The weighin’ has been continuin’ and recently Corkscrew has been added to the equation. I was trying to decide if I wanted to drive all the way up to Spring or… Looking thru the Yelp gallery of Gatlin’s listing I just wasn’t impressed by what I was seeing so… I opted for the Pit Room.
I’m leery of the latest trends in Texas barbecue, not really impressed that it’s been discovered by gourmets from both coasts and not really sure Central Texas style barbecue needs gourmet treatment and I’m leery of all the hype surrounding some of the new places. But I was hongry and realized this place is closer to me and easier to reach that any of the others.
There was a group of about 8 ‘young adults’ in front of me about 2:45 pm, not really paying attention to the line it seemed. Suddenly they all bolted out the door and it was my turn to order. I’m not sure if they were scared off by the prices or saw the handscrawled sign on a brown paper bag that they were all out of pulled pork and all the sausages. I also noticed the entry on the menu board overhead for Elote had been yellowed out ---- no longer on the menu at all???
Dang. Those where exactly the things I wanted to try on my first visit.
I went for the chicken taco instead of the pulled pork - smoked (pulled) chicken verde (mostly dark meat I thought), griddled cheese and charred garlic. This was the best thing I was to have this visit, very juicy and flavorful. I could have gone back up to the condiment bar and doctored it up some but didn’t bother. I would order this again.
The tortillas are made in house with beef fat rendered in the smoker; they’re tougher that ordinary flour tortillas and held up well to the very juicy meat (about 4 ounces probably).
Yes, I actually went for the ‘smoked brisket chili.’ So you think I should know better than to order chili at a restaurant in Texas??? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I keep trying.
This was a big disappointment, lacking in cumin and chilies for my taste but the biggest problem with smoked brisket chili to me is the meat is already cooked before it goes into the chili and doesn’t absorb any of the chili flavor. There were some pretty good sized chunks in there and they stood out as though something had accidentally fallen into the chili pot that wasn’t supposed to be there. I wouldn’t order this again.
Looking through a lot of the pictures on Yelp for this place I think I may have been the first person ever to order the plain chili here. All the pictures on there are of the Frito pie.
I loves me some good charros which these were not. The ones I usually get, gratis with tacos at many taco trucks on the weekend or with an order off a pollo asado wagon, are very soupy. These were thick and, well, sludgy, and didn’t taste like anything other than pintos to me. Based on this I wouldn’t order these again, either, but whilst flipping through the gallery on Yelp I notice most pictures of the charros show a much more soupy presentation.
I’m wondering if I just got there at the wrong time. I’m guessing they do two runs on the pit since they’re open until 9 pm, and I got there just as they were running out of what they prepared for the lunch crowd and before they were ready to bring out fresh stuff for the evening rush.
So I decided on a second visit before writing them up. After all, I hadn’t sampled any of the basic trinity of Texas cue - brisket, sausage and pork ribs. This time I got there about 1 pm and the place was packed. There were about 10 people in front of me but the line moved quickly. Everything was being done on the line, right in front of you; on my previous visit my chicken taco had been prepared in the back and brought out to me.
Now this is more like it. The Chicken Taco was good, this was an exceptional order over and above. Pulled pork, pickled red onion, salsa verde plus cilantro and cotija. I will definitely order this again.
The Czech sausage, one of three, beef plus mustard seed. So juicy, wonderful snap to the casing. I’m a big sausage fanatic and this is one of the best I’ve had in a few years, one of the best I’ve ever had in Houston and made in house.
Even the condiments bar looked better. I hadn’t realized the pickled cucumbers also had carrot ribbons mixed in.
Moral of the story: I guess eating at off hours may mean you miss out on some of the best stuff.
I will be back, definitely to check out the other two sausages and the brisket and pork ribs.
