On the surface, getting up extra early on a Saturday morning to wait in line four hours for lunch doesn't sound very appealing, especially when the weather is kind of chilly and drippy.
But I did it this past Saturday anyway, just to experience Franklin Barbecue for myself. I'm on a continual quest to discover all the gems Austin has to offer, and from all reports, this sounded like one.
So I met my sons, daughter-in-law, her sister, and two of their friends in Franklin's parking lot down on 11th Street in east Austin at 8 am. I forgot a chair, but fortunately they came prepared with chairs, mimosa ingredients, and the game Uno.
Drinking mimosas and playing Uno with my grown kids would be enough fun for me anytime and anywhere, but doing it in a downtown Austin parking lot where you can watch people and make new friends and eventually eat your fill of delicious barbecue...well, that's my kind of Saturday morning.
Four hours is also plenty of time to take lots of iPhone photos, too...
Our little group is just this side of the building...in front of all the UT orange.
The females in our group.
The line.
My boys playing Uno. My oldest gave me his chair and his jacket. What a sweetheart!
Meet Kenzie. She was so good the whole time.
If you saw the movie "The Help" then you know what this means.
Another group played horseshoes instead of Uno.
My oldest and his love. Getting close to the door!
We made it inside!
So close. We were drooling by this time.
Now that's a pile of meat! Sausage, brisket, pork ribs, a beef rib, smoked turkey, and pulled pork.
Add bread and sauce and that's a meal, right?
Franklin Barbecue is good about communicating with the people in line about when they can expect to be served. And they give samples.
They also go down the line getting a guesstimate of what each group is going to order so they can figure out who the last person is who will be served...that's the Last Man Standing. That way the latecomers don't stand in line for hours only to be told at the last minute "Sorry! We ran out!"
Good business!
That was a sweet Saturday morning, for sure. Here are some other sweet!s from the past week...
Monday: turning on the television just in time to catch an amazing lip sync battle between Jimmy Fallon and Paul Rudd
Tuesday: baby goats; touring new homes with a friend/colleague; hearing from old friends
Wednesday: rainy days; the return of blue skies, in time for a glorious sunset
Thursday: hearing a hawk and watching it fly in a cloudless blue sky; your mom receiving cards and letters from your friends to boost her spirits
Friday: somehow reining in your temper when people haven't done what they said they were going to do; showing your mom her birth certificate; getting an iPad on sale; watching "Ghostbusters" with your daughter
Saturday: spending the morning with 3/4 of your kids, drinking mimosas and playing Uno; Franklin Barbecue, especially when you are really, really hungry; picking up good clients while on phone duty; watching "Ghostbusters 2"** with your daughter
Sunday: Texas Independence Day; Mass with your husband; helping a friend with an open house
Monday: watching your mom play dominoes with Margarite, Jewel, and Lila Sue; your son vacuuming the dog hair from the laundry room without being asked; the sound of thunder, lightning, and rain outside your window, when there's a warm fire nearby
**Have you ever watched "Ghostbusters 2"?
All I had really remembered about it was the baby being kidnapped by the evil guy, which freaked me out because Daniel was a baby when it first came out.
Apparently baby-kidnapping was a going theme in the late 80's because that's also what happened in "Willow". What the heck??
Anyway, this time what struck me was its overall message that love and good-will toward one another can conquer evil.
I wish they could have conveyed it without kidnapping a baby, but oh, well.
“I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.”
― Charles Dickens
