Vincek's Smokehouse (East Bernard, TX)

The last time I was in East Bernard was to watch a high school football game nearly two decades ago. If I had known about Vincek's Smokehouse, I wouldn't have waited so long to go back.

This little Czech operation opened in 1985 and has been pouring out delicious barbecue ever since. In fact, their meat is so tasty that Vincek's made Texas Monthly's list of the Top 50 BBQ Joints in both 2003 and 2008. Considering that Texas Monthly has only put out their list four times, I'd say those are pretty good credentials.

One of the things that makes Vincek's so unique is their smoking process. Their ribs and chicken cook over Texas-made B&B oak lump charcoal. B&B is the absolute best, so I brought sixty pounds of the stuff with me when we moved from Texas to Tennessee a few months ago. The sausage and brisket get smoked over pecan wood, and the brisket is then finished on oak lump charcoal as well.

Like any good Czechs, Vincek's also offers kolaches and klobasniky (and no, it's not a "meat kolache"). This time of year you can find pumpkin cream cheese kolaches here. They looked awesome, but we wanted to save our appetites for barbecue.

I got a 3 Meat Plate of brisket, pork ribs, and sausage. There were quite a few options for sides, but I decided on a picnic-ready duo of baked potato salad and macaroni salad.

This was my first run-in with baked potato salad, but it was really tasty. The best way I can describe it is to say that it was a cold, mashed up baked potato. I could really taste the sour cream and bacon. I'm sort of a potato salad aficionado, and this was good enough that I plan on making it at home in the future. The sweet macaroni salad was also a decent side. It was creamy, but not over-mayonnaised. Maybe a little jalapeno for heat and it would be fantastic.

The brisket had an awesome smoke ring and dark black crust. I noticed some fat around the edges that looked a little under-rendered, but when I bit in I found that it had actually soaked up the smoke quite nicely. It was an interesting smoke flavor that was really enjoyable, thanks to the combined pecan and oak lump charcoal. I could definitely taste both heat sources in the meat. My slices, though lean, were also incredibly tender. This was honestly one of the best briskets I've encountered.

A coarse grind on the sausage radiates a sense of homemade gloriousness that you just can't get with the store-bought stuff. It had a nice crisp casing and a mild smokiness. Vincek's sausage also has plenty of pepper and is slightly spicy. Even if you only have a small appetite, make sure to include the sausage on your order.

Last came the big, meaty St. Louis-cut spare ribs. Some ribs are a little skimpy in the meat department, but at Vincek's it went up at least an inch off the bone. The direct-heat charcoal cooking process gave these ribs a great taste, and the flavor goes all the way through. A nice seasoning on the crust enhanced their taste even further. They were also very tender. It only took a slight tug for the meat to come away perfectly.

In my humble opinion, Vincek's Smokehouse should have been on the 2013 Texas Monthly list as well. Their non-traditional cooking style makes each bite taste like heaven.

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Vincek's Smokehouse
139 S Dill St
East Bernard, TX 77435
(979) 335-7921
http://vincekssmokehouse.com/

Austin's BBQ & Catering (Eagle Lake, TX)

I don't get to visit my native Texas all that often, but when I do I try to make it count. The heavy and much-needed rains left us with few options for Sunday fun, so we decided to take a random barbecue roadtrip. First up was Austin's in Eagle Lake. Although Austin's doesn't get as much praise and notoriety as other Texas barbecue joints, it has consistently been on every one of the Texas Monthly "Top 50" lists since the very beginning.

We caught the scent of delicious pit smoke as soon as we rolled up, which was the product of a huge pile of cut pecan logs out back. Pecan wood is awesome for smoking. It's more potent than oak and hickory, but doesn't pack quite as much punch as mesquite. The seating area at Austin's is nothing more than a fenced-in slab out by the highway, and the cramped interior leaves very little wiggle room to move around. Clearly the focus here is on the meat rather than the ambiance.

In order to get a good feel for Austin's barbecuing capabilities, I went with their Three Meat Combo. Sadly, they were out of sausage today. That left me with brisket, pork ribs, and chicken. Make sure to ask for bark on your brisket, otherwise they'll likely trim it. I remembered to make that request, but forgot to ask for no sauce. Oh well. For my sides, I picked the mayo potato salad and pinto beans.

