BEN wash

Ben’s Long Branch
Bar-B-Q
900 E. 11th Street
Austin, TX 78702
(512) 477-2516

“Every weekend, these guys would go out and barbecue in the backyard. And man, they could barbecue so good, man. I wished I could barbecue as good as they could now, I still can’t. But, be honest with you, though, I hung around them enough to learn how to barbecue well enough to start my own business. And that’s the way I learned how cook—backyard." – Ben Wash

Originally from Mississippi, Ben Wash started cooking when he was seven years old. He moved to Austin as a teenager in the late 1950s and learned to grill brisket from older friends. His mother cultivated his love and talent, and at twenty-seven years old, with a bank loan of five hundred dollars and a good eye for bargains, Ben started the Long Branch in his garage. His first building, a Western-inspired place where horses tied up, was built in 1971 and was named after the saloon on the television show Gunsmoke. Thirty-six years later, Ben’s Long Branch resides in the heart of old East Austin and, as a barbecue institution in this community, Ben believes in keeping the history and roots of the area alive. Ben talks candidly about any subject from brisket prices to integration and, whether you’re in the mood for pork ribs or stories about East Austin development and the quickly changing character of the neighborhood, Ben knows a lot about both. He is a kind and vivacious man, whose positive energy comes through in his food. Ben left his Long Branch in 2002 only to return to a business that was failing without his presence. The restaurant is successful once again, and Ben is working hard to keep the East Austin spirit alive.

Listen to this 3-minute audio clip of Ben Wash explaining how brisket became the foundation of Texas barbecue. [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: Ben Wash
Date: March 30, 2007
Location: Ben’s Long Branch Barbecue Restaurant, Austin, TX
Fieldwork Director: Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt
Fieldwork Team: Marvin Bendele, Andrew Busch, and Anna K. Martin – graduate students at the University of Texas, Austin
Interviewers: Andrew Busch (primary) and Marvin Bendele with Anna K. Martin
Photographer: Marvin Benedle

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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Andrew Busch: Maybe just talk a little bit about what you think [Texas] barbecue is all about.

Ben Wash: Thank you. My name is Ben Wash. I’m the president of Ben’s Long Branch barbecue—has been for thirty-six years. In 1971, yes, 1971 when I started it all, and I’m still—still going, you know. And well, you know, the thing that—what I was trying to tell these guys, they’re a little younger than I am, just a little bit you know, not much—nice guys, though, you know, man. I’m trying to, I’m trying to explain to them—I’m trying to explain to them that what barbecue—what it’s really like and where it all started—it all started right here in Texas. It’s called—Texans used to call it—what’s it called?—the trail they used to punch cows across the state—and all the way from Texas to Kansas—mostly, if you was any where else in Texas other than Fort Worth— we used to also punch some from—from the East Texas area, and the west part of Texas, also the south part of Texas, they used to push ‘em to Fort Worth, Texas. It was kind of like the headquarters of the Texas cattle—Texas cattle, cattle run—that was back in, oh, 17, 1800s from history—I read a little bit about it. But, but the thing about it, now, here’s the story that I read, and some of the old guys from Texas says I’m right. They said that one of the slaves started the barbecue—and started the brisket—where that you find brisket, I, it’s been, it’s been known here to go back into the 1800s. And they said the slaves, when the slaves came here—when the guys used to—the masters used to take their—their cow and kill her—and they used to throw the brisket away—and so, the slaves got the brisket, and they dug a hole in the ground. And they made some fire and some coal—[inaudible]—they used to use hickory wood, I believe they said they mostly used hickory wood, you know—to smoke with, you know—and they used to build a hole in the ground, and they put some wire—some like some chicken wire, you know, chicken wire, and lay it up on there you know, and then they, get it real hot and they set the brisket up there and let it cook overnight. So, they, stay up late that night and change it over maybe twelve or one o’clock that night, they change it over push over to the other side, and let it cook on that side, you know. Now, just go back to the, to the cattle race [?], punching cows now, now they said when they used to get hungry and wanted some beef, and so, this is the way the barbecue started—they got the name for barbecue. So these, normally, you know, well originally, the slave was from Africa. They always dug holes in the ground and cooked their food. If you could go back to some of the history, some of the movies they made they was cooking it then, and they used to live in these little tents, and they used cook in these—dig a hole in the ground. So, these slaves was trying to tell them say look, we don’t need a stove or all this stuff that you have in your kitchen at home to cook food. You see, what I—what I’ll do—you kill me a cow, and dress him out for me, and I’ll dig a hole and I’ll make a hole in the ground and put some fire in it, and I’ll do some barbecue. I’ll smoke it for you, you know.

