Waiting in Line

Austin, Texas is my second hometown. I travel there as often as I can and have for over a decade. I know a great deal of beautiful people who call the city home. I know the geography. I can navigate the streets without a Google Map. A feat of which I was particularly proud when I discovered it was now within my powers.

This is the city that introduced me to the concept of waiting in line for food. Austin in my experience is a very social town. The residents at large seem to enjoy gathering for a communal activity. The food is diverse and precise. Creative and detailed. All sorts of cuisine, as befits a major metropolitan center. Of course it was the barbecue that first drew me there.

When I began making the journey to Austin in the second decade of the 21st century Franklin Barbecue reigned supreme. This was the peak time for the Texas Monthly barbecue rankings. An important cultural phenomenon. Highly regarded. I believe that the globalization of cooking techniques through the proliferation of the internet has given a larger number of venues a fighting chance when seeking to create the ‘best’ barbecue. If you’ve read me before then you’ll know I don’t tend to assign foods with the notion of ‘best’ because I don’t believe it really exists. What is best to one person will not be the same to another. But what is very logical and very real is that technique can be practiced and developed over time to create something spectacular. In my opinion that is what Aaron Franklin had done in 2011 when I first wandered to the back of the line to await his store opening.

The Franklin line was a whole scene. I was lucky enough to be taken by friends who came prepared. We had collapsable chairs and snacks and games to pass the time. The time in this case being an approximate 5 hour wait. Here’s the math: Franklin opens at 11am. If you arrived at the location at 6am then in general you’d be assured of being amongst the first in line and you would be served roughly when the store opened at 11am. If you arrived at 8am like my party then from the time of store opening it would be approximately 2 hours before you got fed, equating to the same wait of around 5 hours. My friends previously had some success arriving towards the end of the barbecue day - about 3pm - and picking up whatever was left over with very little dallying about, but this was my first time in Texas and my first time at this well regarded smoke shack so I wanted the full experience and didn’t mind at all waiting in line for the privilege.

When I first told people that I waited 5 hours in a line to get some barbecue the reactions were understandable. Most common being “I would never do that”. Which is great. All power to you. The second most common missive was “That cannot have been worth it” the statement of which leads itself to a deeper analysis. To me it absolutely was worth it. Each to their own above all else of course. But when you say it can’t possibly be worth it what exactly do you mean? One can only assume this equation involves calculating the time spent waiting in a line vs the product and experience that you receive at the end of that line and coming out with some kind of negative result. From my eyes the only way this would work is if you had something better to be doing with your time. I most certainly did not and this is why the Franklin line is fine for me.

Do you have a family? Do they require attention? Then absolutely you probably should not be spending 5 hours away from them in order to get a meal. Do you get paid by the hour and require each and every penny in order to survive? Then I agree, spending 5 hours in the hot Texas sun for some delicious brisket is probably not the biggest net gain you can achieve with your time. The instance in which it makes sense, and the one I believe applies to many people like myself is: Do you want to eat some sublime barbecue today? Do you have 5 hours to spare? If the answer to both those questions is yes, then I posit that it is absolutely worth your time. Because that brisket is delicious in a way I had never previously imagined possible.

You don’t need to wait in line at Franklin Barbecue if you don’t want to. Their meats can now be pre-ordered and picked up from a separate trailer on the property in a predetermined time window. The Louvre is busy and one might argue that the Mona Lisa is no more impressive viewed from a decent distance over mounds of tourists. But the taste of fresh Franklin Barbecue after waiting in line is exalted. If I can impress but one thing regarding the subject of lines then it will be: Did you personally enjoy the food? Did you have anything better to be doing? If your answers are yes and no, in that order, then it was absolutely worth it.