My wife completed the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) motorcycle safety course last weekend. Today we went on our first ride together where she rode her own motorcycle (she’s actually riding my other motorcycle — a VStar Classic 650).

It was a little nerve wracking watching her ride, but as we rode, I relaxed more-and-more as she was doing great.

It was a beautiful sunny 76 degree day here today, so I was eager to make a BBQ run, but didn’t want to head out too far for her first ride.

We ended up going to Opie’s BBQ in Spicewood, TX (about 25 miles from our house, heading west on Hwy 71).

The Joint

A former employee at Cooper’s Pit BBQ in Llano decided to open his own BBQ place closer to Austin, hoping to catch some customers closer to Austin (or on their way to Llano).

Opie’s has recently moved from their old location on Spur 191 next to the post office to a new and much bigger joint facing Hwy 71:

For a Central Texas BBQ joint, it’s almost fancy (inside). But I liked it. If I were to open a BBQ joint, the interior setup might look a lot like Opie’s.

Walk in and order your meat from the “pit” — which is a 15 ft pit that doesn’t/hasn’t ever burned a twig of wood:

The meat is actually smoked on two giant pits behind the building, and then brought inside to the “serving pit”:

Much like some of the legendary pit BBQ joints in Texas, you pick your meat from the pit and the pit boss will slice you off as much as you like.

While your meat is being sliced and weighed you can order sides, (spicy cream corn, potato salad, tater tot casserole) desert (hot cobbler, carrot cake, brownies, homemade cookies), and your drinks.

Condiments (onions, pickles, bbq sauce and a large pot of pinto beans) are serve yourself in a large island in the middle of the dining area.

The Meat

We ordered a rack of spare ribs, a lb of brisket, and a jalapeño sausage link:

Before I even took a bite, I knew I was in for a sub-par BBQ experience.

The brisket looked like shredded beef. Dry shredded beef. The meat, while it did have a nice smoky flavor, was dry and not very tender. A healthy dousing of the house BBQ sauce (an actually quite good thin red vinegar sauce) made the brisket barely edible.

The ribs were exceptionally meaty and very large. That’s the best thing I can say about the ribs. They too were overcooked, which means too dry. Ribs should fall of the bone. These took some gnawing.

My wife thought the sausage was really good and liked the smoky flavor.

The beans were really good, as was the blackberry cobbler.

I’m not the only one who didn’t like Opie’s either:

Although Opie’s offers a wide choice of meats (brisket, pork chops, ribs, chicken, sausage and sirloin), the last two times I’ve been there (both Saturday afternoons around 2:00), NONE of the meats looked very freshly cooked/smoked. This is a HUGE problem and appears to be caused by not nearly enough turnover of their meats, i.e. not enough business.

That review was written in March of 2004, but pretty much summarizes my experience. Hopefully the new joint facing the much busier Hwy 71 will bring in more customers and alleviate the problem.

This guy liked it though.

The Ride

If you’re in the area, it’s not “bad” BBQ — I’d imagine that if you are fortunate enough to get some properly cooked meat as soon as it is pulled off the pits out back, it’s probably damned good.

Hwy 71 is a great road for riding. But my wife wasn’t quite ready to head home and wanted to “explore” a little — so we headed north on Spur 191 (which becomes County Road 411). About 4 miles from Opie’s, CR 411 dead-ends at Narrows Resource Area — an LCRA park that is mostly used as a boat launch for fishermen on a remote section of Lake Travis.

There were some great views looking out across the lake:

I’m looking forward to having my wife join me on my BBQ runs from now on (she never liked riding on the back of my bike, but seems to love riding her own).

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 | Trackback |