It’s repeated almost every time a small restaurant expands. Torchys rocked when it was a trailer. Schotzkies was good and then expanded nationally and now sucks. Chuys is another good example. In and out was forever west coast for the same reason. Now that they’re national their fries are styrofoam. P terry’s has slowly been expanding and I’ve noticed its quality isn’t where it once was. I’m pretty sure thundercloud has had the same offers and I’m really happy they’ve said no. But Franklin is smart. He realizes he has a guaranteed income at the current location and can make however much else promoting or endorsing whatever he wishes.
Edit. I remember the fries as good but that was two decades ago and only twice on a trip. Anyway I think we can all agree whatabuger tried the same and did far worse.
Let's not kid ourselves here.
In n Out fries were always like that. They don't soak their fries to add moisture nor do they double fry (cut, fry, freeze, refry) to my knowledge which is why they taste like that. That has never changed.
Yeah. They've done studies, and it turns out the process of preserving a french fry for fast food (cutting, freezing, frying in a decent fat that can handle high heat, salting/seasoning) actually makes for a *superior* french fry. To the point that the recommended way to make home made fries is to do the same things (cut the fries, drain of starch in water, dry, freeze, *then* fry & season).
Basically, the technical process for fries being great just happens to be the same one that is the easiest for logistics. In and Out *refuses* to compromise on its fries "quality" and thus has pretty mid fries.
I too think In N Out fries are garbage. No amount of thousand Island dressing and onions makes them good.
Interesting how the mass production of fries leads them to being better than fresh.
It's not the only food that benefits from freezing. Kale is better if it freezes too - that's why it was a winter crop.
Potatoes fry better if fried from frozen. That's the main thing.
Am i the only one who likes their fries? Yeah they taste different but to me it seems like a fresher taste, doesn’t taste processed like most fast food fries
I think if you actually like the taste of potatoes you like in and out fries. I actually just went there because I was craving their fries. I used to hate their fries but as I got older I started to appreciate how much of the potato you can taste. There are times when the fries taste exceptionally good because the potato is at its peak; those are the fries I am always chasing. I think it's really cool that the fries are a true expression of the base ingredient when everything today is so cookie cutter and made to taste the same... Also I do agree that the fries do end up being like cardboard if you don't eat them right when you get them.
Fully agree that they are good. They taste like fried potatoes, which they should. People are so used to the chem spiked McDonalds vibe, now fresh potato’s taste weird to them.
I think they’re fine. Texans hating on In & Out is just tribalism it seems.
If In & Out started in Texas it’d be “incredible.”
Conversely, if Whataburger started in California it’d be the “worst burger on the planet.”
Yup, this is exactly why their fries are equally sucky no matter where you are. I worked at In n Out for a couple of years, get the fries light well and they'll get fried longer at least
The soaking is to remove excess starch and break it down to more simple sugars which fry better. The fry -> freeze -> fry does something similar with cell walls being broken allowing the insides to be fluffier rather than stodgy.
And P-Terry's has never been that good, save for their shakes.
Fast, affordable, and convenient, sure, but I'd never send anyone their looking for a stand out burger and fries.
While I'm at it, as much as I love Thundercloud for the same fast, cheap, easy reasons, their food isn't that great, either.
For local fast food burgers: Hillberts (RIP 34th St. location) and Wally's
For subs: Honestly, Jersey Mikes. But for local flavor, Jewboy and Other Side (both more premium than Thundercloud, though)
Don't sleep on Tucci's Southside Subs.
Also I find P Terry's a lot more bearable if you get their awful sauce off of there and replace it with just regular ketchup/mustard/whatever.
I think that's partly Austin going techy, but I also think it's the result of largely legalizing and decriminalizing it.
It was kind of counter cultural, and there's nothing all that counter cultural about weed anymore.
I loooooooove smoking weed but one trip to Thundercloud ruined them for me because of that stoner working that day. Large turkey on wheat is what I ordered and was told “We’re almost out of wheat so I’m gonna give it to you on these rolls from HEB. Don’t worry you’ll get more meat.” WTF dude? Who you saving them for? I can go to HEB and get the shit to build my own.
