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People are lemmings. Franklin's BBQ in Austin has hours long lines. It's very good brisket. The hill country of Texas is FILLED with equally good brisket joi

• jacquesm 8y ago
  That's because we are not satisfied unless we feel we have the best. Second best just doesn't cut it, and making it measurable is a great way to focus all the attention on the #1 spot. Same with music rankings, movies, books and so on. It's what powers best sellers: best sellers will sell more because they are best sellers!
• et-al 8y ago
  Agreed. For me, most restaurants fall into good/so-so/not good buckets, so I dislike ranking them and selecting a best, however folks love top 10 lists.
• siphor 8y ago
  do you know of a pair of better/cheaper over the ear noise cancelling headphones?
  • l0b0 8y ago
    Came to say the same thing. I'm not exactly an audiophile, but being able to listen to an audio book at less than 110% volume while walking next to a busy road is fantastic.
    • Filligree 8y ago
      They're not exactly cheap, but the Bose QC headphones are superb.
  • jabb0r 8y ago
    I bought the Cowin E7's from Amazon for $60. I've tested them and the noise-cancelling is every bit as good. The audio sounds just as good too, but I don't pretend to be an audiophile and the noise-cancelling is what is important to me.
  • medmunds 8y ago
    I’ve been very happy with the Monoprice “SonicSolace” ones. Haven’t done a side-by-side comparison, but I’ve found them perfectly good for airplane use, and they’re definitely cheaper. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=16219 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=16219
  • tjoff 8y ago
    I believe Sony WH-H900N is both better and cheaper. Sony and bose are the only ones (that I have heard) that does noise cancellation that is worth it.
  • dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-Honeywell-Hi-Visibility-1030390/dp/B00IL9MK0A/ https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-Honeywell-Hi-Visibility... They're not even active noise cancelling. They work just as well with no battery. They're not "dead silent" but I can be making no noise and you have to yell to get my attention. As an added bonus they're reflective, not that that in any way makes up for the massive reduction in situational awareness you are causing by purposefully handicapping your hearing ability while in/around traffic. Edit: Did you edit your comment or was it someone else who mentioned wanting to listen to audiobooks while walking down the street?
  • dsr_ 8y ago
    No. I know of dozen better solutions for people who want to listen to music in high-noise environments, starting with the cheap-and-good (Mee M6Pro, $50, plus ear-safety isolators, $10) and ranging through moderately priced and good (Sennheiser HD280Pro, $100, Beyerdynamic DT770, $150) and going on up in price but not necessarily isolation.
  • luma 8y ago
    The new noise-cancelling champion appears to be Sony's WH1000XM3, which retains the same eye-watering $350 pricetag as the QC35s.
  • JPKab 8y ago
    http://e1z.ca/code/clog/?p=225 http://e1z.ca/code/clog/?p=225
• btrettel 8y ago
  I live in Austin and I've made the exact same point to people before. Q: Which BBQ place should I go to in Austin? A: Most are good. I've even enjoyed the brisket served at the UT dining halls. (This is blasphemy to some.) You probably would do well to pick any well established BBQ place without a line.
• comis 8y ago
  The most confusing thing about the line at Franklin's is you can just order it to go and skip the line entirely. Granted, you have to plan ahead a bit, but who's deciding at the spur of the moment to go eat lunch at Franklin's anyway?
  • gerbilly 8y ago
    I believe there is such a thing as "queuing culture." I don't know if it's driven by Disney resorts and cruises, but it seems as if people like standing in line for some reason.
    • Avshalom 8y ago
      It turns things into an event. Which is most of what happened at Franklin.
    • briandear 8y ago
      See also Shake Shack..
    • zem 8y ago
      yep, I have a friend who went and stood in line to buy the new apple phone because it was "part of the experience". whatever makes people happy, I suppose.
    • monksy 8y ago
      You've never been to England.
