ART BLONDIN

ARTZ RIB HOUSE
2330 South Lamar
Austin, TX
(512) 442-8283
www.artzribhouse.com

“It takes so long to cook barbecue that you have to have something to do while it’s smoking, so you pick some music.” – Art Blondin

Art Blondin moved to Austin in 1980 and discovered the wonders of Texas barbecue while he drove around central Texas looking for gigs for his country band.  He started out running his restaurant business from a rented bar kitchen, and then moved his operations to a tiny former railroad caboose on West 5th Street.   He eventually outgrew the caboose and moved to his current location on South Lamar Street, where he opened Artz Rib House. People visit Artz Rib House both for ribs and the live music from various bands every night of the week.

Listen to this 1-minute audio clip of Art Blondin talking about the relationship between barbecue and music. [Windows Media Player required. Go here to download the player for free.]

NOTE: What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

EDITED TRANSCRIPT

Subject: Art Blondin
Date: September 5, 2007
Location: Artz Rib House – Austin, TX
Fieldwork Director: Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt
Fieldwork Team: Lisa Powell

Produced in association with the American Studies Department at The University of Texas at Austin and the Central Texas Barbecue Association.

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Lisa Powell: Today is the fifth of September 2007. This is Lisa Powell, and I am interviewing Art Blondin at Artz Rib House on South Lamar in Austin, Texas. So first, would you state your name and age for the recording?

Art Blondin: Ah, my name is Art Blondin, and I am 52.

Thank you. So just to get us started, do you mind talking about how you first got involved in the barbecue, or the restaurant, business, or both?

Well, let’s see. When I first moved to Austin in 1980, I was in a country band, playing bass in a country band. And every Tuesday we would drive around central Texas looking for gigs for the band, and we’d always search out a barbecue joint, and hit that too. That’s what really got me interested in barbecue. And then when I rented out Art’s caboose on West 5th Street, there was a barbecue pit there, so I started messing around with it and experimenting.

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And, how did you come up with the rub that you use?

Experimenting, and, um seeing what other people did, and just adjusting it to my own tastes.

I know you probably don’t want to give the recipe, but could you tell us a little bit about the flavor, or some of the key ingredients?

Oh, it’s got some of the standard stuff in it, like chili powder, and of course salt and pepper, and, um, red pepper. It also has allspice in it, which gives it a little sweetness.

So, what kinds of meat do you put that rub on?

Put it on brisket, all the ribs, baby back ribs, and beef ribs, and country style ribs. We don’t put it on chicken, that’s just salt and pepper.

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And so what are some of your most popular menu items?

Well, the baby back ribs are the most popular; we sell a lot of those. After that, we have a cut called a country style rib, which you won’t find any place else really. It’s cut more like a pork chop, so it’s very thick. We sell a lot of those. Those are our two biggest sellers, and then we go through a lot of hamburgers. We sell a lot of burgers, cause they’re very good. They’re cooked over char-grill, very tasty. We sell a lot of them.

And so, when did you come up with the country style cut, was that it? And how did you come up with, decide to start having that particular style of rib?

We had that at the caboose. That’s where I started that. And pretty much because, um, it was an easy cut to do, and, um an easy rib to keep around, did not have to cut it or anything like that. And it was unique, nobody else did it. And one year we were in a rib cook-off, and it was the first year I had ever done anything like that. And I entered the country style ribs in as spare ribs. And they won. And the next year, there was a rule that you couldn’t enter those in [laughs] any more. Everyone else got mad, but I didn’t care, I had the first place prize.

And what was the name of this contest, and what year was it?

It was called the Rib Ticklin’ Affair. It benefited the mental health-mental retardation unit in town. And there were actually four categories in it: spare ribs, baby back ribs, let’s see, beef ribs, and barbecue sauce, were the four categories. And I won all four. So, that’s when I decided, I’ll stick with barbecue.

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And so, do you still spend a lot of time in the kitchen, involved with the cooking yourself?

Yeah, I do. I’m trying to get away from that, but it’s, it’s tough to do. I’m somewhat of a control freak, so I like to make sure everything’s going okay. And it make it that much better when I actually do get some time off.

And so what’s a typical day like for you then?

I usually get here somewhere around nine o’clock. And, um, check and see what, what the status of everything is. And then I’ll go ahead and make some soup for the day, and I will just get ready for lunch. And I’ll, I’ll usually be here through lunch, and then I’ll go home and do some work on the computer, and, uh, relax a little bit, and then come back in the evening. And, uh, I’ve got somebody who closes up for me and opens up for me, so I don’t have to do either of those.

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And so you talked about the large volume of your smoker. Do you have the different meats going at the same time in different parts of the smoker, or how do you work that out?

Yeah, usually I’ll have a bunch of things cooking at the same time, and the smoker is a big rotisserie-style smoker, so it just spins slowly around and that way the meats baste themselves as they cook. It’s quite a, quite a thing. They’ve come a long way since the old days, when you just had to keep constantly putting wood in, and paying attention to it all the time. And they’re pretty much automated now.

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And so, do you ever play here, at the Rib House?

No, I’m not comfortable playing here. I’m always looking around and seeing, you know, why, why does that guy, why, how come that guy’s iced tea glass is empty, why is that person standing at the door so long, and also, we’re a bit loud for here, we’re a big five-piece band.

So, could you talk a little bit more about maybe some of the groups who play here regularly?

Okay. Aw, let’s see, I’ve got some people who have a weekly gig, like on every Monday night is Sarah Elizabeth Campbell. She’s been doing that for a long time now. Every Tuesday night we have the Old Time Texas Fiddlers. They, they show up and sit in a circle and trade songs, and it’s pretty informal. Every Wednesday now for a while it’s been Shelley King and Carolyn Wonderland, and they’ve been drawing a good following, and, uh they’re wonderful. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and, I try to mix it up. I’ll have bands like the Studebakers, who, they’re a great band. They do Andrews Sisters-style music. Or I’ll have bluegrass bands, like the Grazmatics, or the Sieker Band. Uh, singer-songwriters like George Ensle and things like that. And then usually on Sundays, we have bluegrass music. We have a bluegrass jam on the, in the afternoon. Then in the evening we usually have bluegrass music, except for the third Sunday of the month, which is Western swing, with Bert Rivera and his band.

Okay, and so, do you find that the crowd mainly comes both to eat barbecue, and to listen to music?

Yeah, and it also depends on who is playing, too. A lot of bands, uh, draw a bigcrowd, and the people will come, and eat, and then just hang out and listen. But we get a lot of people who come in for the food and then discover some new music while they’re here.

And, so, do you find that, that this is a particularly unique space for barbecue and music in this area, or is it a pretty popular concept for restaurants and music venues around Austin?

It’s, well, it’s not real common, but there are other places that, that do it. I don’t think they, they do it quite the same way though. A lot of places will have music out on the patio or something. We’ll have it right, right in the dining room. Let’s see, what else was I going to say? I had something I was going to say. But a lot of times, we ah, we’ll be filled up, and it’ll be kind of half and half. People are here to see the music, or people are here to eat. It works out well.

How long has having live music performed here at Artz Rib House been a part of Artz House? Was it from the beginning?

Not from the very beginning. We didn’t start off with music, I think we had probably been open at least six months, maybe a year, before I started getting some music in here, and I had it just once a week, something like that, and it was out here on the patio, and then it just got popular, and I moved it inside, and it just kept growing, and now it’s every night of the week.

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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

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