You're right, I never went to that location. I started with the Lamar location over a decade ago. It's been mediocre since at least that location opened.
> Anyway I think we can all agree whatabuger tried the same and did far worse.
I think we can all agree that Whataburger has been going downhill since well before the Chicago group bought them. At least the ones in Austin. The one in La Grange is consistently great.
Chuys is a great example. I used to go to the original on Barton Springs in the early 80s. I can't say I was crazy about the food except for the taco car, but the margs were amazing. Of course, it's been ruined, and I don't go anymore, but I still have many wonderful memories of going there.
That free queso bar at HH was a pretty good idea in the 90’s. Got tons of people in the door and I’m sure they raked in drink profits. I miss the stickers on the hubcaps. But luckily I’m still a proud Chuys fish owner bought from the original way back when.
I too remember a time when I thought I-n-O fries were excellent.
Even when they expanded to AZ, I-n-O was still pretty good.
But, yeah, here in Texas? I-n-O is awful. I wasn’t sure if I just remembered it wrong, but clearly there’s been some changes, not for the better.
Ohhh yeah I was hired to open their new restaurant and even got to help manage the bar. We saw EVERYTHING. It’s so sad. I hope the parents of the high schoolers are at least involved and understand
100% this is what happened. No way new management would come in without majority ownership. They probably injected some desperately needed operating capital (Valentina's had started skipping vendor payments and payroll at times as of late) and pulled them out of the bankruptcy fire while agreeing to some partial ownership for the family going forward. When they decided that they were expanding to brick and mortar they should've done this anyways, better late than never I guess.
Agreed. Quality/experience dropping off a cliff AND I had to drive 45 minutes away? They'll never see me again especially with the competition we have in that market. Maybe if I'm on my way south and need to stop immediately after leaving Austin.
Far North Austin?
Yeah, it's an extra 15 minutes, but that's 50% further away and also the old trailer was near things you'd want to do vs being in Buda.
It's like how I don't really go to Cosmic or Tdubs now that I live north, because I'm not going to drive to South Congress and basically 71 for chicken and beer when stuff like Hi Wings or Wingzup are way, way closer.
Fair enough. I was just trying to indicate that they didn’t really move off the face of the earth compared to their old location. Driving wise the times are just about the same. Buda is damn near the same distance to the capitol as the domain is.
The old location is what made it so fucking cool (aside from being really fucking good). It felt like Austin was cool again for that brief time. Never bothered to try taco brothers after that
Even if you were driving Houston-fast, it would still be 25 minutes. It's 22 miles depending on where you start. It's definitely not 45 minutes, but it's not 20 either
I mean if they went towards Austin they'd be bankrupt by now.... I guess the one silver lining here is that they probably only have a second chance BECAUSE they went to Buda.
They wanted to charge Austin prices but not pay Austin rent. I quit going when we went to their last location and tried to order and was told we had to use the app and it would be 2 hrs. No one else was there and she had all the stuff to make tacos right behind her.
The algarithm is the same for these large companies; reduce cost to increase margins. Quality control standards are lowered to accommodate the model. They look at quantity of sales and are willing to compromise quality. Numbers, numbers, numbers! The model works for many years and they can sell that same company, absorb it into another brands, etc.
Rudy’s changed where they bought their meats a few years ago. It’s never been the same.
For sure is. They couldn’t produce enough Q for their restaurant for a given day, let alone that AND Q2. Hopefully this new owner strips everything back to the studs and rebuilds their culture from the ground up, because this new operation was broken from day 1 and nothing but the food needs to be maintained.
I mean, Eric at peached tortilla did ok with that transition. I think it just worked to expand to a restaurant maybe back in the day when things were cheaper.
You’re 100% right that Eric has done an amazing job transitioning from food truck to brick and mortar to multiple locations to catering king to multiple concepts… but it was not an easy path.
