DFWBBQ events from Summer to Fall.

Does the summer heat have you down? Catch the barbecue wave with these upcoming events that will help you transition from the sultry summer months into the crisp fall season. Heck, you may even pick up on some cooking tips to impress your friends right in time for college football Saturdays.

* What's better on Labor Day weekend than watching others labor over a smoker? Hit up the Bedford Blues & BBQ Labor Day Weekend Festival. With a $5 General Admission charge, you will get to attend this festival which was recently featured on the Travel Channel's BBQ Crawl. Also included is a musical lineup consisting of Jimmie Vaughn, John Mayall, Josh Weathers, and blues legend Buddy Guy. For $10 more -- you can try 10 samples and have 2 votes. You may even run into Danielle "Diva Q" Dimovski, hostess of BBQ Crawl.

* On Saturday, September 21st -- find the hitch in your giddy-up at the Boots, Beer, and BBQ fundraiser at Eddie Deen's Ranch in downtown Dallas. This is the 15th Annual Auction and Gala benefiting the Easter Seals. For $75 per person, you can bid on items for the silent auction, boot scoot to live country music, and loosen your belt buckle from all the BBQ you just consumed.

* If you partied at Jimmy Buffet's concert this year then you may find a similar party Friday night, September 27th at Camp Craig Allen's 7th Annual Amateur BBQ cook-off benefit. Happening at Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine, a $25 ticket will get you into the kick off party full of margaritas from the Dallas Margarita Society, casino tents, live music and a BBQ buffet. The following Saturday is the family friendly BBQ cook-off with 45 teams competing. Tickets are $10 donations per person at the door. Sample food from the team sites while delighting in a cash bar, eating contests, kid's area, live music and wheelchair sports! All donations benefit disabled youth, adults, and veterans!

* Oak Cliff dwellers and Dallasites alike -- the Blues, Bandits, and BBQ shindig is conveniently located for you in Davis Park. The competition's name is derived from famous past residents of Oak Cliff. Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughn and of course Bonnie and Clyde to be exact. Dates have yet be released but this will be the 4th Annual event. Previous years have included local craft beer tents, cooking demonstrations, kid's area, live music and of course BBQ. Stay tuned!

* Have you ever wanted to watch Dallas' top chefs go head-to-head in an all BBQ cook-off? Then Meat Fight may tickle your fancy. Last year's 1st annual event at Sons of Hermann Hall helped rake in a whopping $20,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This year's Meat Fight occuring at Four Corners Brewery, plans on exceeding that amount given the bigger event space allowing more tickets for sale. Mark your calendars for November 17th and I promise you'll have one hell of a good time. Tickets go on sale soon.

A meat lover's experience at The Fan's Inaugural Sausage Fest.

When one hears the title Sausage Fest, connotations and innuendos instantly flood our small human minds. When I heard about a food themed Sausage Fest sponsored by 105.3 the Fan being held in downtown Dallas - I started salivating. Then immature one liners flooded my small human mind.

Imagine walking through a Willy Wonka's sausage version of his Chocolate Factory full of brats, knacks, Andouille, and jalapeno sausage. This is what barbecue enthusiasts like me get thrilled about. The potential to learn about the craft and try new meats. The fact there would be a sausage race where meat is held strategically between one's legs, bobbing for sausages and the crowning of Miss Sausage Fest, a mature crowd of 21 years old and up was the rule. My very own Sausage Factory.

While it's publicly known that 105.3 the Fan is a sports radio station steadily declining in ratings, throwing an event like this could shore up attention for them. Also the fact that they were utilizing Dallas' downtown for an event is commendable. While their intentions may have been to cheer on BBQ, sports, and all things men, the event itself may have been a bit flaccid.

On the surface it seemed promising and full of entertainment. I was plugging it left and right on Twitter and after convincing friends it had nothing to do with Oak Lawn, I managed to assemble a group of average meat lovers to attend. Think about it - Main Street garden with live music, food and beer...you can't find too many people who would disagree that this wouldn't be good times. Even Chicago, Vancouver and of course Elgin, Texas all have their own respective celebratory gatherings in honor of our spicy, greasy, oblong shaped pals.

What I expected and what I experienced are two completely different stories. Were there scantily clad women, beer, and music? Well of course. Was there sausage? Yep. But the shortcoming was the amount of sausage one would expect from a "Sausage Fest." A total of five vendors were on site with one of the vendor's products purchasable at Wal-Mart.

Even my companions, who again are far less interested in sausage than I, were slightly finicky about the event - or lack thereof. Forget the sun beating down upon us - we wanted meat. Forget the $6 12 oz. cans of beer - we came hungry and carnivorous in every sense of the word.

