Backyard barbecue turned into a blessing for Augustine Cortez. He took a dream and watched the smoke rise to success.
"Back in the day---after pay day there wasn't much money left in the bank," says Cortez. "We would barbecue all weekend long and watch the football and basketball and just barbecue in the backyard. So, I figured why can't I just have fun doing this for a living."
The insurance man tossed aside his policies to open the door of Augie's BBQ in Southtown in 1999. Even though he didn't have a restaurant background things started to take off. He moved to 3709 N. St. Mary's Street in 2004.
"I figured I'd put a menu together that is common for what we have locally in our backyards," he said.
The Jefferson High School graduate says the name for the business was a natural progression from a family nickname: Augie.
"I thought Augie and BBQ went together well," he said.
Cortez is proud and humbled by the spot near the Japanese Tea Gardens, across from the Polo Fields Golf Center and down the street from the San Antonio Zoo. In fact, his property used to be owned by a former zoo employee.
"It's a blessing to come and earn a living with what people like to do on the weekends," he said.
Cortez and company have crews working on their double smoked meat all night long. He says a puff of oak at night and mesquite in the morning. The rest is pure love for their smoked brisket, pork and beef ribs, pulled pork, chicken, and sausages.
"San Antonio is a big barbecue city," he says."It takes a longtime to cook this stuff. it takes a lot of effort to just make this happen and have it smoke properly and served properly."
Neighborhood Eats got a chance to sample a few of the smoked goods from Augie's BBQ. We started with Rocky's Chopp BBQ sandwich: Chopped brisket, sausage, pickles, and onions completely slushed in BBQ sauce. Que Rico!!!
The chopped chicken sandwich (sauce optional) was memorable and flavorful. Que Rico!
Augie's BBQ has tons more for the tasting at two San Antonio locations. Pretty good for a backyard dream.
That's this week's edition of Neighborhood Eats. If you have a suggestion for Marvin send him an email (mhurst@kens5.com), tweet (@mhurstkens5) or post to the KENS 5 Facebook page.