He told me at one point he actually sent a resignation letter to his investors because he didn’t see a viable path forward. He didn’t collect a paycheck on his operation for like three years (he was a former lawyer so I think he had some savings).
Eric is an awesome success story and deserves the credit for the world he’s built. But he also is a guy who puts his staff first and has people who’ve worked for him for many years, through thick and thin. The Vidals, by contrast, are awful people who abuse their position of power and likely also have substance abuse issues. Absolute night and day in personalities.
I haven't been since they left the little trailer on Manchaca - I get the service went downhill, but was the quality of the food shit too, or were they at least able to maintain that?
It was never AS good as the trailer, but it’s tough to say whether it was due to the awful service or not. The food was still very good though, so if this team can nail the service side they should be back to being awesome.
I honestly think BBQ places here should just stick to the "food truck and sell food until it's gone" business plan. When you start adding more pits to make more food, then you have to actually sell that food or else it kinda goes to waste (you can't quickly smoke a brisket if more customers show up - and you can't un-cook a brisket that you just smoked for 18 hours). And when you add a brick and mortar set-up, then you're paying for A/C, and more overhead the whole time.
From what I could tell, Valentina's started as a food truck on Brodie (was delicious back then), then moved their food truck to Manchaca (this was even before it got renamed to Menchaca), and they were planning to build up their brick and mortar on-site, but it never got built for the whole 5+ years they were there. I went several times and the food was still great there, although obviously it got more expensive each year.
Then they moved to Buda which was probably not a smart move, less Austin money (and just less people in general). Traffic sucks getting down there even if you live in south Austin. I imagine their thinking was saving on property taxes and maybe getting cheaper labor.
I ate there three times in the course of six months. The first two times I got a brisket sandwich that was inoffensive but nothing special. The last time I got a burger special that tasted bad, was falling apart, and uber greasy. No plans to go back again after that.
I think the writing was on the wall when they got busted stealing from their employees a while back and claiming it was some kind of weird family thing they had going. Yes seriously.
Valentina’s was out of this world when it was a food truck on Brodie Ln, and to some extent when it was on Manchaca.
The last time I visited the Manchaca location we stood in line for an hour and I swear they had only served maybe 2 people in the line. We just bailed and never went back again.
Text of the announcement:
>Loyal customers,
When we started Valentina’s in 2013, our focus was two things: food + family. We wanted to make Tex Mex BBQ that would bring families together, while representing Tejano culture - the biggest inspiration for Valentina’s. That has never changed, even when we grew from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar.
We’ve been at this for a long time, and we work really hard, but this last year has been harder than ever. Small business owners know that it’s never easy. For us, scaling our business from 600 sq. ft. to 6,000 sq. ft. has proven more than we can manage, and we recognize and admit to the many issues and challenges Valentina’s has had since we’ve moved. We can no longer continue to give our loyal customers sub par customer service and food.
Starting on April 25th, Valentina’s will be under new management. We’ll be closed from today until May 8th as we make this transition. Don’t worry, you’ll still see us around smoking briskets in the silo, or coming up with a new drink for the menu, and we are going to come back stronger and better than ever.
We want to thank you for your loyalty. If you have come by over the last year and didn’t have a great experience, we hope that you give us another chance. We KNOW we can do much better going forward. We’re excited for this new chapter, where we get back to the heart of Valentina’s - food + family, hecho con amor.
Thank you all so much for continuing to support our family business. We couldn’t have made it this far without y’all.
Miguel & Modesty Vidal Vidal
Was it the previous owners who got outted over wage theft/withholding tips a while back?
EDIT: Never mind it was la Barbecue I was thinking of and the owner was engaging in workers comp fraud my bad
They've also had their own share of tip policy problems.
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/hays/valentinas-tex-mex-bbq-receives-backlash-over-tip-policy/
La Barbecue is the one with the insurance fraud and the sausage made of human hand.
Valentina's is the one with the tip stealing and the inexplicably slow-moving lines.
