Ever been traveling, desperately in need of a taste of home? When this impulse strikes at an airport, you might be surprised – or disappointed – by the options.
Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor for Texas Monthly, recently decided to test out some airport barbecue offerings in Texas – as he puts it, so the rest of us don’t have to.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: You call this your guide to the best and worst airport barbecue in Texas. What got you thinking about doing something like this?
Daniel Vaughn: Well, you know, when I was traveling around searching for the Texas Monthly Top 50 Barbecue Joint list, I was doing a lot of flying, going into a lot these airports. And I figured, while I’m at it, I might as well try all this barbecue, you know, hoping that maybe I could find some hidden gem out there.
Let’s talk about some of the different airport offerings. You left from Dallas, I would imagine, that’s your neck of the woods. What do they have at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport that was noteworthy?
There’s certainly the most barbecue options at DFW. Not that long ago, DFW airport had a location of Salt Lick Barbecue that served a really impressive sandwich. It was the double chop, they called it. And they would chop brisket and sausage together and put it on a bun. And their barbecue sauce is just fantastic; it’s mustard-based with a lot of sugar.
But they closed that one down for some renovations. It will open up sometime next year. So I had to head to Austin to get their version of the double chop at the Salt Lick, and it was almost as good, certainly passable for airport barbecue.
There’s six airports in Texas with a barbecue joint in it, and the best one I found was Hobby Airport in Houston.
Really? What did Hobby have?
Well, it might be because it was new, but Killen’s Barbecue recently opened a location in the airport, and it was quite good. They cut the barbecue right there in front of you on the block.
And really one of the things that I was super impressed with was their dessert. They do a croissant bread pudding at the Killen’s Barbecue restaurant and they’ve got really like a dead ringer for it there in the airport.
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I would have guessed that being as close to Lockhart as it is, you might find something particularly good at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Actually, there’s not a lot of great stuff in the Austin airport. There’s the Salt Lick there. Most of the rest of the stuff in the Austin airport was pretty bad.
You know, you’re not leaving me with a good taste in my mouth when it comes to this enterprise, because I’m thinking that Texas should, at the very least – if for nothing but symbolism – have a great barbecue joint at the airport.
But on the other hand, I wonder how fair that is. I mean, when it comes to travel food, you don’t expect Sbarro to be a great example of Italian cuisine – you’re asking too much, right?
I would say that, as far as barbecue, there’s not a whole lot of places where they’re going to be smoking meat on site. There is Q Smokehouse in the George Bush Airport in Houston. They do smoke on site.
But I’m getting my hopes up for next year in the San Antonio Airport when 2M Smokehouse, which is one of our top 50 barbecue joints, opens up their location in the San Antonio Airport. So maybe they’ll take the top slot.