As I suppose its name should have suggested, the potato salad had an exceptionally large amount of mayo in it. I mean, like a whole jar of mayonnaise. This made things sort of mushy and unappealing. The beans lacked seasoning and basically just tasted like plain beans. The accompanying onion helped, but not much.

The brisket looked awesome, partially because I asked for fattier slices with extra bark. I found a nice crust and thick, visible smoke ring. The heavily-peppered crust also had a great flavor. The meat had a good smoke level, which I could taste despite the excessive tomato-based barbecue sauce. It was also melt-in-your-mouth tender. Delicious all the way around.

We asked for dark meat chicken, which tends to dry out less during the smoking process. Barbecue chicken is sometimes difficult to master, but ours was very tender and moist. The chicken skin was also very flavorful and crisped up nicely. I couldn't taste much smoke, but that's fairly normal for chicken.

Much like the brisket, the ribs were also coated in black pepper. A slight pinkish hue suggested a more moderate amount of smoke, which I confirmed once I dug in. The tasty crust made up for the lack of smoke somewhat. Far too many barbecue joints overcook their ribs until the meat is "falling off the bone," but here the incredibly juicy meat came off the bone with only a slight tug. That's the right way to smoke a rib.

Despite a few minor flaws in an otherwise fantastic meal, Austin's BBQ is definitely worth a visit.

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Austin's BBQ & Catering
507 E Main St
Eagle Lake, TX 77434
(979) 234-5250

Fall Fest 2014 (Nashville, TN)

Fall is by far my wife's favorite season, mostly because it allows her to wear scarves and the color orange. Texas doesn't really have fall (just summer and winter), so it's fun to be in a place where the leaves actually change rather than die. After a disappointing Saturday, we decided to try and salvage what was left of our weekend by heading to Fall Fest at Green Door Gourmet. Some pre-festival research told me that there would be several food trucks at the event, including barbecue!

Green Door Gourmet is an awesome local farm with weekly CSA (community-supported agriculture) baskets. Their produce is some of the best I've found in middle-Tennessee, and they also have a great selection of locally-sourced jams, jellies, honey, cooking oils, and various pickled things. Today I hoped I'd find some great non-veggie deliciousness as well.

The Fall Fest had everything you could ask for from a family-friendly (and pet-friendly) event: hayrides, pumpkin carving, face painting, balloon animals, and a pumpkin patch. For the big kids, there was Yazoo beer, live music, shopping, and cornhole. All of that sounded fantastic, but we opted for some delicious homemade basil lemonade to get things started.

Paradise Ridge BBQ
(615) 202-8636
http://www.paradiseridgecatering.com/

I had my first run-in with Paradise Ridge at the underwhelming Music City BBQ Festival. The ribs they served me were about as disappointing as the festival itself, but I decided to give Paradise Ridge another try. Their initial menu included BBQ Tacos, although after only an hour and a half into a six-hour festival, all they had left was smoked sausage and coleslaw. I didn't notice any huge lines during that time, so I'm guessing the lack of food was simply due to poor planning. Their sole-remaining menu items didn't sound that appealing, but I got an order anyway.

This was basically just a big hotdog, complete with a basic grocery store hotdog bun. The slaw was also pretty monochromatic, with only a few orange flecks of carrot poking through the sea of white. I hoped it tasted better than it looked. It did not. The sausage, much like its bun, was also of the grocery store variety. I likely could have ordered the same caliber sausage dog from the Kroger deli. The smoke level here was so minuscule that the sausage may as well have been grilled. The sweet slaw added a nice crunch, but not much else. I guess it's a good thing that I got some "smoked" sausage while it lasted, because shortly thereafter the only things they were peddling were plain bratwurst hotdogs. Everything about this operation is extremely half-assed, even their boring, undecorated, red food truck.

The Grilled Cheeserie
(615) 491-9640
http://thegrilledcheeserietruck.com/

As disappointed as I was with Paradise Ridge, I was really anxious to try The Grilled Cheeserie. In a few short years, the Cheeserie has climbed to the top of the Nashville food truck scene. They've been featured on Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," and they've been voted best food truck three years running by both The Tennessean and Nashville Scene. Even though there was no barbecue to be found on their menu, I knew it would still be delicious. We went all out and ordered the Why I Autumn Melt (their special "Melt of the Moment"), the B&B Melt, and a Cookie Melt for dessert.

