Dallas Food - Sausages! (Elgin, Taylor, and West)

This month's issue of Texas Monthly describes Dr. Phil's increasingly unwelcome public makeover of the town of Elgin. It seems he doesn't approve of the menus (among other things) in the "Sausage Capital of Texas." We decided to take a break from our DFW barbecue search to return to Elgin while the legendary "hot guts" are still in fashion. In addition to Elgin's Southside Market, Meyer's, and Cross-town Bar-B-Que, we hit Mueller's on the way back through Taylor. Oh, and we stopped in the Czech community of West to take a look at the Nemecek Brothers meat market and to have some kolaches. On to the food...

We first stopped at Southside Market in Elgin.

Southside Market has been around since 1886, though only in this location (a former bank) since 1992. Walking in, you pass rows of picnic-style tables. On the left is the market section, where you can buy sausage and other meats to take home.

To the right of the market section is the barbecue counter. The pits aren't visible. Meats are stored in heated bins in the counter, where they're removed and carved to order. Though we were mostly here for sausage, we ordered a broader range of meats, including brisket, baby back ribs, and mutton ribs.

The brisket was towards the low end of sandwich-grade. Despite good smokiness and flavor, it was very dry. The baby back ribs were a definite step up, tender, meaty, and with good flavor. The mutton ribs (pictured on the far left) may set the record for the worst thing I've ever eaten at a barbecue joint. By volume, they were about 25% bone, 60% fat, and 15% meat. Because of the abundant fat, the few strata of meat were easily scraped free with the backside of a knife. But the meat's intense gaminess drew grimaces from everyone at the table. Definitely mutton, not lamb. However, the sausage was sublime. It was moist, coarsely ground, flavorful, and a pleasure to eat, living up to Southside's reputation. Their famous hot sauce didn't go over well with everyone. (One described it as tasting like "spicy pickle juice.") But the sausage was good enough to stand alone. Southside Market is not the best "all around" barbecue joint in Texas. But, for those who love great sausage, it's a worthy destination.

Next up was Meyer's BBQ in Elgin.

Just up the highway from Southside is Meyer's BBQ. Though they don't have as long a history as Southside, they've been selling sausage for over a half century and wholesale to many supermarkets in Texas. Just inside the front door stands a large, red, barrel-shaped sausage stuffer (pictured at the top of this article). Before walking into the restaurant proper, you pass retail cases with many varieties of uncooked and partially cooked sausages.

Unfortunately, only two types of sausage were available in the restaurant section--beef and garlic pork. We ordered both.

The beef sausage, coming in long, snake-like links, had a well-balanced spiciness. But most of the fat had been rendered out of it, leaving it slightly drier than some of us would have liked. The garlic pork sausage, in plump, stubby, individual links, was much moister. Flecks of minced garlic were detectable to the eye and, powerfully, to the palate. Smokiness was subdued in both sausages. While neither of Meyer's sausages made quite the impression that Southside's did, they were still well above average. And, since the two joints are so close together, there's no reason not to do both.

We then went to Cross-town Bar-B-Que in Elgin.

Cross-town is located in the historic downtown area. From what I'd read, this is the place where the locals go to get good barbecue and avoid the tourists. That perception was consistent with our experience on this day. Apart from us, everyone there appeared to be not only a local, but also a regular. I scanned their plates to see what menu items were most consistently ordered by those in the know, but no pattern emerged. So we chose brisket, sausage, spare ribs, and beef ribs.

The brisket was, like that at Southside, lower sandwich-grade, suffering from the same defect of dryness, despite otherwise good smokiness and flavor. The pork ribs had good flavor, but were not quite tender enough and were short on meat. The large beef ribs were also a bit tough; but the meat, once gnawed off the bone, had very good smokiness and beef flavor. The sausage was similar to Meyer's in texture and moisture level, though not as assertively seasoned. With all the meats we had being good to very good (though with no standouts), Cross-town seemed like a solid barbecue joint.

Next came Louie Mueller's Barbecue in Taylor.

