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John Mueller has died

Hornius Emeritus

By Hornius Emeritus
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Jester

Jester 382

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RIP indeed.  Some of my favorite Saturdays revolved around starting off the morning at JMMC and walking over to Hops & Grain for more boozing.

Always nice to me and mine, but I tended to give out fair warnings to anyone in the group beforehand.  Watching him berate morons was hilarious.

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tx 3 putt

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1 hour ago, MissingInAction said:

There were two things that would piss him off:

1. Get beer out of his cooler. He would always bring you one eventually

2. Walk behind his pits. And if you raised the lid to take a look you would get stabbed.

I'll never forget him chasing off this hipster douche in a fedora. The cunt went behind the pits, raised the lid and started poking brisket and licking his fingers. 

"Get the fuck out!!" Here comes John with a butcher knife.


please share his surely id !!!!!!

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usmc0331horn

usmc0331horn 953

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https://austin.eater.com/2021/12/17/22841305/john-mueller-death-obituary-texas-barbecue-pitmaster

Texas Barbecue Legend John Mueller Dies at 52

The skilled pitmaster was behind the scene at some of Texas’s most important barbecue joints including JMueller BBQ and Hutchins BBQ

by Nadia Chaudhury  Dec 17, 2021, 12:05pm CST
 

A tray of barbecued meats in front of a Texas flag. Barbecue from John Mueller Meat Co.  Nick Solares/E

John Mueller, one of Texas’s legendary pitmasters, died this week at the age of 52 in Frisco, as initially reported by Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn and confirmed by Austin 360.

Mueller had opened and cooked under various ventures throughout his life, but wherever he was, he was known for creating perfect yet simple brisket and hefty tender smoked beef ribs, as well as his signature side, the iconic cheesy squash.

Mueller comes from barbecue royalty; he’s the son of the late Bobby Mueller and grandson of the late Louie Mueller. The family is behind the famous Taylor, Texas, joint Louie Mueller Barbecue, where he started working as young as six years old setting up and cleaning the restaurant.

After attending Texas Tech University, Mueller opened his first barbecue restaurant in Austin on Manor Road, John Mueller BBQ, which operated from 2001 to 2006. Then, following a pause, he joined his sister LeAnn Mueller in opening her new South First barbecue truck in Austin in 2011 — JMueller BBQ; he left the business in 2012. (LeAnn changed the name of the truck to La Barbecue.)

For Mueller’s next venture, he opened East Sixth barbecue truck John Mueller Meat Co. in 2013, which closed in 2016. During that time, he notably smoked beef ribs for President Barack Obama during a fundraising event in Dallas in 2014.

Then, in 2017, Mueller started cooking for a new barbecue trailer, Black Box Barbecue, up in Georgetown, which eventually shuttered in 2019. From 2019 to 2020, he made barbecue at now-closed Granger City Brewing. His last independent venture was anchoring food-and-drink development the Granary in 2020 in Jarrell, which he left earlier this year.

 

More recently, Mueller joined the team of Frisco barbecue restaurant Hutchins BBQ, where he had been cooking ever since it reopened earlier in the summer of 2021. The restaurant was named one of Texas Monthly’s best barbecue restaurants this year.

Along with Mueller’s excellent food, he had been known for his “grumpy” and ”cranky” persona, to the point where Texas Monthly gave him the nickname of “Dark Prince of Texas Barbecue.”

People have been sharing their remembrances of Mueller through Vaughn’s Twitter page.

Edited by usmc0331horn
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smoky

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Way back on TOS I had brought up that he was speaking as part of a Foodways Texas Symposium and that I was bummed because you had to be a member to attend and I wasn't a member.
He DM'ed me and asked if I wanted his guest pass because he got some because of his participation.
He had a lot of faults.  BBQ was not one of them. 
If you could graph his business and bbq acumen on a chart, I'm sure they'd be diverging axis.
 
RIP

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LCHorn

LCHorn 2621

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1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

Whoah! RIP John.

Last saw him at his mom’s memorial service in Taylor this past summer. (Mrs. Brat was a Taylor HS Duck classmate of Trish’s - 1963), John’s sister catered. Hopefully they had reconciled.

He looked like he had lost a lot of weight.

No kidding, not a healthy amount of weight, either.  
 

I almost had him cater my rehearsal dinner until my wife put the kibosh on it.  He was always friendly to us and I’m glad to be able to tout that my son’s first bite of brisket was from his place in Georgetown AND it was on a day when he was on his A game.  

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DallasSooner

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Met and ate at Johns places on several occassions. Any time I would head down to Austin I would make sure I ate there.  First time was when he had just started his own trailer and was over on the west side of town which evenutally turned into the original LA BBQ it was John and John Lewis working then I believe. I can still remember my first time and how the smoke hung in the air on a cool Saturday. The food was incredible. 

