As I read the cover story in the February issue of Texas Monthly early Wednesday evening, my fingers still smelled of barbecue. Well, to be honest it could have been that my fingers smelled of barbecue, or it could have been that the barbecue smell resided in my beard, which collected plenty of grit and sauce at lunch almost six hours earlier.
Or it could have been that the smell lingered in my brain as a smoky imprint left by delicious ribs.
Tony DeMaria's features all-you-can-eat ribs on Wednesdays. For $9, the barbecue patron receives two sides, a drink and all the ribs he or she can handle. I handled six or seven ribs. I lost count. I didn't want to gorge myself, so I stopped at six or seven. No doubt, I could've plowed through a dozen, but that would have shut me down. Barbecue does that to me, makes it almost impossible to be a productive citizen in its aftermath. That's why I drove home to brush my teeth, wash the remnants of lunch out of my beard and change my clothes in an effort to concentrate on something other than barbecue in the afternoon.
And yet, I sat in my living room at the end of the work day, reading about barbecue in Texas Monthly and having a multi-dimensional appreciation of the article as I could still vaguely smell barbecue from somewhere.
I initially grabbed this month's issue of Texas Monthly while waiting in line in the grocery store for two reasons: I was intrigued by the cover story centering on two Austin barbecue establishments, but mostly because I thought it would contain TM's latest ranking of our state's top 50 barbecue joints. I was mistaken. No rankings. But the cover story promised to be worth the price of the magazine, which was $4.95.
TM is, for better or worse, the authority on Texas barbecue. Every couple of years, the magazine publishes a list of Texas' 50 best barbecue joints. It has also made available a free "BBQ Finder" smart phone app. If a barbecue joint lands on TM's list in any given year, as Tony DeMaria's did in 2003, it's a source of pride and likely a boost for business.
The cover story I was reading profiled Franklin's Barbecue in Austin. In it, the magazine acknowledges its own power to raise a barbecue joint to legendary status.
"Almost a decade later, a little shack in Lexington called Snow's BBQ flared into the spotlight and quickly developed a following of its own," the TM article states, then adds parenthetically, "a process helped along by this magazine's naming of Snow's as the state's best barbecue restaurant in 2008."
So no one is pretending TM doesn't have the power to make a barbecue restaurant famous. Anyone, presumably, can serve up brisket, ribs and sausage and many people do so commercially. Probably dozens of barbecue stops around our state offer fantastic plates that TMs barbecue jury has never considered.
But when TM puts its stamp on a place, that's a ticket to fame and, possibly, fortune.
As such, the magazine has to keep pace, thus the cover story. Franklin Barbecue is not currently featured among the top 50 posted on the TM BBQ website. But with people apparently waiting for hours most days to get at Franklin's brisket, it's a good bet it will be on the next list.
Also absent from the list are any of Waco's barbecue establishments. Whup's in Marlin and Schoepf's in Belton are the closest.
As I mentioned earlier, Tony DeMaria's appeared on it a few years ago. I'm not sure how the rankings are calibrated, but I don't believe, having dined there on Wednesday, that DeMaria's slipped off the list because its quality slipped. I enjoyed Smitty's barbecue last week. It's one of TM's top 5, but I wouldn't automatically pick it over Tony D's.
Take Wednesday's ribs for example. Big, hearty, tender ribs. The meat just about fell off the bone. No gnawing necessary. Just flavorful meat either smothered in barbecue sauce or dipped in Tony DeMaria's famous gravy. My pals and I came and went before noon, but by then a cafe full of barbecue fans were feasting on ribs while at least a dozen waited in line to get their paws wet with sauce.
On other days, Tony DeMaria's brisket and sausage stack up well with anyone. But on Wednesday's, the ribs take center stage. To me, that makes it a tough place to beat by any joint in Austin, Lockhart, Lexington, Llano, Marlin, Belton or anywhere else.
So I don't mind that I can sense the vague presence of barbecue hours after I've consumed it. That seems to be the cost of doing business for the barbecue lover.
Sometime soon, I'll have that sensation after dining at Franklin's. Having heard word on the street and now read about it in the Texas BBQ bible, I'm obviously intrigued.
I don't take it as a given that I will prefer Franklin's over Tony DeMaria's, though. I refuse to believe the hype and neither should you. Don't take my appraisal of our local barbecue scene as gospel. Get out there and try for yourself.
Let your own fingers and beard and general being smell vaguely of barbecue — perfume should smell so good. And then you decide.
