Red River BBQ

Texan BBQ might just be the new Mexican. And I’m OK with that, the serves tend to be bigger. Every Wednesday night Pat and Nick from Red River BBQ are teaming up with Texas BBQ ambassador and blogger Burger Mary to serve a short order menu of meaty, cheesy, gooey goodness at The Worker’s Club.

I swanned by on the inaugural hoedown last night, where Burger Mary had set up an impromptu order desk next to the kitchen, complete with a Texas flag and meat merch (‘I Heart BBQ’ tees and hot sauce were on sale).

The menu is short and salty - starters are either queso with tortillas with chips ($8) or wings (six for $8) with a choice of three sauces. For mains you’ve got the pulled pork sandwich ($14) or sliced brisket sandwich ($15). There was also a special of cheddar and chipotle drop biscuits ($6) that Burger Mary had baked earlier that arvo. Red Velvet Cupcakes are on hand from Sugardeaux.

From service starting at 6pm things quickly progressed from lively to busy to hectic, and by 7pm the brisket was gone. Still, I was luck enough to try most things on the menu. The queso was described as a ‘Tex Mex cheese dip with tomato and jalepenos.’ It just tasted like warm cheese. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I would’ve liked some more kick. Next were the wings, tasty little parcels of fun. I chose the Red River BBQ sauce which added a sticky, tangy coating.

The meat sangas came served on a bed of potato chips and flanked by a green chilli. Nice. My favourite was the pulled pork, the meat a tender mix of sweet and smoky, with some coleslaw, onion and pickles thrown in the mix. I’m told the Red River guys import American Oak to smoke the meat, and while I can’t say I detected the gamey tang of US wood I did eat the whole thing. The home made biscuits (similar to a scone) were good dipping in the queso sauce. Finger lickin’ good.

Red River BBQ’s only on Wednesdays, and today it’s Thursday. But at least you’ve got a week to work up an appetite with this: next week it’s beer and molasses baked beans.

RED RIVER BBQ @ THE WORKER’S CLUB
51 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Every Wednesday, 6pm till late
redriverbbq.com.au/shortorder