Stop 5 - Up N Smoke

Up N Smoke in Keller, Texas was recommended by some locals.  Met dear friend Laura B from American Airlines days and she, Big D and I shared a great meal.

They use Southern Pride smokers and mesquite wood.  The first non-J&R pits we’ve encountered thus far and the first mesquite.

Smoke flavor apparent, decent smoke ring on the brisket.  Very wonderful staff.  They have some unusual offerings that sounded quite tasty.  Didn’t have the stomach to try them all unfortunately.  

Smoked jalapenos with brisket and cheese inside?

Fried pork tenderloin sandwich (I did imbibe).

Enjoyed the meal and the company

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Stop 4 - Bartley's

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Why would we do this to ourselves?  A. We’re having a blast B. We never want to rest on our laurels.  Checking out what others are doing, with wood, smoking times, etc. is always good to hone your craft C. As we continue to have brisket with little or no smoke flavor, no rub, etc. it makes us pretty happy with the way we’ve done things for 13 years.  

Bartley’s in Grapevine, Texas has been honing their craft for many years.  I used to eat there when I worked at DFW Airport in “the day” 15 years or so ago.  Their carvers rock.

They have moved location since I last went, but this place was hopping and they are faring well here.  Huge carry out and catering biz.

They use J&R pits (smart folks) and hickory wood.

They serve brisket 2 ways, both of which are represented on this plate.  You can see both upper and lower brisket here.

Nice smoke ring.  Enjoyable meal.

Stop 3 - The holy Grail

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We picked up 100 pounds of brisket (not a real easy task when you are an out of towner) and headed to J&R Manufacturing.  These folks know smokers.  They build smokers.  No, they build the best smokers in the world.  We talked rub, wood (we brought 100 pounds of Arizona pecan of course), and all manner of Q.  We will go back tomorrow to pull our brisket out and talk trimming, holding and such.  Earlier they were showing their smokers to a group from Japan that is buying J&R pits for their restaurants there.  

Stop 2 - Brisket Quest Continues

Big Al’s Smokehouse in Dallas has been around since 1973.  Moved to this location (600 feet from the previous place) in January of this year.  Sparkling clean.  J&R Oyler pit, hickory wood.

Nice smoke ring.  Didn’t sense any rub.  

Big D tried the beef ribs.  He’s thinking he prefers the St. Louis cut pork ribs we favor.

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Now I remember

Trimming

I was reminded of one of the reasons we don’t trim our briskets in front of our customers

Brisket Quest

So we begin our journey...  Big D and I are in Big D.  Hmmm.  Our original employee, Darryl (a.k.a. Big D) joins me in Dallas as we seek out some great brisket places for fun and comparison.  We’ll spend some time in Dallas, Grapevine, Fort Worth, Meridian, and some other cities as we endeavor to taste our way through this part of Texas.  We’ll also spend some time at J&R Manufacturing, the fantastic folks who manufactured our smokers.

I’ll post updates here, and a few photos as we gorge ourselves on Texas Q.

First stop Off the Bone Gourmet Barbeque in Dallas.  A former gas station houses this awesome place.  Great chopped brisket and ribs adorned with sweet pickles.  A very nice first stop, I must say.  They love their J&R smoker and we love the result.  Pecan wood is their hard wood of choice, which is what we use as well.

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Waffling

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BBQ_BREAKFAST_100110sml.pdf (158 KB)
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Since we started weekend breakfast, I have gone back and forth on whether we should offer waffles or not.  Big D convinced me he had just the right recipe and that he and his staff could keep up with demand.  He’s right.  The batter is amazing.  The waffles are amazing.  And in most cases we are handing the waffle to you right after you pay.  So, try one yourself.  See if you agree.  Then let us know.  See you this weekend!  

Gluten Free Update

Yesterday marked the first day in our quest towards giving folks more gluten free options.  We found a delicious gluten free bun we’ll offer on BBQ Sandwiches.  We’re keeping them separate from the other breads, slicing them with a separate knife, and asking each customer if they want us to run the gf bun through the bun toaster.  Most are skipping the toasting as we run our regular buns through there all day long.  Initial feedback was good.  We’ll keep plodding along, trying to better understand how best to serve this important segment of the dining public.

Throwdown Lowdown

If you follow us via Social Media, or caught the TV news coverage, you likely know we went up against Restaurant NOCA in a “Brisket Throwdown” Sunday.  Here’s the backstory...

Elliot Wexler (Noca owner) approached us with the idea a few months back.  He had done something similar with Lolo’s Chicken and Waffles, a sort of “Chicken Throwdown” for local bragging rights.

We were intrigued.  Restaurant NOCA (stands for North of Camelback) is at 32nd/Camelback.  Chef Chris Curtiss has created a great menu and the place has received much-deserved acclaim in a relatively short period of time (they opened in 2008).

So how would we compete?  We agreed to pit (pun intended) our brisket, beans and onion rings against theirs.  The onion rings were made with love by Anthony and Tim at Joe’s Farm Grill, and were amAzing.  As we all started talking about the competition,  The Coffee Shop (at Agritopia next to the Grill) won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network.  Hmmm.  Tammie Coe is known for great cupcakes over on that side of town, Jessica and the crew at The Coffee Shop do a great job over here in the East Valley.  So cupcakes were added to the competition.

