Uh oh, was he talking ot me?... I avoided eye contact. I knew we were in a bad area but this brought it home. Luckily I was at the front door and we quickly ducked inside. We were at Sam's BBQ on the east side of Austin Texas.
Sam's is located in a dilapidated old road-house well worn from it's legions of fans. The interior is one big room tricked out in early 70's linoleum and painted Masonite. Plastic table cloths, clipped at the ends, covered a couple booth tables. A picnic table and well worn wooden tables with mix matched chairs filled out the dining room.
The BBQ smell instantly hit my nose when we entered and made my stomach quench. It was a quiet night inside the restaurant. As we looked at the menu basketball was on a TV hanging in one corner and in the opposite corner a fan blew some motion into the room.
As we stood at the counter my friend Susan noticed a smoldering log on the floor through the kitchen door. Mr. Mays called for help to get that rogue log back into the stove. I used this event as my chance to see the works. "Can I see the cooker" I asked as we all looked at the kitchen. "Sure" he said. I was through the door in a flash staring at the red hot wood fire under an 8 foot long brick oven with metal cooking pans embedded in it. It was a basic, rustic, time honored and proven cooking stove ...and it made me just a little bit hungrier that I was before.
The owner offered us tasting slices. "Hell yeah" I said. He cut through the meat and it fell bleeding juice onto the cutting board making me salivate like Pavlov's dogs.
Oh my God. So tender. The beef melted in your mouth. Tonight he had beef, mutton, and sausage available. We all ordered two-meat plates and soon, on tri-sectioned styrofoam plates, we had a ball scoop of potatoes, baked brown beans, sausage and piles of mutton and beef. Over the top was a viscous tangy sweet BBQ sauce. Heaven. I washed it all down with a giant Pepsi.
Looking around the room there were photos covering the yellowing walls like wallpaper. Photos of all sizes and shapes. Some autographed 8x10 glossies from visiting luminaries like Ray Benson, Bruce Springsteen, Los Lonely Boys and President Clinton. There were concert flyer's and art posters of Martin Luther King, Obama and rap acts. Most populous were snapshots of locals having their fifteen minutes of fame.
Throughout our entire meal Momma Mays talked to us. The May's family owns and operates Sam's. She had the most expressive eyes and face as she told us stories and tales. She told us Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet had shot a movie here called The Life of David Gale. She made a face about Spacey, effeminately flicked her wrist and her whole body shook as she laughed. She said Winslet ate the BBQ with knife and fork. "I kept telling her, use your fingers girl!" She told me she had a son name Willie ...but he's not a baseball player, again laughing with lifted eyebrows, bulged eyes and pursed mouth inviting me to laugh with her.
I ate every last morsel on my plate. I was very happy and promised to come back to try the chicken and ribs as we exited into the night.
The crack heads were still out there. I could see the same guy heading up the street towards us again. We took a left out the front door, walked around the side porch and jumped into our car. I decided to go out the back way to do an end around the zombie. As I came up the side street I could see this dude had been watching us and had turned and was headed towards the car. Crap. Worse, there was a second guy who was now crossing the street. Crackhead 1 was making towards the driver's door and zombie number 2 was making towards the passenger door.
The squeeze play was on. I looked up & down the main drag. There was no traffic coming. If I had to I could "punch it" and fly right between these two poor souls. As we came along side Mr. Crackhead he bent to look in the car at and squeezed his index finger and thumb together. I wasn't sure if he was asking for money or insulting my manhood because I kept my foot on the accelerator and zoomed off toward the newly towering Austin skyline.
I'll definitely be back at Sam's another time....probably during the daytime though. :)
All photo's are from Perceptor's Photo Report at http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/
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