I was well into my adulthood before I finally tasted a proper Central Texas brisket. Dallas was firmly in the East Texas BBQ region with mushy and beef lots of sauce, which is fine but far from mind-blowing. And when I was in school down in Austin (and again later during a stint of government work), everybody would head out to the Salt Lick in Driftwood, which is pretty much its own thing.
So the first real Central Texas style 'cue I ever had was when Lockhart Smokehouse opened up here in Dallas in early 2011. One bite of bark off the point of that brisket and I was done for. It was like meat candy – smoky, sweet, fatty, beefy. In an instant, I understood what people had been saying about the old-school barbecue joints. There’s just no comparison to anything else.
