Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Get the news
Log In or Subscribe to skip
36 [h=6]Share This Story![/h]Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about
[h=4]Big-ticket brisket: BBQ prices soar in Texas[/h]TAYLOR, Tex. – Signs of the withering drought that has hit Texas the past few years could be seen on the wall menu at Louie Mueller Barbecue in this Central Texas town. Taped over the price of brisket and beef
{# #}
[h=4]Sent![/h]A link has been sent to your friend's email address.
[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.
[h=6]Join the Nation's Conversation[/h]To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
Brisket bandit targets local restaurants
The wall menu at Louis Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas, reflects price changes due to the spiraling price of Texas beef.(Photo: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY)
TAYLOR, Texas – Signs of the withering drought that has hit Texas the past few years could be seen on the wall menu at Louie Mueller Barbecue in this Central Texas town.
Taped over the price of brisket and beef ribs are updated prices -- $19.99/lb and $20.99/lb, respectively – the mark of spiraling beef prices brought on, in part, by the drought.
"It's incredibly concerning," owner and third-generation pit master Wayne Mueller said. "We're moving away from barbecue being the basement of the culinary food chain into something altogether different. It's becoming quite pricey."
Wayne Mueller, owner and third-generation pit master at Louis Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas, checks on his brisket.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY)
A confluence of drought leading to less beef cows in Texas and the soaring popularity of Texas barbecue has led to a historic beef shortage – and subsequent price hikes – that could drastically change the face of Texas-style barbecue.
Once a staple of the working class and eaten at food trucks or picnic-table dives, smoked brisket – the centerpiece of Texas barbecue – is slowly climbing into the pricey realm of white-linen steakhouses. And the price hikes have no end in sight.
Nick Pencis, owner of Stanley's Famous Pit Barbecue in Tyler, took to Facebook last year to warn customers that rising beef prices will be reflected in the price of their brisket, which has climbed from $15 a pound to $19 a pound in less than a year. He's relying on his breakfast menu, tacos and other features, such as live music, to keep customers returning in the face of escalating prices.
But he doesn't know how much longer he could sell the pricey brisket – his eatery's biggest seller.
"It's reached a breaking point now," Pencis said. "There's not really a forecast for relief for this."
The high prices has even made the beef cut a hot commodity on the black market. San Antonio Police recently issued an alert for a "brisket bandit" who has made off with thousands of dollars worth of the meat from area restaurants.
USA TODAY
'Brisket bandit' sought after Texas barbecue heists
"Brisket is so expensive right now," said Chris Conger, owner of the Smoke Shack, one of the pilfered eateries.
The multiyear drought that hit Texas, the largest beef-producing state in the nation, beginning in 2010 scorched grass used by cattle to feed and forced many ranchers to sell large portions of their herds out of state or drive them to slaughter, said David Anderson, a livestock economist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
Texas's beef cow supply shrank from 5.1 million in 2010 to 3.9 million last year – the steepest drop ever recorded in Texas, he said. Meanwhile, the price of wholesale Texas brisket more than doubled, from $1.40 a pound in 2009 to $3.45 a pound last year, he said. Much of that pound of brisket renders down during cooking or is trimmed away, leaving about half of it sellable.
The Texas beef cow population showed a slight increase earlier this year, to 4.1 million, signaling that ranchers are beginning to rebuild their herds. But it'll be a while before those increases become sellable slabs of beef, Anderson said.
"We're going to be looking at historically high prices for several years," he said.
At Louie Mueller, where customers start lining up at 11 a.m. and eat on 60-year-old picnic tables, the price of brisket once sold for less than $10 a pound. But then the price hikes started and the menu got taped over with new costs – more than three times the past year, Mueller said. Local customers have stopped coming in as often. He doesn't know what he'll do if the trajectory continues, he said.
"We're really starting to look at our brand and what we're selling," Mueller said. "We're pushing price points that are going to be competing with low-end steakhouses."
Mueller said he aims to keep the Taylor operation, started by his grandfather in 1946 in the back of a grocery store, open as long as possible. But he's talking with investors about opening a more upscale barbecue restaurant in Houston.
"How long can a place like this hold on at these prices?" he said. "We just don't know."
Central Texas barbecue began at the turn of the century in the back rooms of German and Czech butcher shops as a way to dispose of the cheapest cuts of meat, said Robb Walsh, a Texas barbecue historian and author. They smoked and sold the unwanted cuts – mostly brisket and shoulder clod – to migrant farm workers, he said.
"The original intention was to run a butcher shop," Walsh said. "The Germans and Czechs didn't even have a name for it. It's the migrant farmers who called it barbecue."
Today, the popularity of Texas barbecue has soared, thanks to places like Franklin Barbecue in Austin, whose daily two-hour line is legendary, Pecan Lodge in Dallas and Black's Barbecue in Lockhart, adding to demand and pushing prices even higher.
On a recent morning in East Austin, customers began lining up at the La Barbecue food truck as early as 10:30 a.m., despite gray, 45-degree weather. The weather or steep prices didn't deter Jeremy Lau, visiting from Seattle, from ordering $50 worth of beef short ribs, hot links, pulled pork, pork rib and brisket.
"There will always be people like me," he said. "The same way people go to Disney World and Disney World is extremely expensive. You pay top dollar for good food."
Still, the popular truck's days may be numbered. Plans are in the works to open a storefront La Barbecue restaurant on the south side of town later this year.
Contributing: KENS-TV in San Antonio.
0) { %> 0) { %>
0) { %>
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed