FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS

When we were planning a spring break trip this year, the omicron variant was surging, and no one wanted to deal with the hassle of air travel.  Instead, we spent some relaxing time in Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country, about 4 hours from Houston.  Fredericksburg, named after Prince Frederick of Prussia, was founded in 1846.  It was the second German Town in Texas founded by the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants (didn’t know they needed protection, but OK).

 

Main Street buildings

We stayed at Helix Haus, a tidy rental not too far from Main Street, with plenty of room for our group:

No trip to Fredericksburg is complete without a visit to a winery for a tasting, and our visit to Southold Farm & Cellar, which believes in “farming first and non-interventionist cellar methods,” was a highlight of our trip.  It’s off the beaten path, but worth seeking out.

We opted for The Prologue tasting experience, which was 4 wines paired with beautifully composed small plates.  It was fabulous.

We hope to return for one of their Sunset Suppers in the future.

Take a few minutes to step inside St. Mary’s Catholic Church, located on Main Street.  The church, built in 1908, is one of the Texas Hill Country’s 20 painted churches (that brings our total up to four — 16 to go):

I was really looking forward to seeing Texas wildflowers and planned several activities around wildflower viewing, but unfortunately, spring had not yet reached Fredericksburg.  Redbuds and fruit trees were just beginning to flower, but mostly everything was 50 shades of brown:

The only place we saw bluebonnets was at The Pottery Ranch, a colorful place that claims to be “quite possibly, the coolest store ever.”

A sneaky lizard came home with us:

We stopped in at Das Peach Haus, and after loading up on Fischer & Wieser sauces and such (that raspberrry chipotle sauce!) to cart home, we lazed around the lake sipping peach wine:

We spent part of an afternoon doing a driving tour of the LBJ ranch in the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park:

We had an unexpectedly good time at The Speakeasy at Salvation Spirits, “the only speakeasy in Fredericksburg,” which describes itself as a cocktail laboratory.  Salvation Spirits is a distillery that makes its own gin and vodka, which is used in the creative cocktails at The Speakeasy.  Make a reservation, and let Sean and Tyler mix you up something delicious while you relax in the cool space:

We spent several hours strolling Main Street, which provided lots of shopping opportunities.  We got quite a charge out of Rustlin’ Rob’s Gourmet Texas Foods, with its dazzling array of sauces, pickles, nuts, smoked meats, and preserves, among other things.  There were samples of everything, and I swear there were folks in there treating it like their personal buffet, Covid be damned:

We were powerless to resist the siren song of Pritzer Sweet Shop:

Of course, dining was an important part of our trip.  We started with a belt-busting breakfast at Texas Sunrise:

See the money pinned to the ceiling?  It’s for a raffle — at the end of the year the money is split between the raffle winner and the local football team.  Go Billies!

The entrees were humongous:

The Papa Bear and Chicken Fried Steak

The Loaded Scramble and Super Veggie Omelet

Just for grins we tried the Chocolate Covered Bacon, which was interesting to try once (and only once):

We got a kick out of breakfast at the kitschy Airport Diner, “a classic 1940s diner, located next door to the Hangar Hotel and immediately adjacent to the Gillespie County Airport aircraft parking ramp.”

It was fun to watch the little planes come and go while we ate:

The breakfasts were substantial, and provided plenty of fuel for the day’s activities:

Eggs As You Like and the SOS

The Preflight and a Three Egg Omelet

Given the town’s heritage, a German meal was a must.  We chose The Auslander Restaurant and Biergarten for “the finest in authentic German cuisine.”  To our dismay, the restaurant, like most of the restaurants in Fredericksburg, does not take reservations, and we waited an hour and a half to go on this culinary journey.

Be sure to wear your stretchy pants:

Schnitzel Wiener Art and Chicken Schnitzel

Smoked Sausage and German Meatballs

We resisted the urge to create culinary erotica with the sausage and meatballs.  (Or did we?  After waiting an hour and a half we were pretty punchy.)

We tested our patience with another hour and half wait at Hondos on Main, a popular restaurant featuring live music and dancing.

We all had burgers, which you can pretty much picture, but the Three Crunchies (Curly Q Potato Fries, Onion Strings, and Fresh Fried Parmesan Potato Chips), and the “tall and strong” Handmade Margaritas deserve an Honorable Mention:

We shared some respectable barbecue at Eaker Barbecue, recently named to Texas Monthly’s 50 Best BBQ Joints.

We really enjoyed an upscale dinner at the lovely Cabernet Grill (which does take reservations!):

Highlights of the meal included roasted carrot soup:

Still talking about this!

Maple bourbon pork belly burnt ends and Mexican street corn:

And a cleverly presented pork shank, and grilled shrimp:

Our final night in Fredericksburg we gave up trying to find a place with less than an hour and a half wait, and got a takeout pizza from West End Pizza Co., which made everyone happy and allowed us to have a relaxed last evening before heading home the next morning:

Our trip to Fredericksburg was an easy getaway and a nice respite.  I’m sure we’ll return one day, maybe in the fall next time for a Sunset Supper at Southold Farm & Cellar.