So the slaves used sort of the throw away parts of the animal—?

Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. The brisket was the one—well, what was the problem with the brisket—even if you baked a brisket like you do a roast, you have to bake it 3 or 4 times longer, and I guess the master and them, they didn’t like the idea that you have to cook it something that long to make it tender, you know. And so, but the black people they just put it out there and they just let it cook all day all night if they needed to. So, when they got done—so, somehow or another the master went outside and tasted that, tasted that brisket and he fell in love with it.

I fell in love with it also the first time I had it.

Oh, you did—he fell in love with the brisket and he like, “Well hey man—[laughs]—so he started telling all the other guys about it, you know. So, they all started coming around and tasting the brisket, and they all started liking it. Next thing they know, they was building barbecue places with brisket, you know. Yeah, they was, they was building barbecue places and that was—that was their barbecue. And, even today, the number one seller in Texas is brisket—right now. I mean, I can buy five hundred pounds of brisket, five hundred pounds of sausage, and hell, I mean, I can sell three or four—I’d have, I could have two hundred pounds of sausage still left and all the brisket’s gone. That’s, I mean, when, and I’m selling to just a variety of people, you know, yeah—so, the brisket is still the number one thing in Austin, Texas. But now, this story I’m telling is something I read about and I did talk to some of the older guys, and they said it’s the truth, though. And even some of them have told me this, so I’m going by something I read, ‘cause I’m not old enough to know what happened in those days—[laughs].

That was a great story too.

This is—this is the way they said—this is what the brisket started. And then, the barbecue, and then after that, you know, in 19—1885, when the black people in Texas was free, um, they—they, they kept cooking the barbecue like that. They continue to cook it outside like that, you know, and had the Juneteenth—remember the Juneteenth? I know y’all know about the Juneteenth—go ahead.

Oh, I was going to say, Austin has a really old free black community. Do you know anything about that African-American community?

You said, you said one of the oldest ones in the state of Texas, right now. Yeah, we got, we got homes that are 120—see that little house right there?—which, looking at that—

Boarded up a little bit?

Yeah, boarded up a little bit—that’s over a hundred years old—we got one sitting up here that looks like they should just take a bulldozer and bulldoze it down—it’s about 112 years old right in, right in this same block. Right now.That’s great—
Yeah. So, they’re going to make a—make into a—they’re going to redo it and I believe they said they’re going to make it into a museum—yeah—a historical, it’s going to be a historical place—it looks like junk, we’ll go around and take a look at it in a minute, I want you to see it, but it looks like something that ought to be bulldozed, or set some fire to it and burn it down, but—it’s gonna stand, it’s going to be standing.

That’s interesting seeing that this is such an old historically African-American neighborhood—can you tell us—it’s, it’s changed a lot in the last few years. Can you tell me about some of the changes?

Oh yes, yes. This was the city—this area was a place I kind of grew up on—I was a teenager when I moved here, and I kind of finished growing up in this area here—and man we had all kinds of food—okay, I can tell you what we had here—I can remember we had, we had, had our own cleaners—we had two cleaners in East Austin, all owned by all blacks—we had restaurants—tremendous restaurants, I can’t even remember how many it was, we had our own lumber company, we had our own real estate company, we had a car dealership over here—we could buy a new car in East Austin, from a black man—yeah, and back in the fifties, yeah, and you know, it’s, I’m trying to think of something that we didn’t have over here. I don’t think there’s anything I can think of, you know—it was all did right here in East Austin, Texas. Matter of fact, you sitting right in the—right in the center of it right now, you know—yeah.

What has changed since then?

Whew, man—integration—[laughs]—you know what, though—I almost—I almost want to say integration kind of hurt us, man, ‘cause they just kind of just scattered us around through the city of Austin, you know—but it didn’t really, it helped us, but it kind of seems like we lost our roots when integration came because I guess, you know, we wanted to see something different, and, in order for that, you know, we had to move out of East Austin. And we did, you know, and a lot of times a lot of business took—the business, went, some of the guys live in east Austin—we’re kind of poor on taking care of our own neighborhood—that’s the only thing I hate about us, you know, I do kind of like—I dislike that about us—and I guess we wanted to try something different, and we start spending our money on the west side of Interstate 35 and that was a mistake. We start putting more money over there than we put in—back into our own neighborhood, and we kind of lost our business because of that—

Yeah, so the community was a little, was more self sustaining kind of—

Absolutely.