We viewed the competition as an opportunity to have some fun, but more importantly to sharpen our culinary “chops” and ensure that the food we would call “comfort food” we serve here is of a caliber that stacks up with the best high end food around.  We’ve always taken pride in the fact that while our place will never be thought of as “high end” based on our service system and affordable prices, our food nonetheless stacks up with the best around.  We all eat out a great deal, and have thought privately that we hold our own against many of the best places in town, and are perhaps a cut above some others in terms of quality, flavor profile, and in many cases value.  This throwdown would be an opportunity for nearly 200 Phoenicians to weigh in on the discussion.

We used the weeks leading up to the competition to get serious about ensuring our stuff was up to snuff.  We re-visited our wood (Arizona pecan) and made sure we are using an age of wood best suited for smoking meat (usually green/fresh pecan).  We studied carefully the temperature of the smokers at the time we load the meat, and again during the smoking process.  Every operator wants to think they are at the top of their game every day, but sometimes it is good and wise to measure things to ensure reality matches up with the goal.  I took the opportunity while in Texas recently to eat brisket, ok a lot of brisket, in Austin, College Station, and a few other places while there.  Gotta say I didn’t have a single bite of brisket there that compared with what we are serving every day.  I felt great about that, and knew our chances of winning this local competition were pretty good.  We forgot to tell Elliot that our brisket had already been nominated for best in the nation on Live with Regis and Kelly.  Hey, he has a computer, he could have Googled us!

Tim and Anthony took the same type of look at our onion rings at the Grill.  We would never want to rest on our laurels.  Guy Fieri’s crew told us when they were filming Diners Drive-ins and Dives our rings were the best they had ever enjoyed.  Guy went bonkers over them on camera.  But we know style plays a big role in personal preferences, and the Noca tempura-coated style versus our crispy panko rings would allow people to see contrasting types.  

The soul searching and research served us, and our customers well.  We were reminded of what we do well, and likewise reminded to constantly stay vigilant to remain at the top of our game.

Results?  We won for Brisket and Beans,  Noca edged out our rings, and Tammie Coe’s cupcakes won as well.  Other results?  We had a blast, and Noca had their busiest night ever.  We think next time maybe we’ll have the Noca crew out to Gilbert and show them how to serve great food to 2,000 people some Saturday!?

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Gluten Free

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In the last few years, there has been heightened awareness of food allergies, ingredient sensitivities, and a push to have offerings for those suffering from some type of intolerance.  Most of us have heard of lactose intolerant people, or those who suffer from celiac disease, which is an intolerance of gluten.  I don’t propose to be an expert, but serve food for a living and can and have done things to try to accommodate those with sensitivities.   I grew up with severe allergies, and learned pretty quickly in life the things that would give me trouble.  As a child, one bite of cantaloupe would (and still does) result in hives on both arms within a few minutes.  I couldn’t tolerate wheat flour, so we had to shop for rice flour or things made from it.  Later in life I found olive oil can put me in the hospital.  So I guess I have a rather heightened awareness of the problems that can come from eating things that your body doesn’t like.

While I think parents bear the primary brunt of the job of finding out what their children should or should not eat, those of us in the restaurant industry need to also make sure that at the least we know what is in our food.  If you go some place and they can’t speak to the ingredients, you really need to stop going to that place.  It usually means they didn’t make the food in house.  In other cases they don’t document their own recipes well.  In still other cases they haven’t given their employees the tools to know what ingredients are used in what dishes.

We aren’t perfect, and are always looking to do a better job of giving our employees the tools to know all of the ingredients.  Thankfully we haven’t changed many of our offerings in 13 years, so we aren’t having to constantly update things.  We have recipe books that our staff use to create everything every day.  This ensures consistency.  We also have ingredient books, which we use to field phone calls from customers and in-store inquiries.  While we don’t give out our recipes, we are always happy to share our ingredients with folks with allergies or sensitivities.  In the last few years we’ve taken a few more steps to make sure even the newest of employees can know with certainty whether that side dish may give you problems if you have, for instance, a gluten intolerance.  On “our” side of the customer line if you were to see the signs for the side dishes you would find we have written out which things have dairy, soy, gluten, etc. so we can answer questions on the fly.

At Joe’s Farm Grill Tim, Anthony and their staff have done an excellent job of breaking down each menu item and things that might cause issues for people.  They are putting the finishing touches on a really helpful detailed document that we will be putting out on the Grill web site later this year.

All this takes us to a discussion of Gluten Free buns.  We tested them the other day.  I’m told they are about the best gluten free buns available in the Valley.  Since we only like to serve the best, I am considering adding them.  There are issues to work out.  They usually come frozen from the bakery, and I only like to serve bread from our bakery that is baked the same day.  They are really expensive.  I mean really expensive.  All that said, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts about the notion of gluten free buns for our sandwiches here at the BBQ.   Worth it?  You know of a bakery making great GF stuff?  You know of a restaurant doing a great job of working in GF offerings?  Are the restaurants you frequent with GF options passing on an upcharge for GF items?  What do you think about paying an upcharge?  We’d love to hear from you and we look forward to the process of learning as much as we can.

About

Gilbert guy who walks with Christ, sells BBQ, and appreciates those who care enough about his random musings to occasionally read his blog.