Smoked brisket and ribs weren’t featured at household barbecues when Sebastien Quintanilla was rising up in Corpus Christi. Relations would grill fajitas and rooster quarters whereas Quintanilla’s grandmother Rosa made beans, rice, salsas, and tortillas by hand. She cooked every single day, not only for household gatherings, and a younger Quintanilla was there to assist. “She handed earlier than I may get a variety of her recipes,” he mentioned. However he watched; now he tries to make these dishes from reminiscence whereas cooking for his BBQ Fiends meals truck, simply exterior Hutto, about thirty minutes northeast of Austin. Since April, he’s been serving 4 days every week in entrance of Rockabilly Brewing.
The barbecue enterprise has matured together with Rockabilly over the previous few years. Quintanilla started serving his smoked meats at pop-ups in 2021. Rockabilly hosted a number of earlier than closing for renovations in late 2023. When the brewery reopened this April, the principle bar had moved from a delivery container on a concrete slab to the massive coated porch of a renovated home on the property. That’s when the BBQ Fiends meals truck grew to become a everlasting resident.
Thursday afternoons function a restricted menu of smoked burgers and rotating objects equivalent to chopped brisket sandwiches and smoked wings. The complete barbecue menu is on the market Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I arrived on a Friday within the early night and located a spot to park alongside the winding gravel path. I’ve walked up much less rustic paths on wilderness trails than the makeshift stairs main from the barbecue truck to the brewery’s porch, however the elevation supplied sweeping views above the tree line. I loved a pint of the brewery’s 8-Second Amber and a style of the refreshing Tangerine King cream ale whereas ready on the supply of my barbecue tray. A number of different Texas craft beers have been on draft, and Rockabilly is working to get extra of its personal brews on supply.
Every little thing on my barbecue tray was house-made. Quintanilla rolls all of the flour tortillas by hand. “I’m not so good as my grandmother,” he joked, however who’s? He’s getting a tortilla press quickly. It took twenty batches of pickles earlier than Quintanilla settled on a model he was comfy serving, and the ultimate product has nice crunch and taste. “I refused to place them on till they have been both the identical as Finest Maid or higher,” he mentioned. His pickled purple onions have been fairly good as nicely. As for the barbecue sauce, I don’t bear in mind it. I used to be enraptured by the smoky essence of the salsa verde. The tomatillos, onions, and chiles are charred within the firebox of the smoker earlier than Quintanilla blends them into an ideal accompaniment to smoked meats.
Quintanilla is aware of his approach round a smoker, however after committing to an everyday schedule at Rockabilly, he employed Marc Franco, previously at Terry Black’s BBQ in Austin, because the lead pitmaster. They collaborate to provide tender spareribs with a peppery bark and a candy-sweet end, because of a squirt of straightforward syrup as a remaining step. “Our menu is tremendous wealthy. There’s a variety of salt, and a candy steadiness helps spherical out the tray,” Quintanilla defined. On the different finish of that candy–salty spectrum, you’ll discover the extremely seasoned brisket. It was on the verge of being too salty, but it surely was loads juicy, with a meltingly tender fats cap.
Melted butter and honey bathe the smoked turkey breast, wrapped in foil, because it’s completed on the smoker. The moist slices tasted finest when paired with the sultry salsa verde. The choriqueso sausage was a taste bomb of its personal that wanted no adornment. It was heavy on the cumin that Quintanilla’s grandmother utilized in her cooking, with massive chunks of melting cheese combined in.
Fortunately, I bought a scoop of Spanish rice with my pinto beans. (Quintanilla will mix the 2 into one aspect if you happen to favor.) The beans had a superb dose of warmth and a heavy jalapeño taste, however there have been no jalapeños in sight. Quintanilla cuts the tops off the chiles and simmers them within the inventory he makes use of for the beans, then removes them earlier than including the beans and diced sausage.
The esquites served at barbecue joints are sometimes soggy, because of canned corn. At BBQ Fiends, Quintanilla makes use of frozen kernels combined with crema and mayo and topped generously with cotija, contemporary cilantro, lime juice, and sizzling sauce. I liked each chunk. After a go to to Heim Barbecue in Fort Value, Quintanilla now makes a potato salad that’s like a calming model of a loaded baked potato. It’s bought the zing of bitter cream, together with inexperienced onions, bacon, and cheddar, and is unquestionably not what Grandma used to make.
Quintanilla adjustments up the Sunday particular, so be looking out for giant beef quick ribs, or perhaps smoked beef cheek barbacoa—impressed by the dishes he ate rising up. “As a substitute of a Crock-Pot, we use a smoker now,” he mentioned with fun. The desserts change up as nicely. I used to be fortunate sufficient to attempt the wealthy churro cheesecake, which had a heavy drizzle of dulce de leche and contemporary strawberries on high.
Barbecue is a second profession for Quintanilla. He beforehand labored for a hospice supplier. “I simply preferred serving to folks,” he mentioned, however he acknowledged that working with households making end-of-life choices for his or her family members was emotionally draining. “I used to be prepared to only make folks pleased with meals,” Quintanilla mentioned, whereas thanking his spouse, Ashley, for supporting his determination to lastly give up his day job. “It was only a month in the past that I took the deep dive and gave this a hundred percent of my time,” he mentioned of the barbecue truck. The leap has been disturbing for Quintanilla. Every single day is a guessing sport of how many individuals hungry for barbecue will present up at a lately renovated craft brewery exterior Hutto. However simply as with every spectacular newcomer, the native barbecue fiends ought to discover this one sooner somewhat than later.
BBQ Fiends
1133 County Road 137, Hutto
Telephone: 512-690-1274
Hours: Thursday 5–8, Friday 3–8, Saturday 11–8, Sunday 11–5
Pitmasters: Sebastien Quintanilla and Marc Franco
Methodology: Oak in an offset smoker
Yr opened: 2024