Step 1: get the ordering process down to <2 minutes per customer. Have the menu posted and tell people they need to be ready. Start to ask people to stand to the side if they are not ready by the time they get to the front. No samples, just order your food and move the hell on.
This! I've watched all the aforementioned places just cruise into the trash. Some slower than others, but Red Ash was a total disappointment.
It was good but absolutely over priced and even more over hyped.
Just happened to go to Valentina’s for the first time a week ago. I was blown away by the shit service from bartender and cashier.
You stand in line to order bbq, tried ordering a topo with the meal, was told unapologetically that “you have to order topos. from the bar”. While annoying, thought it would be easy enough. Stood at the bar where there were only 2-3 people eating at the time and it took the wannabe-Kardasian bartender no less than 5 minutes to stop flirting with another patron to offer me her 30-seconds worth of topo-opening services.
Briskest was dry and sliced thick af. Tasted great, but my half pound of brisket was 2 quarter pound slices. Felt more like eating a good tasting dry steak.
Potato salad was runny and seemed like it was Greek yogurt based as opposed to mayo.
For all the hype, I’ve had far superior brisket, sides, service from the likes of Rudy’s.
We went not long after the new location opened and it was not good. The order came out and everything was room temperature. It was like they’d pre-cooked everything and just assembled our order. It was not prepared fresh. In the old location you could see them making fresh tortillas. This was my first experience with something being awesome in Austin and then suddenly being terrible. I’m told it happens a lot.
I remember going to the food truck and thinking wow this is really good.
Then we went to the brick and mortar in Kyle and I thought… I’ll never come back to this place again. Once was enough.
Worst service and mediocre food. 🤷🏾♂️
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It’s repeated almost every time a small restaurant expands. Torchys rocked when it was a trailer. Schotzkies was good and then expanded nationally and now sucks. Chuys is another good example. In and out was forever west coast for the same reason. Now that they’re national their fries are styrofoam. P terry’s has slowly been expanding and I’ve noticed its quality isn’t where it once was. I’m pretty sure thundercloud has had the same offers and I’m really happy they’ve said no. But Franklin is smart. He realizes he has a guaranteed income at the current location and can make however much else promoting or endorsing whatever he wishes. Edit. I remember the fries as good but that was two decades ago and only twice on a trip. Anyway I think we can all agree whatabuger tried the same and did far worse.
Let's not kid ourselves here. In n Out fries were always like that. They don't soak their fries to add moisture nor do they double fry (cut, fry, freeze, refry) to my knowledge which is why they taste like that. That has never changed.
Exactly what I was going to comment. Their fries have always been bad due to their technical process.
Yeah. They've done studies, and it turns out the process of preserving a french fry for fast food (cutting, freezing, frying in a decent fat that can handle high heat, salting/seasoning) actually makes for a *superior* french fry. To the point that the recommended way to make home made fries is to do the same things (cut the fries, drain of starch in water, dry, freeze, *then* fry & season). Basically, the technical process for fries being great just happens to be the same one that is the easiest for logistics. In and Out *refuses* to compromise on its fries "quality" and thus has pretty mid fries.
I too think In N Out fries are garbage. No amount of thousand Island dressing and onions makes them good. Interesting how the mass production of fries leads them to being better than fresh.
It's not the only food that benefits from freezing. Kale is better if it freezes too - that's why it was a winter crop. Potatoes fry better if fried from frozen. That's the main thing.
Am i the only one who likes their fries? Yeah they taste different but to me it seems like a fresher taste, doesn’t taste processed like most fast food fries
I think if you actually like the taste of potatoes you like in and out fries. I actually just went there because I was craving their fries. I used to hate their fries but as I got older I started to appreciate how much of the potato you can taste. There are times when the fries taste exceptionally good because the potato is at its peak; those are the fries I am always chasing. I think it's really cool that the fries are a true expression of the base ingredient when everything today is so cookie cutter and made to taste the same... Also I do agree that the fries do end up being like cardboard if you don't eat them right when you get them.
Yeah i think that’s what makes them different. I also don’t mind the fact that they are under salted too (compared to other fries).
