Franklin Encounter


 
J Hasselberger

J Hasselberger

TVWBB All-Star
There was a great event -- Live Fire! -- at the Pecan Grove at the Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas last week. Twenty or so top chefs from the Austin area cooked and served up small bites that all had to be beef and all had to be cooked over wood or charcoal. The top billing went to Aaron Franklin. He brought his mobile cooking rig and served up small 2-bite samples of his beef rib.

AaronFrank by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

When the gates opened, there was a rush to the Franklin table. We hung back and sampled some of the other chefs' excellent fare and in about an hour or so strolled over to Franklin's to get our fix. The line was down to about 5 minutes at that point. When we got to the carving table, Aaron had just reached back to grab another rack of beef ribs and began to slice away. I held out my plate and said, "You can just put that whole thing right here." Without missing a beat, he laid a whole beef rib on my plate and said, smiling, "Here you go."

JHwBeefRib by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

I was stunned, but I wasn't going to give it back. I slinked away like a thief. I never had anything like it. Buttery, smoky, perfectly textured, orgasmic.

After I cleaned the bone like a hungry terrier, Janis suggested that I ask him to sign the bone. Great idea. I went looking for a Sharpie, but to no avail. Aaron had run out of ribs by then and was chatting with fans, so I walked over and noticed that he had a Sharpie in his back pocket. I asked, "Is that a Sharpie in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?" He got the joke instantly and graciously "signed my bone."

BoneSigning by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

He was as friendly and open as everyone says he is. We chatted about hot rods, the weather and he showed me photos of a new mobile rig he's making.

The bone is going to be displayed in a special place at Rancho Berger.

signed bone by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

Jeff
 
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Live Fire! is the big beef, beer and wine event of the year down here in Central Texas. The Salt Lick is about a half-hour out of downtown in the middle of nowhere and across the Onion Creek from the restaurant is The Pecan Grove, which is their big wedding and music festival venue. It's mostly outdoors and has a beautiful grove of shady pecan trees, fire pits, a pavilion and a large field for parking. Event info can be found at:

http://austinfoodwinealliance.org/2016-live-fire/

They also do a "Wine and Swine" event that is way cool. Besides Franklin, a host of Austin's best chefs prepared small plates that were outstanding -- things like ribeye meatballs with pesto and red sauce, all sorts of brisket variations and house-smoked pastrami. About 15 beverage distributors brought out wine and beer. It wasn't cheap -- $85 a head -- but once you got your wristband, you could stuff yourself silly.

The Franklin encounter just sent an already excellent event totally over the top. I still dream about that rib.

Jeff
 
Thanks for sharing that great experience with picts.

Brilliant idea to have AF sign the bone. That would never have occurred to me.
 
Interesting Jeff. Enjoyed reading through your post. I know your autographed bone will be displayed proudly! That lady behind you two in the signing picture is thinking " What the ......"
 
Awesome looking event and pics!!!Never seen a bone autographed before, great idea!!! Please show us how you plan on displaying that in the near future!
 
I'd love to meet the guy. I've been to Franklin's but he wasn't there that day. In his book he has an old picture of himself that looked really familiar. He was living in Bryan/College Station area around the time I was there back in the late 90's. I used to frequent some music open mic's back then and see a lot of bands, so that might have been it. More likely is that I'm just crazy.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
... More likely is that I'm just crazy.
Click to expand...

Aren't we all?

He looks and acts exactly as you see him on TV or anywhere else. There is no pretense around him or any hesitation from him to engage in a conversation with anyone who approaches him. He's a natural.

BTW, Live Fire! is an annual event. A great excuse to head down this way for a long weekend. Even if Aaron wasn't there, it was a fabulous beef and fire experience.

Jeff
 
It's raining in Hill Country today. Good day for an artsy-craftsy project. The lovely Janis picked up a shadow box this week and today we "mounted the bone" (which is also another kind of rainy day project) in the box along with a few pix.


Bone_box Small by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

I drilled a small hole in the back of the bone and screwed it in place on a stand-off so that it looks like it's floating in the box. The little sign is in accepted museum/gallery format and reads:

Aaron Franklin
American, born 1977

Signed Bone, 2016
Sharpie on beef rib

Created for Live Fire! Exhibition, Driftwood, Texas.
Beef rib meat removed by Jeff Hasselberger prior to signing.

We found the perfect place to mount it, where it could oversee (and hopefully bless) the outdoor cooking area in the breezeway between the house and garage. I will look to it for inspiration every time I fire up a chimney. Maybe some of Aaron's magic mojo will rain down on my wood-fired efforts. I have tried everything else.

Bone_box2 small by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

That's an 18.5 WSM, Performer Platinum and a little Q on the bottom shelf of the work table.

Jeff
 
This is so cool. Glad you got to have such a great experience and cool way to display your bone and pics.
 
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