School is out for the summer, but before the vacation began, the Elgin girls' softball had a great run at the State Tournament. Congratulations!

As you know, this first festival focuses on Central Texas sausage makers. Our research found that the following Association Members make their own sausage: Cooper's in Llano, the Gonzales Food Market, Kreuz' Market in Lockhart, Louie Mueller's in Taylor, Luling City Market, Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse, Rudy Mikeska's in Taylor, and the Southside Market in Elgin. We know of three wholesalers, in addition to the above, who sell their sausage to many of our members. These are: Smokey Denmark, Taylor Meat Company, and the Texas Sausage Company. The Association is inviting all of you to come into Austin for the BBQ Festival in October to showcase your great products. Shortly, you will receive individual invitations from the Association. If we missed someone who makes their own sausage, please contact us so we can correct this and invite you to participate!

As for those who purchase their sausage, we invite you to participate in being a BBQ vendor as well, by selling items other than sausage. Please let us know if you are interested, and we will get you more detailed information, as well as a booth application.

Most of you are aware that the festival will be at the Travis County Farmers' Market in Austin on Sunday, October 9^th. There are a few permanent vendors at the site, and most of them plan to be open for the Festival. These businesses are: Dog Almighty, the Brentwood Tavern, G&J,s BBQ, and Lightsly Farms. In addition to lots of great BBQ, there will be a music stage featuring Bluegrass and Country musicians; BBQ sauce vendors; BBQ equipment vendors; and a demo stage and panel discussions. The Association will have a booth representing our membership. You are welcome to get us materials to distribute. The Chambers of Commerce will also be invited to showcase and represent their communities. Currently, those Chambers would be Taylor, Elgin, Lockhart, Llano, Gonzales and Luling.

We are thrilled to be working with our Title Sponsor, the Austin Chronicle. They will produce a Festival Supplement for the event, and will be helping with such things as the Festival T-shirt. More sponsorships are in the works, and increasingly there is more to do. If anyone is interested in joining the Planning Committee, please call or email us. We need staff to organize the music stage, the vendors, the rentals, the demo stage, the site layout, etc. We usually meet every other Wednesday at 6:30pm in central Austin.

If you have not yet checked out our website, please do so. Seedling.online is developing the site and great changes have been made. Those of you who emailed us your logos will see that they are up and in rotation on the Home Page. You can also find festival info here, sign up to volunteer, read the Side Dish, and find out about our Charity Partner, Meals on Wheels and More. The site is at: www.ctbbqa.org .

In other news: Several of our members showed up in The Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll. Under "Favorite BBQ" were: Artz' Ribhouse, The County Line, Ruby's, and Sam's; "Best Late-night  BBQ" = Sam's; "Best BBQ Comeback We're Happy To See" = Ben's Longbranch BBQ. Again, Congratulations to you All!!

One final new item: The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party took place in Midtown Manhattan on June 11^th  and 12^th. Central Texas BBQ was represented by two Association Members, plus the Salt Lick. The Southside Market and Kreuz' Market attended. Kreuz was there last year as well. In this, its third year, the event drew over 100,000 people to Madison Square Park. Ten barbecue restaurants from around the country participated, and three of these were from Central Texas! Central Texas BBQ Rules - even in New York City! Thank you to Danny Meyer and his Blue Smoke BBQ in New York.

Luke Zimmermann

Central Texas Barbecue Association