The Grilled Cheeserie's Why I Autumn Melt is the perfect grilled cheese for fall: smoked gouda, Benton's country ham, caramelized apple and fig mustard, crispy kale, and buttered leeks on pumpkin-seeded multigrain bread. Needless to say, this sammich has quite a lot going on. The pumpkin bread was crusty and grilled just right. I found a nice tartness from the apple/fig mustard, and the ham added some much-needed savory notes. The creamy gouda tied the whole thing together quite well. Mrs. Barbecue Fiend didn't care for the greens, which were admittedly a little bitter. All in all, I was really happy we gave this melt a try.

Next up was the B&B, which is one of The Grilled Cheeserie's normal menu items. It doesn't have near as many ingredients as the first one we tried, but it still sounded amazing: buttermilk cheddar, Benton's bacon, and peach jam on multigrain bread. The salty and delicious Benton's bacon (if you haven't had it, you definitely need to) paired nicely with the sweet peach jam. I like specialty breads, but the buttery multigrain was perfect in its simplicity. My only regret was that I had to share half of this sandwich with my wife.

We were both pretty full by this point, but the Cookie Melt sounded too good not to devour: a Mexican chocolate cookie, dulce de leche, and pumpkin marshmallow. It was certainly messy to eat, but delicious nonetheless. The abundant cinnamon in the Mexican chocolate cookie had a nice bite to it, and the dulce de leche was almost like caramel. The marshmallow had only minimal pumpkin flavor to it, or perhaps it was simply masked by the other stronger flavors. Regardless, this was a great note to end on.

After suffering through Paradise Ridge's mediocre barbecue on two separate occasions, I can say with absolute certainty that I will not be eating their food a third time. On the flipside, the sandwiches from The Grilled Cheeserie were as amazing as I hoped they would be. Despite the ups and downs, we will definitely return to Green Door Gourmet's Fall Fest next year. I just hope they find a different barbecue vendor by then.

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Fall Fest 2014
Green Door Gourmet
7011 River Road Pike
Nashville, TN 37209
(615) 942-7169
http://www.greendoorgourmet.com/

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q (Decatur, AL)

This weekend my wife and I found ourselves heading south to Birmingham so that she could play fairy godmother at the baptism of our friends' cute new baby. As if that wasn't exciting enough on its own, I also managed to talk my way into a lunchtime pit stop (pun very much intended) at Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, Alabama.

Here's a little bit of history for context. Bob Gibson started selling barbecue nearly 90 years ago from a makeshift table of wooden planks nailed to a tree in his backyard. Bob's signature white barbecue sauce was a huge part of his continually-rising success. Now-renowned pitmaster Chris Lilly married into the Gibson family, and in 1992 he joined their barbecue operations as well. With Chris's help, Big Bob Gibson developed a new red barbecue sauce that rivaled their famous white sauce. Since then, these guys have won too many competition awards to list, including Memphis in May, the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational, numerous state championships, etc, etc.

I've seen Chris Lilly compete on television countless times, and I even have one of his cookbooks (Fire & Smoke) on my shelf at home. I'm also pretty stoked to watch him and his team compete at the upcoming Jack Daniel's competition in Lynchburg next month. I was certain that it wouldn't be Chris at the helm today, and I realize that competition barbecue is vastly different from its restaurant-quality cousin. With that in mind, I made sure to temper my expectations appropriately.

Given Big Bob Gibson's fame and popularity, I was expecting a hefty Saturday lunch crowd, but we walked in and got a booth at 12:30 with no wait at all. This place has kind of a diner vibe going on. Their awards are prominently displayed right as you walk in the door, and most of the wood-paneled walls are covered with framed articles from Southern Living and the like. There's no need to be humble when you have their credentials.

Naturally, I went for the Big Bob Gibson combo: St. Louis-style spare ribs and a quarter chicken. This way I'd get to try both their red and white barbecue sauces. I'm not normally a big sauce guy, but I made an exception today. For my sides, I picked their red skin potato salad and kettle baked beans.

The beans were nice and sweet. I found a few bits of pepper mixed in, but I couldn't find any spiciness. The mayo-based potato salad was also fairly tasty. It had a hefty amount of onion, which gave it a good bite. These were both decent sides, but nothing all that special.

