Luling City Market BBQ, Luling, Texas

Total Miles Traveled: 19,958

So what do you do when you’re in Texas?  You go find a BBQ joint where the ribs taste so good they make you want to slap yo mama.  We decided to combine BBQ with a trip to explore San Antonio, Austin, and the Texas Hill Country west of Austin in a small town called Fredericksburg (more on these areas in future posts).

According to my brother and friends, the best BBQ places in central Texas are an hour outside of Austin, so we decided to hit one of the options on our way out to San Antonio – Luling City Market in Luling, Texas.

When you walk in to this place, you know it’s the real deal.   It’s simple inside, with basic tables and booths, and dimly lit with fluorescent lighting.  It’s not about the decor here, because you don’t need any – it already has ambiance, between the local clientele and the Texas twang you overhear.

To get your meat, you go to the smoker room in the back where the guys pictured below sell you pork ribs, beef brisket by the pound, and smoked sausage by the link.  You can also get your pickles, pickled jalapeno, pickled banana pepper, and sliced white bread back here.

Here’s another view of the smoker room – gotta love that wood and the tub of homemade barbecue sauce!

The guys were nice enough to show us the smoker with sausages inside:

When you get your meat at Luling City Market, they serve it to you on thick brown paper (like the kind you lay down when you’re painting inside the house) which is both your plate and tray.  You cinch up the sides and carry it to your table.  Then you go up to the front to get your sides, like potato salad and their tangy barbecue sauce, and then you chow down with your fingers (no utensils allowed, unless you get a side!).

Here we have a “before” picture, with pork ribs, beef brisket, and a sausage:

… annnnnd the “after” picture chomping on a pickle.  Yeah, kinda gross, eh?  Sorry, but had to share.

Overall, we’d recommend the pork ribs wholeheartedly – crispy, tangy, with meat that falls off the bone.  The brisket was a little dry – we still haven’t met a brisket we’ve liked.  And the sausage was good, but after having Argentinean chorizo, we still prefer the latter!

Next, we head over to San Antonio to check out the River Walk!