July 28th of 2011 will go down in Austin barbecue folk lore as a dark day in our town's history.

This was the day that "Operation Meat Locker", a covert sting operation ran by Austin Police Department, came to a head with arrests at 3 area restaurants.

La Morenita, Willie's Barbecue and Sam's Barbecue were all implicated in the affair with police alleging that the 3 restaurants were engaging in black market meat purchases from brisket bandits who were smuggling foods out of area HEB Supermarkets.

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Hot off the tipster button we have some bad news out of Spicewood Texas. R.O's Outpost, the western Travis county barbecue restaurant, has lost their lease.

We've been eating here for years. The barbecue is plenty good but as we've said before they have a pie lady worth her weight in gold. This restaurant was the first place we ever sampled deep fried corn on the cob which serves as a very fine side for their classic take on chicken fried steak.

Here's the contact information for R.O's Outpost. I've noted the fact that some real estate folks check in on the scrumptious site from time to time and if one of y'all has a storefront that this restaurant could move into you could save central Texas from losing one of our finest barbecue houses.

http://www.rosoutpost.com/

We never saw that one coming.

The boys over at Shaggybevo's GM Steakhouse are ardent lovers of Franklin Barbecue. They post moment by moment, day by day updates of what's happening in the Franklin dining room and they are elated with the quality of meat coming out of the Franklin smokehouse.

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I read Jim Shahin's recent piece in the Washington Post concerning possible future trends in the world of barbecue in 2012. The writers over that way made some good points and it inspired me to peer inside the crystal ball at headquarters in East Austin to see what the future of barbecue in Austin, Texas looks like.

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Texas Monthly Top 50 barbecue house Wild Blue is preparing to close its doors.

Pit boss and professional chef Abraham Avila reported that while business was strong at times the weak quarters were ultimately too poor for the joint to surmount.

Can't get enough Wild Blue? You have until February 4th to get your fix. That's the day the business ceases to exist.

Avila does offer a lifeline of sorts. He hopes to re-open his outfit in the next year or so but this time he'll be selling meat in Brownsville.

obit out of Brownsville http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/avila-136319-barb

More on Wild Blue http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-30641932R-wild_bl

http://www.yelp.com/biz/wild-blue-barbecue-los-fresnos

all barbecue coverage http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/Barbecue

all restaurant obituaries http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/RIP-Rest-

We ran up to Perez Barbecue in Bartlett Texas this weekend to get another chapter written in the book on Texas barbecue.

Armando Perez has been running this little roadside joint for 25 years in the fading town of 1500 or so people located an hour north of Austin.

We've been hearing about their homemade sausage links for awhile now and with good reason. They're incredible.

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Fatty brisket and house cut fries [the best in the Austin area ] are what compel us to repeatedly drive down to Manchaca to eat at Railroad Barbecue.

Established in 1982 this old beat up barbecue house will always have a special place in our heart.

It's one of the few smokehouses we've ever been to that is able to use mesquite wood properly. It must be some very old stock that they're working through as the signature creosote-esque unpleasantness is simply not present.

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Reports are starting to come into our inbox from readers who've sampled the barbecue from former Louie Mueller pit boss Lance Kirkpatrick at Stiles Switch Barbecue on North Lamar.

The consensus is good. Yes there are kinks to be worked out but it seems everyone is being fed well if not yet at the level of the output from John Mueller and Aaron Franklin.

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Heard good things about Big Boy's Barbecue in Sweetwater Texas but unfortunately they had not flung the doors open for service when we passed through earlier today.

Smoke was rolling off the big pit and the sky over Sweetwater smelled like brisket but we were out of luck.

Who's been to Big Boy's Barbecue?

How was the meat?

all Austin Daily Photos http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/Austin-Da

This is the 1000th article we've posted on the scrumptiouschef site. We thought long and hard about what the topic should be before putting pen to paper. Simply put, there is no subject more near and dear to the bosom of the scrumptious team than barbecue.

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