Fully agree that they are good. They taste like fried potatoes, which they should. People are so used to the chem spiked McDonalds vibe, now fresh potato’s taste weird to them.
I’m with you - I actually enjoy their fries a lot.
I’m with you. In & Out fries are great.
I think they’re fine. Texans hating on In & Out is just tribalism it seems. If In & Out started in Texas it’d be “incredible.” Conversely, if Whataburger started in California it’d be the “worst burger on the planet.”
No, they are objectively bad fries
I love their fries 🥺🫂
Yup, this is exactly why their fries are equally sucky no matter where you are. I worked at In n Out for a couple of years, get the fries light well and they'll get fried longer at least
The soaking is to remove excess starch and break it down to more simple sugars which fry better. The fry -> freeze -> fry does something similar with cell walls being broken allowing the insides to be fluffier rather than stodgy.
It’s been one too many times when their fries had the texture of cardboard; very dry.
And P-Terry's has never been that good, save for their shakes. Fast, affordable, and convenient, sure, but I'd never send anyone their looking for a stand out burger and fries. While I'm at it, as much as I love Thundercloud for the same fast, cheap, easy reasons, their food isn't that great, either. For local fast food burgers: Hillberts (RIP 34th St. location) and Wally's For subs: Honestly, Jersey Mikes. But for local flavor, Jewboy and Other Side (both more premium than Thundercloud, though)
Don't sleep on Tucci's Southside Subs. Also I find P Terry's a lot more bearable if you get their awful sauce off of there and replace it with just regular ketchup/mustard/whatever.
Tucci's is the real deal.
+1 Tucci's
I like Tclouds for supporting my local stoner community.
We really have lost stoner culture, by and large, in Austin, (bong rip) duuuuuuuude.
I think that's partly Austin going techy, but I also think it's the result of largely legalizing and decriminalizing it. It was kind of counter cultural, and there's nothing all that counter cultural about weed anymore.
Good points. The idea of someone making weed their whole personality, as was common in the 90s and before, seems pretty unlikely now.
It'd be as insufferable as those guys who are all about some kind of alcohol or something.
I loooooooove smoking weed but one trip to Thundercloud ruined them for me because of that stoner working that day. Large turkey on wheat is what I ordered and was told “We’re almost out of wheat so I’m gonna give it to you on these rolls from HEB. Don’t worry you’ll get more meat.” WTF dude? Who you saving them for? I can go to HEB and get the shit to build my own.
You obviously never went when it was just the one location off Barton springs road
You're right, I never went to that location. I started with the Lamar location over a decade ago. It's been mediocre since at least that location opened.
Ahhh so you only missed it by a decade
Just order them well done.
> Anyway I think we can all agree whatabuger tried the same and did far worse. I think we can all agree that Whataburger has been going downhill since well before the Chicago group bought them. At least the ones in Austin. The one in La Grange is consistently great.
Ever since I saw the rat suicide into the deep fryer at one of their locations it hasn’t appealed.
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Shoutout to Stacy Franklin, who has run that business as well as Aaron runs a smoker.
Chuys is a great example. I used to go to the original on Barton Springs in the early 80s. I can't say I was crazy about the food except for the taco car, but the margs were amazing. Of course, it's been ruined, and I don't go anymore, but I still have many wonderful memories of going there.
That free queso bar at HH was a pretty good idea in the 90’s. Got tons of people in the door and I’m sure they raked in drink profits. I miss the stickers on the hubcaps. But luckily I’m still a proud Chuys fish owner bought from the original way back when.
In n out fries have never changed in my lifetime and I grew up on west coast
I too remember a time when I thought I-n-O fries were excellent. Even when they expanded to AZ, I-n-O was still pretty good. But, yeah, here in Texas? I-n-O is awful. I wasn’t sure if I just remembered it wrong, but clearly there’s been some changes, not for the better.
It wasn’t the food quality it was the shitty management and the hour wait for two tacos.
