I usually don’t like to eat beef ribs for a number of reasons: too tough, too chewy, too fatty, low meat to bone ratio. But my friend Steve in Austin says that he likes the ribs at Iron Works BBQ so we set up a time to meet him and some other friends there one evening.

When we arrived at Iron Works at around 7, the place was pretty packed. Fortunately, Steve and Horn had saved us a large table. I picked up 4 beef ribs, a link of sausage, and half a chicken, plus some beans, bread, and a bottle of St. Arnold’s Root Beer. Total came to about $30. (I had to use flash, as the ambient light was just too low.)

The ribs were good. Nice flavor and meaty (we found out that there’s more meat on each rib because they do a “Hollywood cut” by leaving more meat on the rib and discarding every other rib, instead of cutting straight down the middle). The non-spicy sauce was good but the spicy was better. The sausage was definitely better than Black’s. Steve thinks it came from V&V Sausage. The chicken was okay. It was more for the kids, so we had to take off the well seasoned and spicy skin. Underneath, the meat was moist but a little mushy, I thought.

Leave it to the Texans to make good beef ribs.

Aloha, Nate