I was expecting to have my chicken pre-dunked in white sauce, like it is in every television show about Big Bob Gibson's I've ever seen. When I asked the waitress about it, she instead pointed me to the bottle of white sauce on the table. Really? Who knows how long that's been sitting there? The room-temperature bottled sauce didn't come out as thinly as I had hoped. At least it had a nice vinegary tang to it. The chicken had a crispy skin, though it could have been seasoned a little more. I got dark meat so it didn't dry out very much. There was only a mild smoky taste here. I think I liked the sauce more than I liked the chicken, which is an unusual thing for me to say.

For my money, St. Louis-cut ribs are the only way to go. These had a sweet glaze and a good crust, though not much bark. I liked the seasoning blend on the crust too, but there wasn't enough of it. Just like with the chicken, I only found a minimal amount of smoke in the ribs. I was also disappointed that the meat fell right off the bone with almost no effort on my part. Properly cooked rib meat should stay put until each subsequent bite, not come off all at once. I added their "championship" red sauce just for kicks. It came from a bottle on the table too, so my expectations were low. It was good, but there wasn't anything that jumped out at me as overwhelmingly delicious. I've had grocery store barbecue sauces that tasted about the same.

When we left, we stepped outside into a veritable fog of pit smoke. I wish more of it had found its way into our food. Sadly, I may have once again fallen victim to hype. Perhaps Chris Lilly has shifted too much of his focus onto the competition circuit to the detriment of the restaurant that started it all.

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Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
1715 6th Ave SE
Decatur, AL 35601
(256) 350-6969
http://www.bigbobgibson.com/

Edley's Bar-B-Que (Nashville, TN)

I've been dying to try out Edley's since we moved back to Nashville a few months ago. I had some errands to run in town this morning, so I took the opportunity to add barbecue to my to-do list.

You'll find Edley's in the up-and-coming 12 South neighborhood of Nashville, which I think was mostly just residential when we lived here eight years ago. The atmosphere is a good combination of modern and rustic. It's a lively place with a full bar, so I might be back for happy hour sometime soon. The line to order had nearly doubled within a few minutes of my 11:30 arrival. Clearly this joint is a local favorite. I'm told that brisket runs out fast, so get there early if you want beef.

I don't normally do barbecue sandwiches, but Edley's Tuck Special sounded too good to resist: a brisket sandwich with house made spicy pimento cheese, an over-easy egg, red and white barbecue sauces, and pickles. It doesn't get much more Southern than that. Well, I suppose they could have added a fried something-or-other, but I digress. The Texan in me requires that my brisket be sliced instead of chopped (even in sammich form), so I made sure to double-check when ordering. Rather than pressing my luck by adding on another entree, I decided to make my Tuck a combo with potato salad and mac-n-cheese on the side.

The mayonnaise-based potato salad was very tasty. Skin-on potatoes were a good choice. There was much more potato than veggie in the mix, which worked well here. The macaroni was far from basic Easy Mac. I really enjoyed the crumbly topping and spices. It was gooey and creamy from the various cheeses they use, and was much better than the mac and cheese I usually find in my barbecue travels. Most of the time I end up leaving a portion of my side dishes behind, but today I finished every last bite.

It was hard to decide exactly how to tackle the towering Tuck Special, so I assembled a pile of napkins and dove right in. The runny egg yolk burst the instant I gripped the sandwich. After thoroughly making a mess of myself and the table, I gave in and opted for a knife and fork instead. Wow, this sandwich was deliciously complex! I managed to find a few bits of plain brisket, which had a great smoky flavor as well as a slight spiciness. The meat was very tender, due in part to the fattier slices I received. Edley's pimento cheese comes out almost like a patty and definitely has some heat to it as well. The addition of the mayo-based white barbecue sauce was really interesting, while the pickles added acidity, sweetness, and a much-needed crunch. I wasn't sure how the egg would play out, but it actually tied everything together beautifully. This sandwich was incredible all the way around!

I'll always be a sucker for the classics, but Edley's proves that barbecue doesn't necessarily have to be simple to be amazing. I will definitely be back to sample their more traditional barbecue items.

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Edley's Bar-B-Que
2706 12th Ave S
Nashville, TN 37204
(615) 953-2951
http://edleysbbq.com/

Judge Bean's Bar-B-Que (Brentwood, TN)

Let me preface this by saying that I'm pretty particular about my hair. Lately I've started driving almost 30 minutes from my house to Brentwood to get my hair cut. What can I say, I'm a diva. As much as I like my new barber, I'm not a big fan of the drive. Luckily for me, there are several barbecue joints in the Brentwood area to make the trip more worthwhile. Today I decided to scope out Judge Bean's Bar-B-Que.

