Sugar Shack BBQ

- Location: UT Campus area - 24th & San Antonio St.
- Hours: Monday - Friday: 7 AM - 7 PM
- Number: 512-464-1151
- Website: www.sugarshackbbq.com / Facebook: Sugar Shack BBQ 
- Cuisine: BBQ, breakfast tacos

Sugar Shack BBQ was started out of a love for 70’s retro music and back yard bar-b-ques by partners Mark Avalos and Mark Stimak.  If you’re thinking about joining Mark and Mark in the Trailer Food revolution, they have some words of wisdom, “Don’t get fooled by places that have a lot of car traffic.  That’s the number one misconception.  If you see a place that has a ton of cars driving by you think that place will do well – but really foot traffic is the key.”  Indeed, Sugar Shack gets plenty of foot traffic at their log-cabin-shack on wheels which is a favorite place for many students to eat just behind Dobie mall on UT campus.

Playing with the college environment and their theme, their menu includes fun items like the Notorious PIG and the Bama Jammma.  The Sugar Shack’s best seller is their pulled pork with a mustard base cole slaw followed closely by their chicken breast sandwich with a white BBQ sauce.   White sauce you say? That’s right, the guys at Sugar Shack love all kinds of BBQ, not just Texas-style.  Their white sauce is a mayo-based  Alabama-style BBQ-sauce along with 6 or 7 other ingredients.  Not available in bottles yet, their red BBQ sauce is also a fan favorite. 

Recipe: Old School BBQ's Sedona Salad

From the famously meaty food vendors, Old School BBQ, comes this hearty recipe for a salad - full of greens and goodness! 


Old School BBQ's Sedona Salad


Ingredients:

12 oz. Baby lettuce mix
8 oz. Chicken Breast
4 oz. Bleu Cheese crumbles
4 oz. Walnuts – chopped
6 oz. Mandarin oranges
¾ cup Red onion
4 oz. Balsamic vinaigrette

Directions:

1.     Cut chicken into 1 ½” pieces and brown over medium-high heat with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2.     Thinly slice red onion and cut slices in half to form crescents.

3.     Place lettuces, walnuts, chicken, onion and bleu cheese crumbles in mixing bowl.

4.     Add vinaigrette to bowl and toss thoroughly.

5.     Portion on serving ware and garnish with Mandarin Orange sections.

Serve with a crisp, dry white wine like Pinot Grigio and hot crusty bread for a flavorful, fully satisfying light meal.

Old School BBQ

- Location: Waller Trailer Park Eatery - 1112 E. 6th Street - @Waller

- Hours: Monday & Tuesday: 11 AM - 3 PM

             Wednesday: 5 - 10 PM

             Thursday & Friday: 5 PM - 12 AM

              Saturday: 12 PM - 3 AM 

- Hours: 512-947-6830

- Website: www.oldschoolbbqandgrill.com / Facebook: Oldschool Bbqandgrill / Twitter: oldschoolbbq

- Cuisine: BBQ

“Old school quality of service without the rip off pricing”

Having gone to the Cordon Bleu school under a master chef in France, his corporate experience with Hard Rock Café and TGI Fridays as well as having opened 56 restaurants in 2 continents and 3 countries, Dan Parrott brings over 35 years of experience to the table at Old School BBQ & Grill.  As a single Dad he brought his son Danny with him to build restaurant concepts from the ground up.  They would hire and train the staff and move on to another project.  So the restaurant business was in Danny’s blood early on.   Their third business partner Trey is responsible for the trio’s move from L.A. to Austin and it was driving around with realtors that they noticed the boom in the trailer food scene.  Thus, the Old School BBQ concept was born.

Dan says, “Old school going back to when it was your pride and your pleasure to serve others because they were giving you their most precious commodity – their time.  We aren’t trying to make all the money we can – I was making ridiculous money and left it all behind to come back on this hot bus just to look at someone when they take a bite and I can see their face.”

Their brisket is their best-selling item and although their namesake highlights their BBQ, the grill side of this trailer is pretty strong too.  For their hamburger, they start the day with two choice cuts of angus steak that they grind every morning themselves.  On top of the burger, they add caramelized onions and Vermont aged sharp cheddar cheese that is melted on the patty.  If you want tomatoes on it, they will slice it right in front of your eyes.  There is a limited amount of this product, so when it’s gone for the day, that’s it. 

Dan offers his perspective on how the food industry has changed and why he feels it is important to serve his guest good quality food at a reasonable price:  “I love what I do but I don’t respect the industry I’m in anymore – after 35 years, the industry has defaulted into one more us corporate structure.  People in offices are making decisions about people in food – I don’t think that’s right.  Back in the day when you went out for food it was a special event, a really big deal you looked forward to – and the people feeding you knew it was a special event – they knew they had to capture your grace that one time.  When you went to eat and someone else did it, you would get dressed up, service and quality were incredibly important.  After all, if you are going against ‘mom’ you better be good.  Then there’s the aspect of value –the money the patrons raised in their livelihoods had to be used to buy farm parts.  The food culture back then, you knew you were working with a group of hard working people that deserved the best.  And that is what we are doing at Old School.  The main thing for us, I really hope people understand that if nothing else, we do what we do with great passion.  We are going to give it our all.  We just love making people smile when they have a really good meal.”

Magic Madgies

CLOSED - 7/2010 - goodbye, Magic Madgie's

- Cuisine: German & BBQ

Culinary team Madgie Hollingsworth, Art Blondin and David Schulman got into the Austin Trailer Food business in the Spring of 2010 after many years in the service industry.  As the manager and voice of Magic Madgie's, David got his first job as a cook's helper in the 60's and like a lot of people, waited tables, tended bar, worked in kitchens and did catering.  His most recent food industry endeavors includes operating a hamburger stand called '3 Frogs Cafe' at State Park Beach on the Big Island in Hawaii. But the food industry isn't the only place David keeps busy; he is also a practicing attorney and a recovering musician.  Primarily he was a singer/bassist, but he also played guitar and almost all the brass.  In fact, it was at a musicians party here in Austin where David met his business partner and partner in life Madgie over ten years ago.  Was it his salmon marinated in jalapeno jelly that won her over?

Magic Madgie's Red Hot is serving up German and BBQ sandwiches, as well as hot dogs, frito pies and other specialty items.  David's favorite is the Schnitselwich, which is a thin chicken cutlet served on pumpernickel bread with homemade sauerkraut, german style mustard and carmelized onions.  All of their sauerkraut, potato salad, and red cabbage is homemade right on the trailer.

The team from Magic Madgie's has some pertinent advice for other trailer food vendors out there:  "When you figure out how to do all three:  good cooking, general business practice, and inexpensive food, you've got it figured out.  The food business is not for the weak at heart."