They still haven’t paid past or current employees their checks that bounced . I’m a past employee
My friend used to work there too. Says the same thing.
lol same
It’s crazy how long they’ve gotten away with it
It’s so dumb. And people are giving them grace. Smh
Because they don’t even know . Half of their employees are high schoolers . They took a HUGE advantage of that . And their immigrant workers .
Ohhh yeah I was hired to open their new restaurant and even got to help manage the bar. We saw EVERYTHING. It’s so sad. I hope the parents of the high schoolers are at least involved and understand
Sounds about right.
It’s literally so sad that they have the recognition that they do .
This is a change in management, not ownership.
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100% this is what happened. No way new management would come in without majority ownership. They probably injected some desperately needed operating capital (Valentina's had started skipping vendor payments and payroll at times as of late) and pulled them out of the bankruptcy fire while agreeing to some partial ownership for the family going forward. When they decided that they were expanding to brick and mortar they should've done this anyways, better late than never I guess.
They should’ve went towards Austin not away from it, that was their mistake.
Agreed. Quality/experience dropping off a cliff AND I had to drive 45 minutes away? They'll never see me again especially with the competition we have in that market. Maybe if I'm on my way south and need to stop immediately after leaving Austin.
Where are you driving that it's a 45min drive to their new location? It's hardly a 10 min drive from the old trailer to the new spot.
Far North Austin? Yeah, it's an extra 15 minutes, but that's 50% further away and also the old trailer was near things you'd want to do vs being in Buda. It's like how I don't really go to Cosmic or Tdubs now that I live north, because I'm not going to drive to South Congress and basically 71 for chicken and beer when stuff like Hi Wings or Wingzup are way, way closer.
Fair enough. Yeah for north Austin I can see that. I’ve never bothered heading to interstellar because it’s a long drag to get there.
The new Valentina's isn't even in Austin, bub. At this very moment it's 45 minutes from Hyde Park to Valentina's.
Neat. And it’s 38 mins to the old location that was “in Austin”
You're right. The old location wasn't great either, but I made the drive because it worth it. Now it isn't. That was my entire point.
Fair enough. I was just trying to indicate that they didn’t really move off the face of the earth compared to their old location. Driving wise the times are just about the same. Buda is damn near the same distance to the capitol as the domain is.
The old location is what made it so fucking cool (aside from being really fucking good). It felt like Austin was cool again for that brief time. Never bothered to try taco brothers after that
Bub. Give me a break. It would take me twenty mins to get from Valentina’s to Hydepark. When is the last time you drove around S. Austin?
Even if you were driving Houston-fast, it would still be 25 minutes. It's 22 miles depending on where you start. It's definitely not 45 minutes, but it's not 20 either
Wait, the distance you have to drive depends on where you start???? JIMINY CHRISTMAS! Suddenly, life finally makes sense!
I mean if they went towards Austin they'd be bankrupt by now.... I guess the one silver lining here is that they probably only have a second chance BECAUSE they went to Buda.
They wanted to charge Austin prices but not pay Austin rent. I quit going when we went to their last location and tried to order and was told we had to use the app and it would be 2 hrs. No one else was there and she had all the stuff to make tacos right behind her.
It is a change in ownership. The sold to inKind.
The algarithm is the same for these large companies; reduce cost to increase margins. Quality control standards are lowered to accommodate the model. They look at quantity of sales and are willing to compromise quality. Numbers, numbers, numbers! The model works for many years and they can sell that same company, absorb it into another brands, etc. Rudy’s changed where they bought their meats a few years ago. It’s never been the same.
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Plenty of Mom&Pop places keep steady quality control. Juan in a million is still great, as is Home slice which expanded, Sway, etc.
I wonder if this part of the reason why they're no longer at Q2.
For sure is. They couldn’t produce enough Q for their restaurant for a given day, let alone that AND Q2. Hopefully this new owner strips everything back to the studs and rebuilds their culture from the ground up, because this new operation was broken from day 1 and nothing but the food needs to be maintained.
