Blues, Bandits and BBQ, 11/14/15 Oak Cliff

http://bluesbanditsandbbq.org/

I've heard about this event before from the Texas BBQ Posse but this was my first time to attend.  What a fun little festival.  For just $20 you get a wristband and get to sample 30 different cooks until they run out.  They had a nice crowd but the lines were nothing like the bigger BBQ fests all of which all have less BBQ to sample.    However this was a mix of restaurants, backyard cooks, and competition BBQ folks, all in the same contest.  I had applied to be a judge but apparently too late.   So me and the Mrs just bought wristbands and wandered around sampling all the goodness as part of the people's choice award.  The quality and quantity doled out varied widely.  I had 1 decent piece of brisket, a couple of nice ribs, and one piece of excellent smoked chicken.  The best of the ribs and chicken were right up there with the best I have had, so that's a pretty nice score for this little fest.  There was an awful lot of average and even some bad brisket (shoe leather) and a whole lot of very average pulled pork.  Each wristband included a wooden nickel which we used to vote for our favorites.  The Mrs and I agreed on the top 3 joints and we split our nickels between our favorite two.  Most of the tents were still passing out food at 3 pm.

There were some good local blues bands onstage, lots of dogs, and kids running around.  A really fun little festival and a good value compared to the $145 of Texas Monthly and without the 200 mile drive.  Overall, the food was not as good as the Austin event, but the laid back atmosphere and down home party attitude more than made up for that.  I will be back next year for sure!