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“Hill Country”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Barbecue	Flatiron	Moderate	Great

icy creamy yolks against cool fresh whites. A string bean casserole is loaded up with thin, fresh beans, all hot and creamy, and punctuated with crunchy fried onions. I also loved the cool cucumber salad—a simple toss of thinly slivered cucumbers in a bright vinegary dressing. The Longhorn Cheddar Mac & Cheese is made with penne pasta that’s cloaked in a sharp cheddar sauce that’s been melted down with what I would guess to be a good amount of butter and cream. I could feel the blood through my arteries slow to a halt. Confetti cole slaw combines ribbons of crunchy purple cabbage with golden raisins, a nice addition, but the potato salad is forgettable. It’s under-seasoned and just wiped out by too much mayo. And though I liked the sweet potato bourbon mash, it too could’ve used a bit more seasoning. I also found it to be too thin, pureed so much that it was almost the consistency of baby food. Granted these would be happy drunk babies, but still.

The main event is really the meat, which is fantastic. A bit of background first. The barbecue tradition in Texas actually began with a large immigrant population from Eastern Europe—Germans, Czechs and Poles who brought over their way of smoking meat and making sausages and wurst, which is why you’ll find lots of links featured in Texas ‘cue. Since Texas is also cattle country, beef plays a larger role than pork. Traditional Texas barbecue is also marked by a simple dry rub of salt, pepper and cayenne. It’s not a saucy style of barbecue. There’s a saying in Texas that if you have sauce on your meat you usually have something to hide. They aren’t hiding a thing here. The meat is smoked long and slow over post oak, a very heavy dense dry wood that’s shipped in to Hill Country directly from Lockhart. Many say that post oak imparts a wholesomely sweet flavor to the meat, which I would agree with. When it burns, it offers up a lush, sweet aroma that instantly gets your stomach growling and your mouth watering.

To smoke your meat, Hill Country hired Ole Hickory to custom-build their smokers, which resemble gargantuan steel closets that might house an enormous amount of shoes if they weren’t already crowded with racks of ribs, palates of chicken, and slabs of beef and pork. The meats are cooked between three and fifteen hours (less for chicken, more for brisket) and then transferred to finishing pits where they lie ... [more, click below]

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Posted: July 2, 2007

Other restaurants in Flatiron :
+ Suenos   + Amuse-- Closed   + Dos Caminos   + Lucy-- Closed   + Gramercy Taver   + Veritas   + Fleur De Sel   + Bolo -- CLosed   + City Bakery   + Shake Shack   + Kalustyan's Cafe   + Devi   + BLT Fish   + Sugarcane   + BLT Prime   + Barca 18-- CLOSED   + Beppe   + Barbounia   + Boqueria   + Eleven Madison   + Lonesome Dove-- CLOSED   + Hill Country   + Olana   + Wildwood   + Primehouse   + Allegretti   + Bar Breton   + Aldea   + SD26 by Bao Ong   + ABC Kitchen   + Ciano   + The NoMad   

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