Birthday at the Barbie

Betcha' thought we'd given up on dining out at new places. And ... at new places with friends from back home at that!  If you'll remember Judi and Charlie, our neighbors from South Haven were visiting their son in Austin for a few days so we managed to find a place south east of Austin called "The Salt Lick' (www.saltlickbbq.com) to meet and eat.  Rustic chic might best describe this well known ranch house style facility that was located next to a rather large vineyard and its adjacent tasting room.  More about the restaurant later.

Bill, June, Sharon and I arrived a little early, took a little tour of the place and took a table.  The eatery was almost empty but it was only 4 o'clock I thought, and after all it was a Tuesday, so maybe our little group was all they had going this evening.  The next thing I heard was a lady stepping up to the counter and pronouncing "our party of fifty is arriving".  So much for eating alone.  And that was just the beginning.  A pretty steady stream of patron continued to filter even as we were leaving.  I can only imagine what a warm weather weekend might be like.

Anyway ... Here's a few pictures of the place and as a special surprise it was Charlie's birthday.  Sharon had baked a little cake, plugged in far too few candles, we sang a stanza of Happy Birthday and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Here's some of that rustic chic I was talking about.

Lots of outdoor eating available but we chose to eat in.  40 degrees is a little cool for a picnic.

As you walk in the door, you're greeted by this 15 foot circular  BBQ pit with all the good stuff smelling up the place.
Sausages hanging from above, ribs, brisket, turkey ... all is good and wonderful!

As I mentioned before, it was Charlie's birthday so with grandson Braydon, wife Judi, son Jason and a cast of almost in tune backup singers, we helped celebrate with song and merriment.

Not so old double nickel Charlie

Maybe a bit more on the food here.  I've now had a chance to try maybe a half a dozen famous BBQ places around these parts.  Most quite honestly make brisket about the same way and if you order it right, it will be juicy and tasty.  Order it without any fat in it and it will usually be dry with a lot less flavor.  This place was no different, however their sausage was better than most as was their ribs and turkey.  Plus it was a bit more tidy than most.  I'm not saying the other places were dirty but they most all could use a little 'sprucing' up.  Even with old beat up tables and benches, nostalgic pieces of old time stuff stuck on the walls, it's still worth the time to visit. Get there early ... I'm warning you!

As you might guess I ordered a combo plate to check out the whole package.  If you look at their website (above), you'll get a better idea on what they have to offer and their prices.  One other item of note is that even though this place has it's own vineyard, they do not serve any alcohol in the restaurant.  As it turns out the restaurant was built on land that was in the 'dry' part of the county (no alcohol sold or served) and the vineyard on the 'wet' part of the property.  The wine area is only the width of a sidewalk away from the dining area but ... rules are rules.  However this kind of unique aspect of the whole arrangement (at least for me) was that you can either bring your own booze (BYOB) or walk over to the wine area, buy a bottle and enjoy it with dinner!  Something we haven't experienced before.

As it turned out, no one left feeling hungry (big surprise), we finished off a bottle of Marietta Old Vine #55 and put a pretty good dent in the 12 pack of Shiner Bock beer we'd brought along.

But like I've said a hundred times before ... it's not the restaurant, it's not the food, it's the people you're with that makes dining out special.  Thanks again to Charlie, Judi and their family for taking time out of their very brief vacation schedule to pay us a visit.  We look forward to seeing them again in the Spring in South Haven.

Still livin' the dream in the land of BBQ.

Phil