Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening, LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue offers what might be the most exclusive meal you can enjoy while wearing shorts and Crocs. Anyone can line up for the restaurant’s menu, but a reservation on a lengthy waiting list is required to try its steak experience. Co-owners Evan LeRoy and Sawyer Lewis created it to showcase Texas-raised beef in their permanent location, which opened in South Austin in February. “It’s fun to be able to offer something that’s a little outside the barbecue box,” Lewis said.
The experience commences before the steak is served. LeRoy ushers diners pitside to reveal the thick-cut steak that’s been slow smoking at 225 degrees. He explains the restaurant’s relationship with Lorene Farms, near Schulenburg, a town located about eighty miles southeast of Austin, where Joel Bintliff raises a small herd of Akaushi Wagyu and Angus crossbred cattle. Every four weeks, a cook at LeRoy and Lewis breaks down a whole beef carcass from Lorene into individual cuts, making 24 total servings of porterhouses, ribeyes, and T-bones.
To enjoy one of those steaks, customers must email Lewis at [email protected] to get on the waiting list, which has lately hovered at around fifty reservations deep. She sends diners an email with available time slots. Cut varieties, all bone-in, usually weigh between three and four pounds and cost $60 per pound. Diners can add whatever else they’d like, but Lewis suggests the miso-glazed carrots, arugula salad, and hand-breaded onion rings.
Steak preparation begins in the morning, when LeRoy applies a generous layer of kosher salt before placing the meat on a roasting rack in the cooler to dry brine. At around 3 p.m., he further seasons it with salt and ground pepper, then smokes it with oak wood for about two hours until it reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees. He pulls it off the heat while an oak fire is stoked on the grill. It takes only a couple of minutes per side for the steak to get the right char, then a cook slices it for service.
The typical tray at LeRoy and Lewis is loaded with meat options, but a platter with nothing but steak allows for focus. There’s enough marbling to keep each bite juicy, but the flavor leans more beefy than fatty. The filet portion of a porterhouse can be bland, but this was one of the most robust I’ve tried. Perhaps that’s why the waiting list keeps growing. I asked Lewis what they’ll do if it gets too large. “We’re just gonna have to figure out how to do more steaks,” she said.
This article originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of Texas Monthly with the title “Steak Night Is Cool Again.” Subscribe today.
