"Aaron Franklin's USDA Prime brisket is the benchmark for American barbecue and a James Beard winner; worth the three-hour queue once."
The line forms before the doors open, and it has done so every service day since the trailer became a brick-and-mortar room in 2011. Franklin Barbecue sits at 900 East 11th Street in East Austin, where Aaron Franklin turned a 2009 roadside smoker into the most argued-about barbecue in Texas. The brisket is USDA Prime, sold by the pound at $25, and it routinely sells out by early afternoon. In 2015 Franklin became the first barbecue cook to win a James Beard Award.
Aaron Franklin started Franklin Barbecue from a trailer in 2009 and moved into the East Austin building at 900 East 11th Street in 2011. The whole operation is built around one technique: post-oak smoke, low and slow, over USDA Prime beef. The fatty brisket, sold by the pound at $25, is the reason people queue for three hours, and it set the standard that pitmasters across the country now measure themselves against.
Beyond the brisket, the board runs to pork spare ribs at $22 a pound, pulled pork, turkey and sausage links, with a brisket sandwich at $12.50 for anyone unwilling to commit to a full tray. In 2015 Franklin won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest, the first time a barbecue specialist had taken it. He has since written the cookbooks that taught a generation of home smokers, but the restaurant itself has stayed deliberately small and stubborn: limited daily output, cash-and-card at the counter, and a hard stop when the meat is gone.
There is no dining room to speak of, and that is the point. Order at a counter, carry your tray to picnic-style tables, and eat off butcher paper. The energy is loud and communal, the line outside is half the experience, and the dress code is whatever you wore to stand in the Texas sun. It runs daytime only, Tuesday through Sunday, until the brisket sells out. Come for the food and the ritual, not the setting.
Bring a group at lunch because Franklin rewards sharing: order a tray by the pound, split brisket, ribs and sausage across the table, and let one person hold the line while the rest find seats. It is a daytime, no-reservations pilgrimage rather than a dinner out, so plan it as the centrepiece of an Austin day. See the wider city in our Austin dining guide, compare it with the global best barbecue restaurants, or browse the full RFK restaurant rankings.
Not for a tight schedule or anyone hoping to reserve — there are no bookings, the line forms before 11am, and the brisket regularly sells out by early afternoon, so a late arrival means no food at all.
For most people, once, yes. The brisket is genuinely among the best in the United States, and Aaron Franklin's 2015 James Beard Award was the first ever given to a barbecue cook. The three-hour queue is the trade-off, and whether it is worth it depends on how much you care about brisket. If the line feels too long, our best barbecue restaurants guide lists alternatives with shorter waits.
The only reliable way to skip the in-person queue is to pre-order whole briskets and meats online for pickup, which the restaurant offers through its website. Walk-up customers still queue, and the line forms well before the 11am open, often by 9am on weekends. Arrive early, bring a chair and water, and accept that the brisket can sell out by early afternoon.
Everything is sold by weight. Brisket is $25 per pound, pork spare ribs and pulled pork are $22 per pound, and turkey and sausage are $19 per pound, with a brisket sandwich at $12.50 for a lighter option. A pound of brisket feeds two to three as part of a mixed tray, so a group of four sharing several meats typically spends a moderate amount per head rather than a fine-dining sum.
Franklin Barbecue serves Tuesday through Sunday from 11am until the meat sells out, and is closed on Mondays. There is no dinner service; this is a daytime operation, and on busy days the brisket can be gone by early to mid afternoon. The safest plan is to treat it as an early lunch and join the line before opening.
No reservations — queue in person or pre-order online
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