  • astrodust 8y ago
    It's like how a night club with no line is stupid, lame, and not worth going to, but one with a long line is forbidden fruit and so you must line up too. So many clubs make people line up for no reason other than to have a line.
• mr_ndrsn 8y ago
  Holy crap, Salt Lick BBQ was a let down when I was in Austin. We would have been better served going anywhere else, and will be sure to do so the next time I'm down there!
  • tessi3r 8y ago
    I grew up in Austin and I honestly never found the OG Salt Like to be that great... Franklins is good - but I sure as hell wouldn't wait hours in line for their brisket...
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• jt2190 8y ago
  > The hill country of Texas is FILLED with equally good brisket joints that don't have lines. Yep. Even The Salt Lick at AUS is decent. For those coming in from out of state, take a look at Texas Monthly's BBQ section to get some ideas: https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq-home/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq-home/
• torstenvl 8y ago
  Yes. My Bose headphones are absolutely overrated and overpriced. They're 2-3x as expensive for being maybe 10%-20% better than the competition. But they're still 10% better. They're the best consumer grade noise canceling headphones available. None of the offerings from Sennheiser or the like have both a comparable comfort and the same or better noise canceling. So, for me, there just isn't anything else that solves the problem of having to do high-concentration work in an open office for hours at a time.
  • sbr464 8y ago
    I agree. I'm still an owner & fan of the Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II, but also have the latest Sony WH-1000XM3 (and XM2). I think the Sony's have better noise cancelling, enough that I pick them up daily. I typically work with them on, no music. The QC 35 travels better, being slightly less bulky. For the above comments about Bose in general, it's untrue for this specific use case. Before the Sony model was released there wasn't a better option out there.
  • JPKab 8y ago
    http://e1z.ca/code/clog/?p=225 http://e1z.ca/code/clog/?p=225
• majormajor 8y ago
  I think the internet caused a lot of this. It's easier for everyone to herd to a SINGLE point. I don't remember this sort of line size discrepancy being nearly so common twenty years ago.
• nradov 8y ago
  Right I've seen hipsters in the Bay Area lined up for hours just to eat ramen noodles! What's wrong with these people? Even great noodles aren't much better than average noodles. I really can't understand it.
  • TheDong 8y ago
    > What's wrong with these people? > I really can't understand it. Why does anything have to be wrong with them? Why can't it just be that they have different tastes? I have no issue with you having your own opinion (it's stupid; I won't do it, I can't understand). That's all well and good. Saying "what is wrong with these people" about something you don't understand, but that is harmless thing and doesn't involve you significantly... that's just plain close-minded. The comment above yours at least tried to provide some reasoning (people following recommendations, fooling themselves with cognitive dissonance), but it didn't try to draw a distinct "me vs them, something is wrong with them" as your comment did. You should reflect a little if this is your gut reaction to people doing something you don't understand but that is harmless; it shouldn't be "something is wrong with them", it should be "I wonder what they see in it? I just don't get it for some reason; I guess we live different lives"
  • hnuser355 8y ago
    Hmm, hours is weird and beyond my limits but many restaurants serve quite good ramen many enjoy.
  • elvinyung 8y ago
    Well, have you had great noodles? A crash course on Japanese culture: kodawari. It's a singular, artisanal obsession with making a single thing perfect. In Japan, there are restaurants dedicated to making only one thing, only yakitori or tempura or soba or a myriad other things or, of course, ramen. With such dedication, you elevate such trivial things, even such an extremely unremarkable thing like ramen, into a high art, and you expose it as what is is, a world full of subtleties. Yes, there are people just doing business, but by and large the field is advanced by people who care, and there is no top on this. SF has one, maybe two ramen-ya that even remotely come close. You exhaustively experiment, hacker-like, with the parameters of every possible thing you care about, the ratios of the bones and aromatics and fushi and fat that go into broth, the proportions of seasonings that go into the tare sauce that has had entire books written about them, the alkalinity and hydration and timing of the noodles, the little details and seasoning on top of the toppings. It is precisely through the person-centuries of experimentation that we find interesting combinations that we realized we could do interesting things in this thing that was basically just a bowl of pork soup with some soy sauce and some springy noodles. All this, and it's still just ten bucks a bowl. As far as I know, no other culture even comes remotely close to this kind of kodawari on such a large scale. It feels ridiculously dismissive to just ignore the achievements of an entire culture like that. (And for the record, it's not like I think there isn't any overrated ramen. I waited collectively something like two hours for the Michelin-starred Tsuta, and on net it impressed me less than some much more humble ramen-ya. All I'm saying is that the search space is both wide and deep, and it feels weird to just dismiss it like that.)