In the fifties, and since then it’s just, it’s become a little bit more disparate.

Well, it actually started in the late sixties and throughout the seventies, then we just kind of lost all the business in east Austin, you know. But guess what’s [better] now, though—it’s all coming back. It’s all coming back.

A lot of money moving into the area—

Yeah, yeah. Well, the only difference there is now, it’s a mixed neighborhood now, but we still have some black-owned business in East Austin, which we’s trying to hold on to as much as possible, and I think if we can hold on—what’s going to be good about us trying to hold on now, I think it’s going to get better, because again, the more money here the more people—integration, just use the word integration—I believe I’d use the word integration. I think it’s going to bring more money to black business in East Austin ever. And so I think it’s good. Economically, it’s good—and I’m enjoying it. I’d like to—I’d like to keep the name “East Austin,” you know—I really would, I’d—I’d rather see it here say East Austin—even though, even though—that, that everything is changing like that, but—I’ve kind of liked the name “East Austin” for so long, you know—okay, in 1936 this area was put aside for the black people—ever since 1936—and that’s when the city was very, very small then—probably had, what, twenty thousand people then or less, you know—but anyway, and I don’t know, it’s just something about it, you know, I lived in North Austin, I lived in Northwest, and right now I’m still in East Austin, but I’m outside the city limit.

I’d like to hear about how you started this business coming from Mississippi, and how you got into the barbecue business yourself.

Well, the first thing I walked in the place and I saw that big ol’ brisket and I though it was burnt—you know how—how they cook brisket and I though it was burnt, right. So, I looked around the grill and I said—I saw—so, when he sliced it, it had a little burn on the tip—just a fraction of an inch or whatever, you know—and then up under there it was so pretty—I said, “Give me some of that roast beef.” I didn’t know what barbecue were, man, I didn’t know what it was.

Now, where are you from exactly?

Meridian, Mississippi. Hell, I’d never heard of barbecue until I got here.

[Laughter]

I’m serious, really—yeah—and so the guy say—he starts laughing—so he went on and says “I’m going to give you a barbecue brisket sandwich”—so, he sold me a barbecue brisket sandwich. I said “damn, that taste pretty good,” you know—[laughs]—I said “what is it”—he said “brisket”—well, I didn’t know much about brisket, because we didn’t do brisket too much in the east, and even in Mississippi—that brisket was hard to cook, man, because we didn’t even know how to barbecue it, then if we did cook it, we’d have to put it in the oven and let it bake, you know. Hell, you gotta bake it five or six hours before they get done, you know, so we didn’t eat that much brisket down there. But I ate that man, and it was so good man—so, the way I found out. Then I said, well “I’ll help some of these old guys,” you know.

Could you tell me what year that was exactly?

That was 1958—in about 1959, some of the guys that was older than me, and my brother was about eight years older than me—and he hung around some guys that was even a little older than him, you know—and every weekend, these guys would go out and barbecue in the backyard—and man, they could barbecue so good man—I wished I could barbecue as good as they could now, I still can’t—but, be honest with you, though, I hung around them enough to learn how to barbecue well enough to start my own business—and that’s the way I learned how cook—backyard. Every weekend, we’d buy some barbecue, buy some meat and get in the backyard and just kind of play around with it, you know—and I got pretty good at it, and they all said, “Well, you don’t have to buy anymore, we’ll do all the buying and you do, you do the cooking.” So that’s all I had to do was show up and cook. Then I got to thinking one day, you know, I got the hardest part of it, you know. But, you know, all my life I loved cooking. I remember when I was seven, eight years old, I used to follow my mother around in the kitchen, and get in the way all the time—you know, she used to spank me some of the time I got in the way, because I wanted to—I was watching mother cook, and I used to try to help her, you know. And as I grew older, she’d give me a little of this to do, a little of that to do, a little of that to do. By the time I was a teenager, I said—well, about the time I was fourteen, fifteen years old, certain things I could cook real good—sure did, not everything, but I cooked a lot of things real good, you know.

What kind of things did your mother make for you?