THE TEXAS BARBECUE TRAIL AND LULING CITY MARKET BARBECUE SAUCE

The last time we were in San Antonio, we made two side trips to places in the Hill Country that we have long been itching to visit.  First up — a day trip to Fredericksburg.  Although I envisioned leisurely strolling among galleries and antique stores, perhaps sampling some German food, we wound up instead spending the better part of the day at the National Museum of the Pacific War.  Not exactly what I had in mind, but for history buffs like my husband, this museum is a must see.

We did, however, stop for lunch first at the Farm Haus Bistro at the Fredericksburg Herb Farm, a quaint retreat for a peaceful getaway.

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Inside the restaurant, it was as if time stood still.  Literally.  The service was embarrassingly, unapologetically slow.  I got the feeling that the restaurant is more suited to “ladies who lunch” than impatient tourists.  And by “ladies who lunch,” I mean “ladies who lunch in elastic-waist pants.”  Among the highlights of the gut-busting lunch menu were a starter of fried macaroni and cheese:

IMG_3781An enormous slice of quiche loaded with bacon, mushrooms, and herbs suspended in a cheese custard:

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And a grilled pepper jack cheese sandwich topped with a fried egg and smothered in pepper jack cream sauce:

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In fairness, there were a few salads on the menu, like this Grilled Salmon Cobb Salad:

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I think I just had the wrong expectations for this place, which I had dreamed about visiting for years.  The food was fine and the setting was pretty, if cliched.  Certainly not the first of my fantasies that didn’t pan out.

Our next side trip was to visit some of the barbecue joints on the Texas BBQ Trail.  The trail is made up of a dozen family-owned barbecue establishments in Elgin, Lockhart, Luling, and Taylor.  Most of these are decades old, some more than a century old.   We’d heard about them for ages, and were curious to see what they had to offer.

Our first stop on the trail, and our favorite, was City Market in Luling.

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Follow the sign to the dungeon-like pit room to place your order:

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No plates, just meat on butcher paper.  As is true pretty much everywhere in Texas, pickles, onions, and white bread are complimentary (a jalapeno, however, will usually cost you).  There were a few obligatory sides (beans, cole slaw, etc.), but seeing as we planned to visit several restaurants, we passed on those.

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The wood-paneled dining area seems like it would be a great place to meet (meat?) men.

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Next on our tour was Smitty’s Market in Lockhart, which is housed in a building where barbecue has been sold since the turn of the last century.

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Enter the blackened pit room, which has been “seasoned for decades,” and place your order: IMG_3738Then head to the dining room with your meat on butcher paper and make some new friends:

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Incidentally, Lockhart is home to the Caldwell County Courthouse, a beautiful Texas courthouse, built in 1894.

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Our last stop (we learned you can only eat so much barbecue in a day), was Kreuz Market in Lockhart, which started out in 1900 as a meat market.

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The fire was going strong:

IMG_3742We dined on meat and sausage on butcher paper, and this time sprung for a side of green beans:

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The dining room was big and bright, pine-paneled, of course:

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Of the three barbecue restaurants we tried, this one was our least favorite — probably because there was no barbecue sauce — but don’t tell him:

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So how was the Hill Country barbecue?  Our take on each place was pretty much the same:  smoky, chewy, salty meat.  On butcher paper.  Messy fingers.  Smoke-scented clothing.  Great guy food.  As we waited in line in each of the smoky, blackened pit rooms, I couldn’t help but wonder “Where is OSHA?”  Barbecue aficionados will go on about the smoke ring, the texture of the sausage and the crispness of its casing, the fat cap and moistness of the brisket, but it all kind of blurred together for us.  What we all agreed on, however, is that we were just as happy to dine on barbecue at one of our favorite Houston barbecue restaurants, Luling City Market.

Luling City Market, located at 4726 Richmond Avenue, has been around a little over 30 years.

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The interior is pretty basic, with a bar that sees a fair amount of action.  In fact, no matter what day, or what time, for that matter, you will find a bunch of “Norms” sitting at the bar, just kinda hanging out and drinking.

IMG_4349There’s a jackalope mounted on the wall, which after all these years in Texas, still makes me laugh:

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Queue up, order a side or two, and then select your meat:

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We always ask for lean brisket:

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Don’t worry — it’s still served on butcher paper for an authentic Texas barbecue experience.

 

Pehaps our favorite thing about Luling City Market is this:

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This mustard-based barbecue sauce is spicy, vinegary, perfect.

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The sauce is available for purchase, and we usually have a bottle at home.

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Recently, I found a recipe for Luling City Market BBQ Sauce on the interwebs, supposedly from City Market in Luling, which is where this restaurant sort of has its origins (purportedly, back in 1981, the owners enticed a City Market employee to come to the big city and be the pit boss, and he also brought the recipe for the barbecue sauce).  Having tasted both side-by-side, I can affirm that the recipe below is really, really close in taste to the original.  It’s a snap to make, and as an added bonus, it requires no cooking.

LULING CITY MARKET BBQ SAUCE
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • 8-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 5 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup yellow mustard
  • 3 tablespoons hot sauce
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together until completely combined. Do not cook.

IMG_4494The homemade version is on the left