Black's advertises itself as open 8 days a week. This hyperbole seems a bit out of joint with the extremely careful description as the "Oldest major BBQ house in Texas continuously owned by the same family".
We had ribs, brisket, garlic sausage, and jalapeno cheese sausage, along with a variety of sides. My personal opinion was that they did a great job. The rest of the party of four maintained that Salt Lick still wins, and is closer to Austin to boot. The others found fault with the sausage (too "grainy", a quality I like because it means that the contents are meat, not cereal or fat). They also thought that Salt Lick's brisket was better, because it had a better smoke penetration. I really liked Black's dark crust on the brisket, but thought that it was a little dried out. All in all, good and worth the trip, but maybe not the best. The quest goes on!
The experience is quite a bit different than Salt Lick, as well. The inside of Black's is a down-home family dining room, rather than a bunk-house sort of thing. The tables are covered with plain cloths. The walls have a series of steer and deer horns. You help yourself to "fixins", then order meat by the pound (brisket, pork, turkey, etc.) or portion (sausage).
Black's was deserted on an early Monday evening. Lockhart was, as well. The town is kind of picturesque, though. There is a beautiful court house building right in a main square.
The other streets are wide with occasionally significant buildings. This is a view back toward Black's along Main Street. Lots of diagonal parking here. Very hard to imagine a traffic jam. Sometimes it must be hard to imagine another car!
Back to Austin, fully stuffed and arguing about the qualities of barbecue.
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