• jabb0r 8y ago
  Just to add a little subtlety to your comment, Franklin (no s) BBQ revolutionized Texas BBQ when it first opened. Nowadays, there are several places that can go head to head with it (Micklethwaite and La Barbeque for example), but at the time, there was nothing even close. Many of those famous places in the hills or even, gasp, Lockhart, really weren't that good once we had Franklin BBQ. I've noticed a lot of these old-school places have had to up their game in recent years and are now competitive again. That said, waiting in line at Franklin is sort of an event of itself. Most people bring coolers of beer and turn it into a tailgate-like atmosphere. You're right though, I haven't waited in the line for years because I can get something similar much easier. I'm with you 100% on the Bose headphones comment though. Those things are a ripoff.
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• batbomb 8y ago
  I've been to a few Rudy's before, most recently in New Mexico. I'm not sure how much better Franklin's would be, but I'm not sure I would care all that much either.
  • enraged_camel 8y ago
    If Franklin's is a 10 (let's say), Rudy's is a solid 8.
• scruple 8y ago
  I've been to Sukiyabashi Jiro, in Tokyo, four times. The Ginza location twice and the Roppongi Hills location twice. Lunch and dinner service at both locations. These are Michelin 3 and 2 star restaurants, respectively, and it is actually quite challenging to get in to the Ginza location as a foreigner, especially the dinner service. I don't mean to say anything to discredit Jiro or his sons or their apprentices. They are absolutely amazing chefs of the highest quality and they are serving some of the highest quality sushi you can get. It is the best sushi that most people could ever hope to have and the food service itself is worth the experience. But... This place was made famous by Anthony Bourdain and then a documentary. All of that said, I've personally had sushi that is comparable in quality out in the Japanese coastal countryside at an essentially random michi-no-eki. It's also significantly cheaper and they have pieces of sushi that you won't find in the larger cities that are unique to the region or town.
  • ryanwaggoner 8y ago
    If it's just as good for cheaper, then why have you been 4 times? It doesn't sound like it's easier.
    • scruple 8y ago
      > If it's just as good for cheaper, then why have you been 4 times? Because the lunch and dinner services are different. Because we later vacationed in Japan with a couple that we are friends with and they wanted to go and were more comfortable going with us (both of these places are an intense experience, to put it mildly, though one is a more comfortable atmosphere than the other). Because of that intense experience and the atmosphere that it provides. Because it's more difficult still to comfortably navigate those smaller towns and regions, outside of Tokyo or Osaka or Kyoto, etc..., without any sort of handle on the language. That alone implies a few things. You or someone you're traveling with knows the language well enough to navigate those smaller towns and regions and that it's very likely not your first or even second trip to the country. We didn't come to understand that sushi in a place like Shimoda could be better than what you'd find at a Michelin rated sushi restaurant until we were able to find ourselves in Shimoda having that sushi and we weren't comfortable even going to a place like Shimoda until our third trip to Japan. edit/ Because my wife and I are just as vulnerable as everyone else that is being talked about here for falling prey to "top 10 lists" and the like.
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• megablast 8y ago
  I mean, you are a local, right? You know all those places. If I am in town for a few days for work, WTF am I going to do? Go to the one place someone told me about or I saw on a list? Of course.