Driving through Taylor, we had to stop at Louie Mueller's. Even apart from the 'cue, Mueller's is one of the most atmospheric barbecue temples in Texas. The wooden floor of this former basketball gym, patched with tin plates, has been stained by decades of wandering smoke.

Business cards, beer signs, and autographs of the famous line the walls, also darkened over the years. High windows throw beams of sunlight into the dim room, dramatically backlighting customers seated near the front, and revealing a gently stirring cloud of smoke hanging in the air.

Unlike the Elgin joints, Mueller's puts the pit front and center. The meats are pulled from the smoke, carved before your eyes, and served up on white butcher paper. On this visit, we ordered brisket, spare ribs, regular sausage, and jalapeno sausage.

The brisket was, again, sandwich-grade, though a step up from Southside and Crosstown, in that it wasn't as dry, had a better smoke flavor, and seemed to benefit from its cracked peppercorn crust. Not quite "eating brisket," but very good nonetheless. The ribs had good texture and decent flavor, but weren't meaty enough and had almost no bark (just more cracked black pepper). The regular sausage had good flavor, light smokiness, and was very moist--so moist, in fact, that it tended to squish around inside the casing when cut. The jalapeno sausage was also moist, but was more densely packed and, therefore, less resistant to the efforts of a plastic knife. The jalapenos added a bright, vegetal flavor, rather than just heat. Though nothing at Mueller's knocked our socks off, it was all very good barbecue. And the atmosphere is hard to beat.

On the way back to Dallas, we dropped by Nemecek Brothers in West.

Though Nemecek Brothers is strictly a meat market, we decided to drop by and ask them (for future reference) if any of the local barbecue joints served their sausages. (They do wholesale to some supermarkets in the area--north to Waxahachie and south to Waco--a listing of which can be found on their web site.)

While they have many meats available, of greatest interest to us was their assortment of house-made Czech sausages, which they've been making in this location for more than a century. Some were fully cooked and some partially (usually by smoking).

They offered us tastes of the fully cooked sausages; but since some of the most interesting looking ones were only partially cooked (and I didn't bring the cooler), we weren't able to make much of an assessment on this trip. Appearances can be deceiving. One of their "chubbies" looked like an unassuming hotdog wiener, but packed a surprising degree of heat. And their lean, house-made beef jerky also has a pronounced red pepper kick. The staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful, even though it was obvious that we were mostly window shopping. I look forward to returning, with a cooler.

There were many options we weren't able to fully explore in West.

We talked kolaches with locals on the street, gathering some leads. But we were only able to go to two bakeries. The full report will have to wait until we can return (i) with healthier appetites for a broader sampling and (ii) earlier in the day when the product is at its freshest and nothing is sold out. (This is supposed to be a barbecue report, anyway.)

Summary of Results
All the standard caveats apply. These impressions are of particular cuts of meat on a particular day. Had we gone on a different day or at a different time, who knows how it might have come out? Barbecue is finicky. Judgments have to be formed over time. A one-meal data set won't do it. But, with that said, here's what we thought...

Best Overall. Mueller's came out in front, since most of their meats finished stronger than those of the competition. With great sausage and decent ribs and brisket, Southside Market came in second. With uniformly good quality, but no all-stars, Cross-town came in third. Meyer's brought up the rear; but since we only had sausage there, that may be somewhat unfair.

Best Atmosphere. First Place: Mueller's, which would place at or near the top in almost any company. Second Place: Southside Market. Third Place: Meyer's. Fourth Place: Cross-town.

Best Sausage. Since none of the other meats on this day were top tier for Texas, we didn't make individualized rankings for other categories or "best in any category." But the sausage was, across the board, exceptional. By unanimous decision, Southside Market was the best this day with moist, flavorful, addictive links. Mueller's came in second, with their tasty, moist (but almost too moist) regular beef sausage and lively jalapeno links. Meyer's came in third, losing some points for the dryness of the beef sausage, but scoring well with their intensely garlicky pork links. Cross-town brought up the rear, also because of a slightly dry, overcooked texture. (Of course, judgments on moisture level in sausage are subjective. Some people might prefer a leaner, drier sausage; and, if so, they too can find much to their liking in Elgin.)