Ah, the Fall BBQ festival season has started and we were there for the third annual Smoked Dallas. We are three for three. They had added some of the best Dallas BBQ joints to their list including Slow Bone, 18th and Vine, Cattleack, and Lockhart Smokehouse. The only one missing was Pecan Lodge.
As always we bought the VIP tickets. We got there about 1 pm for a 1:30 entry and found ourselves about 30 or so back in the VIP check in line. They came down the line with scanners and checked IDs for alcohol and fitted us with wristbands for each. Their plastic VIP wristbands had 2 drink coupons already attached which was a very neat feature. You didn't have to worry about losing them and they were right on your wrist when you got thirsty! I hope some of the other fests take note. The only downside was you had to go into the VIP area to get your drinks with the coupons. It wasn't too bad, but I did see the line get 30 or so deep at times.
They opened the gates to VIPs about 5 minutes early and we followed our regular procedure of skipping past the booths closest to the gate then circling back to those later. We were second in line at Louie Mueller's booth and watched as Wayne Mueller pulled out two gorgeous beef ribs, shook them off the bone, and started slicing. My Mrs went on and on about how delicious that beef rib was.
As usual we went to several booths, gathered our samples, then went to a table for pictures and eating. They had lots of small tables around and a nice VIP seating area behind the music stage. We never had trouble finding a place to chow down. It took us about 45 minutes to make our way through the 16 BBQ booths.
There were no real surprises or complaints for this fest. They seem to have it down and the food overall was very good. Highlights for my palate were Louie Mueller's beef rib, Black's brisket, Cattleack's brisket, Valentina's brisket and Heim's brisket. Most of the sausage seemed to be cheese or jalapeno cheese and it was all pretty good. Nothing of Kreuz quality though. I did notice that out of 16 joints not a single one served pork ribs. The decrease in pork ribs seems to be consistent across all the fests we have been going to lately.
Haute Sweets had the dessert table again and doled out a scrumptous chocolate pecan crunch with caramel topping.
Yes, I went back and got a second one.
This is a great little fest and as long as they keep bringing such a great line-up of BBQ joints we'll be back again and again. Looking forward to number 4 next year!
We left about 3 pm and there was still a line down St Paul to Elm for the tasting ticket patrons.
Below is a separate post with just food samples and some booth shots. As with all photos here, you can click on any photo for a larger view.
So what do we do the day after sampling BBQ from 16 different joints at Smoked Dallas? You guessed it, we headed to Pecan Lodge for The Trough. I was MEATing up with one of my online gaming buddies and I couldn't think of a better place to do it. Sadly, they ran out of beef ribs just before we got to the express order desk. We had to make do with extra brisket and ribs.