The major disappointing factor was the infamous Dallas legend, Jimmy's Food Store, not in attendance. How about the delicious handmade sausage from Texas Monthly Top 4 Pecan Lodge or the legendary Kreuz sausage imported from Lockhart, Texas to Bishop Arts District's own Lockhart Smokehouse? Did anyone invite them to the event? Or the many other local meat purveyors such as Kuby's Sausage House and Rudolph's, what about them?

3 Stacks Smoke and Tap House and Hard 8 BBQ were the only notable barbecue joints in attendance which both served pretty admirable protein. The Texas Andouille from Hard 8 BBQ was exceptionally spicy and issued a great snap to it. The thing is, I could've gone to each one of these establishments and spent the amount I did on a full meal and their in-house sausage any day of the week.

Yes - I get it, there was innuendo visibly present and the novelty wasn't lost on me. The fest actually drew an evenly mixed male and female crowd despite it being geared towards the male population. My point is you can have all the PG-13 humor you want and still hit the mark celebrating the festival's namesake. Beside not having local Dallas businesses, missed were the opportunities to taste sausage from different cultures. Do a quick search and you will quickly find different German and Italian sausage, central Texas pork and beef sausage, East Texas hot links, Louisiana Andouille, and a variety of other styles. Another opportunity missed was an exhibit showing the hard work which goes into hand making sausage.

Did they deliver what they intended? Depends on who you ask. Food obviously wasn't The Fan's number one priority for this and I recognize that in hindsight. However they could've given the general public of North Texas a genuine look at what you would normally drive hours to experience. Many of whom eat the product but have never learned of it's origin.

To me, there's a certain nostalgia about maneuvering a bun and brat into your mouth at a baseball game. As a lover of sausage - next year, beef up the festival some more. If you're going to throw a party for sausage in Dallas - toss in some nostalgia and give the local meat markets a chance! Authentic meat markets are a rarity these days and their attendance wouldn't go unappreciated. This event could've uniquely stood out more but at least it has something to build upon. Hopefully The Fan will still be around to have a 2nd Annual. By the way, fair warning - don't type "Sausage Fest" into your preferred search engine.

Metzler's Food & Beverage

2 Stars

http://www.metzlerscatering.com/

Hanging in front of this established Denton convenience store is a faded navy blue banner reading "Voted Best in Denton 2008". What you'll also notice is the advertisement of alcohol and furthermore that they serve smoked meat with sausage from Fischer's Market in Muenster, TX.

They've been around since 1947 and have been serving the "finest bar-b-q" since then as their drinking cup states. Noticeably on their menu is a heavy German influence and using Fischer's sausages, I wanted this place to be something worth telling people about. Other than the broad alcohol selection, my hopes would soon be dashed.     - - - - - -

First thing I noticed when I arrived before noon was an absolute lack of smoke outside and inside, where the smoker was actually located. By now I know what this entails. Day old meat. From a small shop like this, I'd expect it could go either way. On one hand with their history, I would've thought fresh BBQ daily if they were popular at lunch. On the other hand, if they don't sell a comparable volume of BBQ, they probably won't trash leftovers as this isn't cost effective. Neither is serving current and potential customers lackluster quality because they will eventually stop coming.

I ordered the three meat plate with German potato salad and slaw. Thinking to myself that sauce may be used as a mask, I luckily caught the waitress in enough time for her to scurry back to the kitchen to relay my request of no sauce. I went for the rib first which had a faint smoky flavor, came off the bone too easy and was absent of rub. The brisket was dry and I thought I hit hints of Mesquite in the taste but my taste buds were mostly sensitive to a pot roast flavor. Even the fatty piece was underdeveloped from the previous days smoking.

Fischer's smoked sausage is some of my favorite. Growing up with frequent trips to the meat market - it brings back childhood memories of enjoying sliced sausage and smoked cheddar cheese held together by saltine crackers. Sadly enough they did no justice to this pleasant memory by throwing it on the stove top. My childhood innocence has now been robbed. By a stove top. 

Before leaving I spoke to the gentlemen at the counter who confirmed that all they use is Mesquite because it's easy to get around here. They thought about and briefly tried Hickory but that's very difficult to come by he said. I can think of a few places that use Hickory with no supply or demand issues.

Like a father who still displays dusty state champion trophies from high school or a former pageant queen desperately clinging to that tiara, sometimes you just have to let go of who you use to be and recognize who you presently are. After that moment, you may have acquired an ability to initiate change. At some point Metzler's may have served remarkable BBQ but with utmost certainty, the old pitmaster isn't overlooking the process which kept them in business for 66 years. There is opportunity here but if they enjoy living in the past while disservicing customers - maybe it's time to take down the misleading faded navy blue banner. Besides, Rudy's is right around the corner.