have planted is called Zipper Creams. They are a white pea that is very easy to shell and the hulls are tough enough to afford a little protection from various bug damage. Our biggest problem with our pea patch is that Bambi and all his tribe will wait till the night before you pick and beat you to the crop.

TripleF, glad to hear you had no damage. Treefarmer

I'm familiar with the term 'cow peas' but never heard them called 'southern peas'. My dad grew Crowder peas and Purple Hull (he called them beans but if they were, they were shell beans or hulleys as we called them). Crowder peas ('field peas' another name for them) are one of my favorites.

[treefarmer]

Jerry, Usually we refer to them as peas, but when some folks hear "peas", they think of English peas (frog eyes), so a distinction is necessary. Actually the University of Florida planting guide uses the term "Southern Peas". And if you dig a little deeper, you will find that all these "southern peas" are really classed as beans. No matter what they're called , they're good to eat. Peas and rice, fresh corn on the cob, fried cornbread, a platter full of fried venison with gravvy and a big pitcher of ice tea, can't do any better than that! Treefarmer

[TripleF]

Who's up?

Pot just finished brewing.......

[Old Hunter]

Leaning back in bed in my hotel room, sipping my first cup, reading AAPK on my laptop, meeting at 0800.

[Paladin]

I just brewed my first cup and getting ready to hit one of the local lakes. I'll dunk a red worm in a weed bed or two to see if there might be a bass lurking around.

Ray

[TripleF]

Little flippin' and pitchin to start your day!! Knice Ray !!

[philco]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Some of us are tryin to sleep ya know!

[treefarmer]

1st cup on the porch @ 6am and the temperature is 61 degrees! Not bad for the Panhandle of Florida at the end of June. Not much humidity but it's supposed to get on into the upper 90's today. Y'all have a blessed day. Treefarmer

[Paladin]

Had my 1st and getting all puckered up for my 2nd. Took the dog to the beauty shop and looking forward to a restful day. Going to Cooper's for BBQ at lunch. Life is good!

[Cowboy7130]

First cup is almost gone, thinking about the second cup here at my desk. Working a couple of hours this morning and then continuing to write The Great American Novel this afternoon.

Today's coffee: Locally roasted and ground Pecan Sticky Bun in a thermal tumbler emblazoned with my school's logo.