The Salt Lick BBQ

 I've read for many years that there is a BBQ joint near Austin, TX called the Salt Lick that is awesome. This restaurant has three locations, the one I visited was is in Driftwood, TX which was about a 30 minute drive from downtown Austin on a Saturday morning. From what I was told it's in the hill country which is basically a foreign term to me, but I guess it was hilly driving out there. The drive was beautiful and a rich experience as some friends from childhood and me drove through the Texas "Hill Country." The GPS got to exactly where we should have been. It's easy to miss the Salt Lick because all you really see are the vineyards that make the scenic BBQ joint. As you enter, it's not very clear on where to park so I drove around the parking lot twice, but when in Texas do as the Texans so I parked where I saw Texan license plates. Again, not knowing what to do my understanding friends allowed me to lead us around despite the fact I had no clue where to go. I stood by a podium that was un-staffed because we arrived a few minutes before opening. Luckily we had some Texans or Austin locals to meet that showed us the way. This Salt Lick location is BYOB which made me VERY HAPPY because I purchased a lot of Texas micro-brew that we needed to consume. With my perpetual thinking mind, read guy who likes to drink, I made us a cooler with the supplies we had, read beer box and trash bag, and this was a great thing to have as we waited and ate at the Salt Lick. I was like a kid in a candy store all the stories I heard, saw, and read were true.

The famous open pit

The Salt Lick uses something I have NEVER seen in a BBQ joint, an open pit. The open pit is pictured to the right and I'm floored that this makes excellent BBQ. I would assume that your meat wouldn't get hot enough to cook your meat, but what do I know? When we were seated, I dropped the bomb on our server, "I hope you guys live up to the hype." I know, I am an ass. We had a party of six that day and we were seated at a wood picnic style bench that was spacious enough for heavy meat consumption and my first class beer cooler.

The menu was very simple, but I had to complicate life, I asked our server to sell me the smallest quantity of every meat that was available. He was very understanding of this but sold me three times what I could eat, but my friend's dog ate very well for a few days.

Sausage, turkey, brisket, and a pork rib

The Salt Lick does something that is different than most BBQ joints, they sauce their meat while smoking. Their sauce is mustard based so it doesn't burn like other sauces that are contain a fair amount of sugar. The sauce is thin, but has a ton of flavor. BBQ is a food to be eaten with your hands and the sauce does go everywhere because it's already on the meat, but I didn't care. I would have worn the sauce as a hat.Yes it was that awesome.

Half a chicken

I did order side dishes, but I'm not going to lie, I was SO happy with the meat I didn't care or remember what I ordered for side dishes. Don't get me wrong they were good, but I couldn't recall what I ordered.

Beef Rib

The grounds that the Salt Lick are beautiful like I mentioned earlier, but there is a little wine and beer store if you forget to pack some adult beverages, bocce ball courts, and nice grass patches to run around on if that's your thing. This location of the Salt Licks is an experience. I thought it was really cool that you can have your wedding here. The only thing that was "bad" about this place is that they only take cash, but they have at least one ATM there. Salt Lick was better than the hype. I LOVE this place. I would give the Salt Lick a rating of four and a half out of five.

http://www.saltlickbbq.com/