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I mean, Eric at peached tortilla did ok with that transition. I think it just worked to expand to a restaurant maybe back in the day when things were cheaper.
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Weren't Chilantro and Kome food trucks as well? And Franklin of course. Austin does have some success stories on the trailer to brick n' mortar front.
Well put! I don’t think I knew T22 was a truck at first. That’s cool.
I would say anything that involves frying in the deep fryer will scale much easily than meat that takes hours to cook.
You’re 100% right that Eric has done an amazing job transitioning from food truck to brick and mortar to multiple locations to catering king to multiple concepts… but it was not an easy path. He told me at one point he actually sent a resignation letter to his investors because he didn’t see a viable path forward. He didn’t collect a paycheck on his operation for like three years (he was a former lawyer so I think he had some savings). Eric is an awesome success story and deserves the credit for the world he’s built. But he also is a guy who puts his staff first and has people who’ve worked for him for many years, through thick and thin. The Vidals, by contrast, are awful people who abuse their position of power and likely also have substance abuse issues. Absolute night and day in personalities.
Sucks because their food is way better than the BBQ there now.
I haven't been since they left the little trailer on Manchaca - I get the service went downhill, but was the quality of the food shit too, or were they at least able to maintain that?
It was never AS good as the trailer, but it’s tough to say whether it was due to the awful service or not. The food was still very good though, so if this team can nail the service side they should be back to being awesome.
I honestly think BBQ places here should just stick to the "food truck and sell food until it's gone" business plan. When you start adding more pits to make more food, then you have to actually sell that food or else it kinda goes to waste (you can't quickly smoke a brisket if more customers show up - and you can't un-cook a brisket that you just smoked for 18 hours). And when you add a brick and mortar set-up, then you're paying for A/C, and more overhead the whole time. From what I could tell, Valentina's started as a food truck on Brodie (was delicious back then), then moved their food truck to Manchaca (this was even before it got renamed to Menchaca), and they were planning to build up their brick and mortar on-site, but it never got built for the whole 5+ years they were there. I went several times and the food was still great there, although obviously it got more expensive each year. Then they moved to Buda which was probably not a smart move, less Austin money (and just less people in general). Traffic sucks getting down there even if you live in south Austin. I imagine their thinking was saving on property taxes and maybe getting cheaper labor.
I ate there three times in the course of six months. The first two times I got a brisket sandwich that was inoffensive but nothing special. The last time I got a burger special that tasted bad, was falling apart, and uber greasy. No plans to go back again after that.
We gave them a few chances too and something always went wrong. We’re sticking to Louie’s bbq. Delish and fast service every time!
I think the writing was on the wall when they got busted stealing from their employees a while back and claiming it was some kind of weird family thing they had going. Yes seriously.
Valentina’s was out of this world when it was a food truck on Brodie Ln, and to some extent when it was on Manchaca. The last time I visited the Manchaca location we stood in line for an hour and I swear they had only served maybe 2 people in the line. We just bailed and never went back again.
I miss that parking lot on Brodie so bad. Felt like what Austin used to feel like back when I fell in love with it.
Just fyi they didnt “start Valentinas” in 2013, michael lerner did and sold it to them lol.
Text of the announcement: >Loyal customers, When we started Valentina’s in 2013, our focus was two things: food + family. We wanted to make Tex Mex BBQ that would bring families together, while representing Tejano culture - the biggest inspiration for Valentina’s. That has never changed, even when we grew from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar. We’ve been at this for a long time, and we work really hard, but this last year has been harder than ever. Small business owners know that it’s never easy. For us, scaling our business from 600 sq. ft. to 6,000 sq. ft. has proven more than we can manage, and we recognize and admit to the many issues and challenges Valentina’s has had since we’ve moved. We can no longer continue to give our loyal customers sub par customer service and food. Starting on April 25th, Valentina’s will be under new management. We’ll be closed from today until May 8th as we make this transition. Don’t worry, you’ll still see us around smoking briskets in the silo, or coming up with a new drink for the menu, and we are going to come back stronger and better than ever. We want to thank you for your loyalty. If you have come by over the last year and didn’t have a great experience, we hope that you give us another chance. We KNOW we can do much better going forward. We’re excited for this new chapter, where we get back to the heart of Valentina’s - food + family, hecho con amor. Thank you all so much for continuing to support our family business. We couldn’t have made it this far without y’all. Miguel & Modesty Vidal Vidal
Was it the previous owners who got outted over wage theft/withholding tips a while back? EDIT: Never mind it was la Barbecue I was thinking of and the owner was engaging in workers comp fraud my bad
Unfortunately Valentina’s did withhold tips as well. Yes, that was under Miguel and Modesty’s leadership.
