It was a beautiful winter day here in Austin today — sunny and 71 degrees.

So, I jumped on my bike and headed west into the central Texas Hill Country in search of some twisty roads and some good barbecue.

The Ride

I headed west on Hwy 290 into Dripping Springs, and turned south onto RR-12 — which is a great twisty 2-lane road between Dripping Springs and Wimberley.

From Wimberley, I continued west on FM-2325 to FM-165.

FM-165 winds its away west, following and crisscrossing the Blanco River into the small town of Blanco, TX (pop. 1,505). The route I rode was about 58 miles from our house in west Austin.

The Joint

Riley’s Bar-B-Q is a new bbq joint in the Hill Country, opening in May 2003. Riley’s is built in the remains of an old Ford Model A show room right on the main historic square of Blanco.

The food is served cafeteria style (rather than ordering your meat directly from the pit). In addition to the standard bbq fare, they started serving fried chicken, chicken tenders, french fries, fried okra and biscuits in February 2007.

Despite that (I prefer joints where I order directly from the pit), the joint has a great vibe to it — very small town and very laid back and friendly.

I got there a little after 1:20 today, but business was still pretty good.

The Meat

I ordered the standard — a half lb of brisket and a half lb of pork ribs (3 ribs in this case), a side of beans (not free, but self-serve and all you can eat), and an iced tea.

The condiment bar had pickles but no raw white onions. Instead, Riley’s offers very unusual and very tasty white onions that are marinating in a peppery vinegarette of sorts.

No hot sauce, but they did offer two house bbq sauces — a sweet and a spicy. I tried them both, but much preferred the spicy (which really wasn’t spicy enough or at all). It was quite good though, a semi-thick tangy red sauce.

The beans might be the best I’ve had at a q joint.There’s something about the joints that serve beans in those big pots that sit out all day soaking and cooking…

The Meat

The ribs were a bit dissapointing. They were dry and a bit tough. The flavor was good, and I’ll bet they were excellent when they were first pulled off the pit. But today, my ribs seemed to have been out for quite sometime, losing their tenderness in the warming pan.

The brisket was perfectly cooked though — a nice ring of pink all the way around the meat (which is a trademark of a well smoked brisket). The meat was on the lean side — which many people like and prefer. I prefer my brisket a bit more “moist” or fatty. But overall, the quality of the brisket was outstanding (though they could use a little more rub during the smoking process to make up for the lack of fat).

After I was finishing up, the guy working the counter offered me the last scoop of the homemade blackberry cobbler with a hefty scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.

How could I possible say no to that?

I nearly lapsed into a sugar-induced coma on my ride home.

Overall Impression

The sides (damn, but those beans and marinated onions were tasty), the exceptionally good and friendly service, and the very authentic small town vibe and charm make me really like this place — despite the fact that their q is just above average for this part of the state.

I’ll have to drop by their other location in Dripping Springs to see how they compare sometime.

Total Distance Ridden for Some Good Bar-B-Q: 118 miles.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Saturday, November 17th, 2007 | Trackback |