So which one is better...

Every month I get a copy of Texas Montly. It is a magazine, written mostly by crazy hippy Austinites. Although it mostly disagrees with my political views, it is a great magazine with really great writers and great articles about Texas. They do lot's of top 50. Top 50 hiking trails, best places in state to travel, and my fav. top 50 bbq places in Texas. We received this issue of Texas Monthly prior to moving to Austin, and we were excited to see that just outside of Kyle in another small town lies three of the top 20. Blacks, Kreutz and Smitty's. Not too long after we saw this article, we were watching a bbq special on th travel channel. It blew my mind that all three were in the top 10 places to eat bbq in the entire country.

Clearly we must find out for ourselves if they are as good as the media says they are. So today we took our first trip to Lockhart, 23 miles east of Kyle, to begin our journey of finding the best of the best. On the agenda are the top 3, plus an additional place my boss just raves about called Chisum Trail.

Since we have no allegience, we will go down the list alphabetically.

First was Black's.

Black's is famous for their brisket, and is the oldest family owned bbq joint in Texas. Jason, myself and Josh (Jason's little brother who is visiting and will pose as our guest judge) decided we would rate each joint on a scale from 1-5 stars (kinda like star search) in five different categories. Meat 1, Meat 2, Sides, Sauce and Atmosphere.

The brisket at Black's is AMAZING...definitetly five star status. However, Meat 2 (sausage) had a really strange consistency. The sides were pretty good, sauce was great and atmosphere was mediocre. All in all, Black's received a 3.82 star rating. Not the best...but not too shabby either. The real question is "Would I take my parents there." The answer is probably...depending on what else was open.