The PLAN

The Meeting took place pretty much as scripted and we now have a PLAN.

Kirt actually got there before me, Greg rolled in right behind me and is fairly comfortable that there will in fact be beer at our various stops.  Tim did show up after being called and I'm pretty sure I saw clubs in the back of his car.  Still not sure if he has actually read any of the emails or the even the blog by now.


It was decided we would venture forth in Greg's Brand Spanking New Ford F150 King Ranch truck (aka "Baby").  Greg decided this not because he cares deeply about the rest of us and wants us to ride in style; spoiled by seats that not only heat your butt, but will blow cold air up it as well.  But rather as a matter of pride after Kirt and I railed on him about how he was afraid that we would scar the inside of his purty new truck by (as Kirt put it) "burying one in the seats".  Who said a 45 year old man isn't susceptible to peer pressure?

Commanding our merry band of characters will be Capt Kirt, 'cause he is the man with the plan!
Piloting (at least while sober) and acting as our Chief Medical Officer is Knuckles (cause Bones is just too obvious), aka  Greg "Dammit Kirt, I'm a PA - not a doctor".
Navigator, resident techno geek, and general wise a** - yes, that would be me.
Token Red Shirt (and you know what happens to the Red Shirt) - Tim, simply because he is a good sport and won't read the blog in order to defend himself.


At 8a on Friday, November 5th; the 4 Compadres will set out on our 3 day mission to explore some of the tastiest BBQ joints in Texas.

To get a proper start to things, we will have breakfast at one of our favorite places to eat breakfast (or least the only one we can consistently agree on) - Caroline's Country Cafe in Midlothian.  From there, we will set a land speed record to Shiner in order to make it in time for the brewery tour.  If Greg has it his way, we will make both the 11a and the 1:30p tours.  Lunch will be whatever we happen to find on our way or in Shiner.  After our tour, we will head out to the New Braunfels Smokehouse for dinner.

Saturday morning will find us up early and headed to Snow's in Lexington to get our breakfast and catch them before they sell out.  For lunch we couldn't settle on one place, so as my father is fond of saying - we didn't "give into the tyranny of or" and decided to eat at both Black's and Smitty's in Lockhart.  For dinner we will find ourselves back in the Austin city limits at either County Line or Subbs (this part is still under discussion and it is entirely possible we may figure out a way to go to both).

Sunday starts off with us getting to Marble Falls for breakfast at the Blue Bonnet Cafe.  Yes, I know it's not BBQ, but it is a great breakfast joint and frankly we will probably need something a little different by then.  Lunch will find us in Llano at Coopers.  To finish our quest, we will land at the Hard Eight in Stephenville.

Well this is the plan, let's see how well it get executed.  :-)


For a Google map of our journeys:


View Larger Map
  


Here is the list of where we will be going:

Caroline’s Country Café

1000 E Main St

Midlothian, TX 76065

Spoetzl Brewery

603 E. Brewery St.

Shiner, TX 77984

http://www.shiner.com/

New Braunfels Smokehouse

1090 N. Business 35

New Braunfels, TX 78130

http://www.nbsmokehouse.com/

Snows Barbeque

516 Main Street

Lexington, TX 78947

http://www.snowsbbq.com/

Black’s Barbeque

215 N. Main St

Lockhart, TX 78644

http://www.blacksbbq.com/

Smitty’s Market

208 S. Commerce St

Lockhart, TX 78644

http://www.smittysmarket.com/

The County Line BBQ

6500 Bee Caves Road

Austin, TX

http://www.countyline.com/index.asp

Stubbs BBQ

801 Red River St.

Austin, TX 78701

http://www.stubbsaustin.com/

Blue Bonnet Café

211 US Highway 281

Marble Falls, TX 78654

http://bluebonnetcafe.net/

Coopers Old Time Pit Bar B Que

604 W Young St.

Llano, TX 78643

http://www.coopersbbqllano.com/

Hard-Eight Barbeque

1091 Glen Rose Road

Stephenville, TX 76401

http://www.hardeightbbq.com/

Update - There is going to be a MEETING

Okay, so let's get an update. With the HUGE following (2 comments and 1 follower), I want to be sure I keep everyone informed with what is going on in regards to the upcoming BBQ Tour. The interest in this blog has me completely blown away! There have been a total of 65 views of the blog with an all time high of 5 in one day! Amazing!