This place is owned by Aubrey "Judge" Bean, who has been a fixture of Nashville barbecue for over a decade. As a native Texan, Judge Bean unsurprisingly and thankfully gravitates toward brisket rather than pulled pork. A man after my own heart. He is also apparently a descendent of the infamous Texas lawman Judge Roy Bean, which is just awesome.

I liked the warm wood that covered the floor and walls, and the tin roof added a nice rustic touch. The stuffed deer heads, bobcats, and armadillos made me feel right at home. There was plenty of Texas Longhorns memorabilia thrown around too, but not a single piece of Aggie decor. Sorry, Aggs. And at the risk alienating any of my Volunteer friends, it was nice to see the correct usage of the abbreviation "UT", as well as the proper shade of orange, being used in Tennessee.

Part of me was anticipating a counter-service barbecue joint, but Judge Bean's uses waitresses. As I frequently do when dining alone, I saddled up to the bar. It's much less awkward and it allows me to watch TV whilst chowing down. The very friendly bartender took great care of me. In fact, everyone I encountered here was exceptionally welcoming. Clearly the staff has been instructed on the finer points of Texas charm as well as Texas 'que.

Since Judge Bean's specializes in Texas-style barbecue, and since I was feeling a little homesick, a Texas Trinity was in order. I got their 3-Meat Smokehouse Combo with brisket, ribs, and sausage, as well as potato salad and cowboy beans for my two sides. I also couldn't help tacking on a piece of their so-called Texas Sushi for good measure.

My Texas Sushi appetizer came out first. What you have here is a jalapeno stuffed with sausage and cream cheese, wrapped in brisket. It's kind of like a California roll, except for men. I de-toothpicked my "sushi" and dug right in. The brisket had a nice smoke ring and was quite tender despite being a leaner cut of meat. I also liked the addition of the sausage, which had a good amount of seasoning. I found a great hit of smoke and heat in each bite, tempered nicely by the cream cheese. Good thing I had a big glass of sweet tea to cool things down. The entire thing was absolutely fantastic, and it made me really excited to try these meats again in the main course.

I enjoyed their mayonnaise-based potato salad, which was a nice change of pace from the mustard-based potato salads I usually find in my travels. Without the overpowering mustard flavors, I could really taste the pickles and pimento. It was also interesting to see the potatoes sliced (like au gratin potatoes) rather than diced or chopped. According to the menu, the cowboy beans are "not a sleeping partners favorite," so I'll apologize in advance to Mrs. Barbecue Fiend. The beans had a ton of flavor, and there was definitely some spiciness to them. They reminded me of the beans you'll find out at the deer lease.

The brisket had a deep red smoke ring which perfectly matched the equally smoky flavor. The dark black bark was also extremely tasty. Though lean, the brisket was magnificently tender. What little fat there was had been rendered beautifully. In addition to signifying the proper cooking time/temperature, this also tells me that Judge Bean's truly cares about their product. I wish I had requested a fatty cut, but this was still really good.

Barbecued sausage seems to be a rare find in Middle Tennessee, so the Czech in me was happy to see it at Judge Bean's. The casings were very crisp, with each bite "popping" in my mouth. I could really taste the smoke, which isn't always the case with sausage. This was most assuredly not made in-house, but it was still really tasty. I was also hoping for a coarse grind, though that's just a personal preference.

I customarily leave my ribs for last, mostly to limit how greasy and meat-covered my cell phone gets while I'm typing out blog notes. These ribs didn't have as much of a crust as I was expecting. I did, however, appreciate that they weren't served drowning in sauce. The meat was very tender, but sadly had no bone retention. Perhaps this was an attempt to appease local demands for "falling-off-the-bone" ribs, or perhaps Judge Bean is merely employing one of the many Texas barbecue traditions besides my beloved Central Texas-style. That being said, they had a nice smoke level and an all-around great flavor.

The brisket was definitely my favorite meat here. Next time I eat at Judge Bean's, I may just order up a dozen pieces of Texas Sushi and call it good.

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Judge Bean's Bar-B-Que
7022 Church St East
Brentwood, TN 37027
(615) 823-2280
http://www.judgebeans.com/