One of Austin’s best barbecue trucks finally has a full-blown restaurant.

Micklethwait Craft Meats, a barbecue truck that formerly took up residency on Rosewood Avenue, opened its first standalone restaurant at 4602 Tanney Street in East Austin on Friday, January 3.

Tom Micklethwait, the owner and founder of Micklethwait Craft Meats, says the new space has also allowed the restaurant to expand its menu to offer an ever-changing lineup of specials and baked goods, in addition to butchering its own cuts of meats. The restaurant has also incorporated new offset pits, including one that allows Micklethwait to cook ingredients and meats directly on the fire. “The new cooking style will allow the restaurant to expand its repertoire and how we approach barbecue as opposed to the classic Central Texas offset smoker,” he says. “We’re getting more into Southwest Texas cowboy style.”

Though he believes brisket will always be the restaurant’s No. 1 seller, Micklethwait predicts newer favorites will include chicken al carbon. Cooked Southwest Texas style — smoked with post oak and finished directly over mesquite coals — the dish is served with salsa verde and tortillas, almost like a build-your-own taco platter, he says.

The restaurant, which Micklethwait says had a good first-day turnout, has launched with limited hours from 11 a.m. to around 4 p.m. or sellout Thursday through Sunday, but by March or April, Micklethwait says he plans to expand the hours — adding on dinner or more hours earlier in the week.

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Micklethwait Craft Meats

Micklethwait purchased the building at the corner of Springdale and Oak Springs last summer from friends. He had already used the 90-year-old building, which previously served as a farm store and a neighborhood church, as Craft Meat’s headquarters and commissary kitchen for its food truck for the past six years. He began renovating the building last August. The revamped building now offers 40 indoor seats and 80 seats on its spacious outdoor patio, which is shaded by pecan trees. The Micklethwaits say they plan to add some new components, including an onsite herb and vegetable garden that will help fuel their menu.

Though known mainly for its food trucks, Micklethwait has owned other restaurants. The team originally opened a Micklethwait restaurant in Smithville in 2018 but closed it in 2020 to focus on the Austin food truck, which he opened in 2012.

Micklethwai also operated the sandwich truck Romanouskas Delicatessen from 2015 to 2016 and the taco truck Taco Bronco in 2020. He expanded his footprint in 2021 with Saddle Up, a beer garden and icehouse located on Rosewood Avenue, where the Micklethwait truck was once located. As planned, Micklethwait closed Saddle Up late last year to launch the restaurant.

Micklethwait Craft Meats is located at 4602 Tanney Street, East Austin, 78721. It is open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., or sellout, from Thursday through Saturday.

After getting a relatively breezy win over Missouri on Saturday to open up conference play, the SEC slate is set to take it up a notch on Auburn basketball this week.

The second-ranked Tigers don’t play a home game for a week-plus a they travel to Austin, Texas, on Monday for a matchup with the Longhorns at 8 p.m. CST Tuesday before heading east to play South Carolina at noon Saturday.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re playing them in Austin or playing them here,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Saturday. “We’ve got 40 minutes of a basketball game against the University of Texas. … For me, honestly, I think we can play better on the road. You have to: You have to be sharper, you have to take better care of the ball. You can’t be as casual with your passes. You have to be locked in.”

As the Tigers embark on a week-long road trip, here’s everything you need to know about Tuesday’s tilt with Texas.

SEC PREVIEW: Breaking down Auburn basketball’s 2024-25 conference slate

Why more history is on the line for Bruce Pearl against Texas

With the Missouri win, Bruce Pearl earned his 213th career victory at Auburn — which tied him with Joel Eaves for the most in the program’s history. On Tuesday, Pearl has a chance to surpass Eaves and become the winningest coach in the program’s history.