Friday of this week, there is going to be an executive planning session to discuss the details of our adventure. The 4 Compadres will come together for a “sit down” and plan out our venture in exacting detail. I anticipate that we will know exactly which BBQ establishments we are going to, have a well defined time table (down to the minute), and a very detailed cost estimate by the end of the 4 hour meeting.

Well, maybe not exactly. Here is a much more accurate representation of what will most likely happen.

I'll get to Carolines around 8a or so and Kirt will pull in about 5-10 minutes later. This is assuming there isn't some sort of crisis he has to deal with. For those of you who are not aware, the paint industry is one that is constantly dealing with one crisis or another. An ER Doc has NOTHING on a day in the life of a paint salesman. Just ask Kirt. I, on the other hand, have the day off and have no emergencies to worry about. Speaking of emergencies – if Greg is able to come (has to get permission first) he will probably arrive slightly later than Kirt. Tim however, will not be there and one of us will wind up calling him about the time the food is delivered and the conversation will go something like this:

Kirt/Brian/Greg :“Tim, you coming to breakfast?”

Tim: “Dude, what breakfast? We're having breakfast today? What day is it? Where are we having breakfast?”

Kirt/Brian/Greg: “We sent you an email.”

Tim: “You did? When did you send it? How long y'all going to be there?” Translation: “Email? I haven't checked email in 6 months! Damn, they sent me something in email. I don't know why they do that. They know that I don't actual read anything unless someone prints it out and hands it to me.”

Kirt/Brian/Greg: “Yeah we sent you an email. You coming to breakfast?”

Tim: “I don't know, I think I have an appointment. Let me see if I can get over there.” Translation: “Damn, what time is my tee time?”

So if Tim doesn't have a conflicting tee time, he will join us about 20 min later (even though his office is less than 5 min from Carolines).

In the meantime, the 3 of us will sit around and exchange various low level insults – hack on each other, and in general act as you would expect 3 men who refuse to admit they are adults will act.

The actual planning portion of the conversation will most likely take about 5 min. And will probably go something like this:

Kirt: “Okay, y'all thought of where you want to go? Any place specific?”

Brian/Greg: {Slack Jawed Blank Stares} “Um, where ever you think is best.”

Greg: “Will there be beer?”

Kirt: “Yes, Greg – there will be beer.” Kirt will then list out 3-5 famous Texas BBQ joints that he has told all of us at least a half a dozen times as his suggestions and none of us will remember any of them.

Brian/Greg: “Whatever you think is best, they all sound good to me.”

Greg: “Do they have beer?”

Kirt: “Yes, Greg – they have beer.” Kirt will map out an excellent plan listing 2 options. Plan A will be a guaranteed protein/cholesterol OD by BBQ. (BTW – In any Rudy's you will see an article about an A&M study that found BBQ is actually good for you. Something about good cholesterol. I don't know the details, it was longer than 5 sentences and I had ribs in front of me. Gotta love them Aggies!) Plan B will still be a protein/cholesterol OD, but will include some optional places if we have simply had enough BBQ. (Not sure that is actually possible. But, then again – I didn't think you could OD on cigar smoke. Proved that theory wrong at the Great Smoke in LV.)

Greg/Brian: “Sounds like a great plan!”

Greg: “They have beer. Right?”

Kirt: “We can even try to make a swing into Shiner.”

Greg at this point just grins and gets a far away look on his face. We will lose him for about 5 min, but he will eventual tune back in.

Somewhere in all of this, we will figure out what time we want to try and head out , where we want to stay and whose vehicle we are going to take.

About that time, Tim will walk in and say: “Hey, what did I miss?”

Greg/Kirt/Brian: “We will tell Tami what time to have you ready to leave and when we think we will bring you back.”

Tim: “Excellent!”

Shortly after all of that. The “meeting” will be done and we will all head out for the day.

Look for the next post, it will come sometime after “The Meeting” - but before we head out. At least I think it will.