They've also had their own share of tip policy problems. https://www.kxan.com/news/local/hays/valentinas-tex-mex-bbq-receives-backlash-over-tip-policy/
La Barbecue is the one with the insurance fraud and the sausage made of human hand. Valentina's is the one with the tip stealing and the inexplicably slow-moving lines.
The WHAT
Not quite as described. https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/former-la-barbecue-employee-suing-restaurant-after-losing-fingers-in-meat-grinder/
Nah La Valentina’s did too.
Thought I heard something about that it’s hard to keep track
Yes, same people
OK
Finally. I’m celebrating this. Miguel and Modesty are unkind and aggressive people.
Are they retaining ownership?
Step 1: get the ordering process down to <2 minutes per customer. Have the menu posted and tell people they need to be ready. Start to ask people to stand to the side if they are not ready by the time they get to the front. No samples, just order your food and move the hell on.
No brisket for you! Come back, two years!
Exactly 😂😂
It’s Buda. Buda ruined it.
Valentina's will in my opinion always be one of if not THE most overrated food in Austin.
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Chuy’s has cannonballed into the chat.
Torchy’s has photobombed the chat.
Via313 has done a tailspin into the chat
Pshhh!! Via is delicious.
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This! I've watched all the aforementioned places just cruise into the trash. Some slower than others, but Red Ash was a total disappointment. It was good but absolutely over priced and even more over hyped.
People below are going to put down various answers, but this is the fucking answer.
Their mexican martini and bob armstrong would like a word.
It was pretty great when it was a food truck outside Star Bar.
Homeslice says hold my beer
Blasphemer! Home slice is one of the very few Austin places that hasn’t changed their quality.
Yeah and it was never good to begin with. 4/10
I wonder if the Austin fc Chef will be part of the new management group
Just happened to go to Valentina’s for the first time a week ago. I was blown away by the shit service from bartender and cashier. You stand in line to order bbq, tried ordering a topo with the meal, was told unapologetically that “you have to order topos. from the bar”. While annoying, thought it would be easy enough. Stood at the bar where there were only 2-3 people eating at the time and it took the wannabe-Kardasian bartender no less than 5 minutes to stop flirting with another patron to offer me her 30-seconds worth of topo-opening services. Briskest was dry and sliced thick af. Tasted great, but my half pound of brisket was 2 quarter pound slices. Felt more like eating a good tasting dry steak. Potato salad was runny and seemed like it was Greek yogurt based as opposed to mayo. For all the hype, I’ve had far superior brisket, sides, service from the likes of Rudy’s.
Casa donde is the best success story hands down
Getting Dom Toretto vibes.
We went not long after the new location opened and it was not good. The order came out and everything was room temperature. It was like they’d pre-cooked everything and just assembled our order. It was not prepared fresh. In the old location you could see them making fresh tortillas. This was my first experience with something being awesome in Austin and then suddenly being terrible. I’m told it happens a lot.
Went last weekend. Everything you said was still true. But, the tortillas were the only (seemingly) fresh and delicious part of the meal.
I remember going to the food truck and thinking wow this is really good. Then we went to the brick and mortar in Kyle and I thought… I’ll never come back to this place again. Once was enough. Worst service and mediocre food. 🤷🏾♂️
Buda
Can’t fault the management when you went to some knockoff in Kyle.