Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q

I was just down in Austin, TX for a pretty geeky event.  As with any of my journies I make it a point to find the place that the locals go to.  I have a small set of criteria:

1. It must be recommended by a local (hotel workers are excluded from this) 
2. It shouldn’t be a chain
3. It should feature local or regional food

While I was in Austin, Dave and I had an evening to kill and we had heard about a number of different options.  On previous days we’d done Mexican, Thai and chain food so we were looking for something a little bit more local.  Someone at the conference that we were attending had mentioned Rudy’s to Dave and I’d heard about it from the folks sitting next to me on my flight from Phoenix to Austin.  Unfortunately both of us had forgotten the name.  Dave swore it was Rubies and I had lost that brain cell in a bottle of mediocre tequila the night before.  We took the leap and asked the guy who was running the desk at our hotel to recommend a good BBQ joint.  He rattled a few off and ended with

“…but my favourite is Rudy’s and it’s just down the street.  It’s where I take my family sir.”

When we asked for directions he stated that you’d look at it and see a gas station and probably think that the place was sketchy, but not to worry.  Well, when the cab dropped us off we saw the gas station and I started to second guess the hotel guy.  In we went and I looked up at the menu board above the cashiers to find that there were only about 12 different things on it.  The next thing that I noticed was that while we were hearded through the queue towards the cashiers there was a huge stainless steel trough full of all types of bottled beverages.  Beer, pop, soda, and lord knows what else.

After a very short wait in line we hit the cashier and were greeted with “Welcome to Rudy’s.  Have you been here before?”  Until then I thought that we were the consumate obvious tourists.  The guy behind the counter graciously explained the ordering process to us, made recommendations and executed the process flawlessly.  Heck, all the counter staff were like that, and they obviously were having fun both with the patrons and each other, but not to the detriment of the service.

Ordering is a matter of saying what you want and how much of it.  For example you would order a 1/2 pound of Brisket Moist or full Baby Back Ribs.  The counter guy translates that into some kind of lingo for the guys running the knives.  You see the food is still in it’s full form while you’re ordering.  So the brisket is a full slab.  When you order 1/2 a pound they thin slice it right there for that order.  So counter dude yells out “1/2 Pound MOIST!” and “1 BAYBEEE” for our first order.  Within 2 minutes he has the food at the counter and he’s putting it into this big plastic tray (think food court tray, but with 4 inch high sides).  He also adds some wax paper and explains that those are our plates.  Off we head with our food and pick up some utensils and some sause.  Yes, that’s how they spell it.

Being that it’s night and cooling off from 90+ degrees, we decide to eat outside.  The wax paper plates worked fine.  The brisket was unbelievable.  The Baby Back Ribs were good, but the dry rub was just too salty for my liking.  The Bar-B-Q Sause was great, but after a bunch I was starting to find it a little too salty too.  The brisket was so good though.  After my first half pound, I went back for another full pound and still could have eaten more.  It was so tender and Moist was exactly the description I would have given it.

Also note that we had IBC Root Beer and that stuff is great too.

Overall I’d give Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q a 4.75 out of 5.  It’s almost worth being the sole reason for going to Austin.