MAKING (MORE) HISTORY: Bruce Pearl ties Auburn basketball’s winningest coach mark

“I will celebrate whatever we accomplish this year this summer,” Pearl said Saturday of the accolade. “I’ll celebrate with my friends, my family, the Auburn Family, on the boat at Lake Martin; out there on a golf course. Nobody will enjoy it more. But you know me. You have to know I’m on to Texas and on to the next one.”

Injury updates: Auburn basketball vs. Texas

It should be a clean bill of health for both squads. Neither had a player out in their SEC-openers, and while Auburn may still be monitoring Johni Broome’s shoulder in the aftermath of his injury against Georgia State, he’s played 20-plus minutes in each of the Tigers’ three games since.

How to watch Auburn basketball vs. Texas: Tipoff time, TV and live stream options

• TV channel: ESPN2
• Streaming: Fubo
• Start time: 8 p.m. CT
• Location: Moody Center (Austin, Texas)

Listen live: Auburn basketball vs. Texas on the radio

Saturday’s game will be broadcast live on WLWI FM (92.3) in Montgomery and WGZZ FM (94.3) in Auburn. The radio call can also be streamed online. Here are the announcers:

• Analysis/Color: Randall Dickey
• Play-by-play: Andy Burcham

Prediction for Auburn basketball vs. Texas

No. 2 Auburn 78, Texas 70: It’ll be just the second true road game of the season for Auburn. Pearl said he thinks game sites will be inconsequential for much of SEC’s best this season, and looking at Texas’ resume so far, he could be right. While the Longhorns have just two losses, one of those was an 11-point defeat to then-No. 25 UConn at the Moody Center.

If the Tigers can take a few pages out of Texas A&M’s book, they should be fine. The Aggies staved off the Longhorns for an 80-60 victory on Saturday. In the process, they held Texas guard Tre Johnson — the Longhorn’s leading scorer — to 11 points on 2-of-13 shooting.

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.

AUSTIN — Texas Longhorns star point guard Rori Harmon has been the rock of the Texas team since she arrived on campus in 2021. Now a senior, Harmon is just one of two in the storied Texas program to reach the milestone of 1,000 points and 600 assists. She dished out her 600th assist in the team’s 90-56 win over Arkansas on Sunday.

After missing the majority of last season with a torn ACL she suffered in practice, Harmon has now surpassed both of those milestones this season. Against the Razorbacks, she had six assists and needs just four more to be second all-time in assists for Texas.

In front of the seventh-largest women’s basketball crowd in Moody Center history with over 8,700 people in attendance, Texas won by a large margin, but head coach Vic Schaefer was not statisfied with his team’s performance.

“First, congratulations to Rori, 600 assists. That’s a lot of assists, lots of passing,” Schaefer said. “We didn’t play very good, to be honest with you. I’m kicking myself. I took it a little easy on them on Friday, we just don’t handle easy well. And you know, we got in late, around two am. That’s just an excuse, really, at the end of the day. But you know, we really struggled today with certain things and again, I wear that. I’ve got to coach better and teach better, and we got to play better. But I just think there’s a standard that we all try to live up to, and I think we’re all trying to chase perfection, whether that’s attainable or not, it’s probably not, but still, we’re going to chase it.”

Though Harmon was far from perfect against Arkansas, she still reached a career milestone. She was 5-11 from the field and finished with 12 points, making both free throws she attempted, but most importantly, shared the ball well.

Harmon gave all credit to her teammates, as assists are a statistic that requires multiple people to be involved.

“It feels great to be a part of those list of names and it’s a great honor, but you can’t do it by yourself,” Harmon said. “Obviously, Coach Schaefer puts us in great situations. And my teammates are obviously, in my mind, the best teammates you can have. And truly, like I said, you really can’t do it by yourself, so I really need to thank everybody else around me who have put me in those great positions.”

Texas is now 14-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Harmon and her teammates will return to the Moody Center on Thursday to take on the No. 19 Alabama Crimson Tide. The game will tip off at 7:00 PM and be aired on SEC Network Plus.

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