Everything. She used to make a lot of cakes, you know, but I never liked sweets that much, though—and she used to make pudding and stuff, you know. She used to make jelly and jam, you know, because we was in the country—yeah, we was in the deep country, you know what I’m saying, so all our food came off of what we raised, you know—and my mother, she did everything. But what I learned how to do—I learned how to fry and bake real good watching her—I learned how to bake and fry—real good—yeah, I could boil stuff—and I learned how to cook greens and stuff like that, because I like to cook soul food too—yeah, I like soul food, yeah—and I learned all that stuff from my mom, you know. When I left home I was seventeen, about the time I was eighteen, I was on my own—I had me a room then—at that time people had a lot of rooms—because I was only making 98 cents an hour—wages was real cheap, even here, you know, in Austin. So, I could afford a room, but I couldn’t afford an apartment, you know—and so I used to go in there and uh cook—cook my own breakfast, and I cook my own dinner, sometimes lunch, you know, stuff like that—I always, always hung around cooking, man, you know, and you know what, I thought I went, I worked for, for, ‘til I was about twenty-seven years old. I did all kinds of work trying to find something I liked to do ‘cause I didn’t want to go to college, I didn’t, don’t like college, I didn’t like school that much. I did finish high school, but I didn’t want to go to school. And then all of a sudden one day, you know what, I said to myself, I said, I can barbecue pretty damn good. That’s what I want to do. So it took me about four years to get it together ‘cause I couldn’t get my hands on enough money, you know. So finally, I just start saving pennies, and whatever, you know, pennies I was just, I had pennies, quarters, fifty cent pieces, you know, like they had a lot of fifty cent pieces back in those days.

Sure.

You know, and man, I just start putting that stuff in little jars and stuff like that and then I, I go in a barbecue place to buy some barbecue and I look at a cash register I look at some scales, you know. So I go buy me some second handed scales some friggen—you know, I just buy it and put it in my garage, you know? And I just doing that for about a year, year-and-a-half and, I had quite a bit of little stuff there, you know. And then I bought three hundred dollars on a credit card. I took that money and bought up some equipments with, you know, yeah. And then I paid that, paid about half that off and then I went to the bank, I was working for one of these guys part-time, one of the bankers, and he extended my loan up to five hundred dollars. Then I just went on and got the rest of that, uh, I think I paid, uh, I had about four hundred dollars more money I could borrow ‘til I got to five hundred dollars, so, I just kept borrowing money like that and putting stuff in the garage. You know, I’ll go, and then I’ll find, last thing I bought, I bought me some picnic tables for my barbecue place.

Is this the original building?

No, no, no, this is not. My original building is, I built it—well, it was my idea, but the guy—I was blessed man, you know, there’s some guys own a real estate—own a construction company and they had the lot I wanted, a corner lot I liked. I always like corner lots. They had the lot I wanted, they had the construction company, they had everything I wanted. And I went in there crying. I cried on their shoulders for about half-a-dozen different times. Then one of the guys said, “You know, we’re tired of you crying on our shoulders, we gonna go out there and build this restaurant for you.”
[Laughter]

Then when I built it for five hundred dollars.

Wow.

That all I had to put up was five hundred dollars. And a contract. They built it for five hundred dollars brand new. They built a little, little place like, it was a western—like a little western place, you know?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it had poles, you know. Guys used to ride up to the place with their horse and tie it around the poles.

They had horses then?

Yeah, oh yeah man. You had—back in the seventies, man, they were still riding horses, especially in Montopolis. They rode horses everyday in Montopolis, man. Yeah! Yeah, so they got, they got the poles out there and the guys ride up there and tie his horse, you know, and, and, I had, had Long Branch Barbecue on it. I used to watch the Gunsmoke. That’s where the name comes from. Ya’ll ever watch Gunsmoke?

Sure.

Okay, that’s where the name came from.

This whole area seems like it’s taken on that sort of moniker—the Long Branch.

Yeah, we’ve got a street named Branch Street right there, yeah—but anyway, one of the guys, he liked the Gunsmoke too and we were standing there trying to find a name for my restaurant when they was building it, you know, I didn’t have a name then for it. So, he said, “well you like Gunsmoke?’ I said what about Long Branch 'cause of Kittie’s Long Branch. You remember Kittie’s Long Branch?

Sure.

He said, “well make it Ben’s Long Branch.” [Laughter] Ben’s Long Branch Barbecue and that’s where the name came from.

And you got it now.

Yes sir. It’s been there for thirty-six years, that’s what it’s been.

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

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