LEGENDARY Texas BBQ! BEST Beef Brisket | Franklins vs. Terry Black’s in Austin Texas | 5 HOUR WAIT!
Some brisket is worth a five-hour line in the Texas sun — the question is whether all of it is.
Mike Chen, the YouTuber behind Strictly Dumpling, spent a day in Austin putting that question to the test in his August 2019 vlog, pitting Franklin Barbecue against Terry Black’s Barbecue in a head-to-head brisket showdown. One spot demands you show up before sunrise with a lawn chair; the other lets you walk in and order in under half an hour. Chen’s video breaks down whether Franklin’s reputation actually earns the wait, or whether Terry Black’s is quietly serving comparable brisket without making anyone camp out for it.
- Franklin Barbecue, at 900 E. 11th St. in East Austin, routinely runs four- to five-hour lines before its 11:00 a.m. opening, with popular cuts selling out early.
- Franklin’s beef brisket is seasoned with just coarse black pepper and salt and smoked low and slow for up to 12 hours over post oak.
- Terry Black’s, founded by Michael and Mark Black on Barton Springs Road, runs a cafeteria-style line that typically gets customers their brisket, beef ribs, sausage, and sides in under 30 minutes.
The Franklin’s Gauntlet
Chen’s Franklin’s segment is as much about the wait as the meat. Regulars know the drill: arrive well before dawn, bring a chair, and settle in for a line that can stretch four to five hours before the doors even open at 11 a.m. It’s become such a fixture of the Austin food scene that showing up “early” by normal standards can still mean missing out — the kitchen has a habit of selling through its best cuts before the afternoon crowd even gets close to the counter.
What’s waiting at the end of that line is Aaron and Stacy Franklin’s Central Texas-style brisket — dry-rubbed with nothing more than coarse black pepper and salt, then smoked for up to 12 hours over post oak. Chen zeroes in on the bark: a blackened, almost crusted exterior that gives way to a fat cap rendered down to something closer to butter than tallow. It’s the kind of texture that’s made Franklin’s the reference point for brisket nationwide, and Chen’s on-camera reaction treats the payoff as proportional to the ordeal.
Doors open at 11, the line forms before dawn, and the brisket can be gone before lunch.
Terry Black’s Makes Its Case
Terry Black’s occupies a different lane entirely. Founded by Michael and Mark Black, descendants of the family behind Lockhart’s storied barbecue lineage, the Barton Springs Road spot runs on a cafeteria-style service line that moves fast — Chen clocks his own wait at well under 30 minutes, a fraction of what Franklin’s demands. There’s no pre-dawn chair-camping required; you walk up, order, and eat.
The tray itself is stacked: Central Texas brisket sliced to order, beef ribs sized closer to a small roast than a standard rib, house-made sausage links, and classic sides like mac and cheese rounding things out. Chen’s comparison lands on the brisket specifically — texture, smoke ring, and how it holds up bite-for-bite against Franklin’s — and the video treats Terry Black’s as a legitimate answer to the question of whether world-class brisket requires a world-class wait.
The Verdict on the Wait
Chen frames the whole trip as a value calculation: is Franklin’s brisket enough better than Terry Black’s to justify losing half a day of your Austin trip standing in a line? The video doesn’t dodge the tradeoffs — Franklin’s offers the blackened bark and rendered fat that built its national reputation, while Terry Black’s offers a Lockhart pedigree, a full tray of comparable smoked meats, and the ability to actually see the rest of Austin the same afternoon.
For anyone using Chen’s vlog as a travel guide, the practical math is simple: Franklin’s is the pilgrimage, Terry Black’s is the reliable alternative. Viewers chasing the same kind of extreme-experience content Chen built his channel on can find similar stunt-driven challenges in videos like World’s Largest Challenge! or World’s Most Dangerous Escape Room!, both of which lean on the same “is it worth it” tension that drives the Franklin’s line in the first place.
Chen doesn’t declare an outright loser — Franklin’s brisket still gets the nod for pure craft, bark and all — but the video’s real takeaway is that Terry Black’s lets you skip the five-hour ordeal and still walk away with a tray that holds its own. For anyone planning an Austin trip around brisket, that’s the actual decision: sacrifice the morning for Franklin’s, or spend thirty minutes at Terry Black’s and still have the rest of the day.
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