Then he made his way over to East Austin and had his smoker and trailer set up.  I walked in wearing a Lockhart BBQ shirt and he called me out for wearing another BBQ joints shirt to his place and told me I shouldn't have done that.   I order my food sit down and start eating, he waits a while and comes over to my table and sits down and ask me how the food is (It was damn good and I told him so) he laid a shirt down on the table and said "here is a better looking shirt for you to wear next time, and don't tell anyone I gave it to you because I'm supposed to be an asshole".  One of the best moments of my going to BBQ joints I've ever had. 

I went back to that same location a few more times and each time there was something off or missing and you could tell that business wasn't long for being around.

I think I have watched every youtube video of John Mueller stuff I can find. I have always been fascinated with the man.  We would tweet and DM back and forth and he would always tell me he appreciated me being a teacher.  Just a good good dude to me on the occassions we interacted.  I saw him in November at BBQ Festival and he looked frail.  I will remember the man the myth and the legend that was John Mueller.  He would tell you he was a cook, damn sure not a pitmaster.  Rest in Peace John Mueller. 

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Celery Man

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6 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Back in the east 6th street days, he was waiting on his trailer inspection and couldn't officially be open. However, you could text him an order for cash pickup.  He texted me to pick up at Kellee's Bar next door around 10am.  I showed up and he's at the bar by himself and had at least a dozen empty bottles in front of him. We went back to the trailer and packaged up my order. He didn't act like he'd even had one drink. Seemed perfectly sober and cordial.  He gave me a couple of beers to go from the cooler.  Since he wasn't going to be open for a couple of days, I realized that the free beer he gave away was just the beer he hadn't drank yet that day.  I knew right then that's how he'd go. You're pretty much past the point of no return when that's your daily lifestyle. 

not always, but very likely

damn shame, but can't say I'm surprised

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LCHorn

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44 minutes ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

John Mueller.jpg

That was my first exposure to him, Major Applewhite I think was a GA and was at a table next to me with Greg Davis and the rest of the offensive staff.  
 

He had two kinds of sauce back then, a sweet thick sauce and the spicier sauce that was his house sauce on all the future iterations.  The sweet was my personal favorite.  

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Judge Roybeanbag

Judge Roybeanbag 11819

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RIP John.  Sorry I never returned those last couple voicemails you left me.   Hope your troubled soul is soothed.

One good memory I have is when he was on S First, his employees had been busting their asses during SXSW and from a couple catering things he did, I came up with about $350 in collections as a bonus for them.  I had doubts about handing it over but personally watched him divy  up the money and give it to them.  

He had his faults, but hell the man couldn’t even take a vacation to Port A without getting pancreatitis.  

Edited by Judge Roybeanbag
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Judge Roybeanbag

Judge Roybeanbag 11819

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19 hours ago, Leeroy Jenkins said:

Well John. I hope you can finally find some peace.

When you were on your game you were great.

I will drink a Bud Light remembering the good old days.

I’m still annoyed about the time we went there, and I accidentally left my leftovers on the picnic table and the homeless guy ended up with them.  You still had that old 4-runner then.  Also @hornianused to hog the good parking spots.  

Edited by Judge Roybeanbag
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Hermanator

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3 hours ago, smoky said:

Way back on TOS I had brought up that he was speaking as part of a Foodways Texas Symposium and that I was bummed because you had to be a member to attend and I wasn't a member.
He DM'ed me and asked if I wanted his guest pass because he got some because of his participation.
He had a lot of faults.  BBQ was not one of them. 
If you could graph his business and bbq acumen on a chart, I'm sure they'd be diverging axis.
 
RIP
 

Every interaction I had with him was good and he did a lot of good dude things. I think, in my opinion, if you're stupid enough to write a check to an alcoholic and expect him to run the business and financials on his own you deserve what you get.

You're lucky if you get an alcoholic to just show up to work on time with any regularity. If you disregarded the warnings from his sister after S 1st that's on you. 

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ROFL BOX

ROFL BOX 6649

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330672202_JohnMueller.thumb.jpg.5c0a0b0c530498d95e4b9284068803e5.jpg
Me: "Back around '99 or so, I used to ride horses from the Catholic cemetery off the N side of 79 on the East side of town, go over to Louie's & tie off to the power pole out back, go in for a beefer."

John: "That was you, with the Palomino? Yeah, I used to throw bread at your horse."

Sent from my SM-A326U1 using Tapatalk

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ROFL BOX

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...I walked in wearing a Lockhart BBQ shirt and he called me out for wearing another BBQ joints shirt to his place and told me I shouldn't have done that.   I order my food sit down and start eating, he waits a while and comes over to my table and sits down and ask me how the food is (It was damn good and I told him so) he laid a shirt down on the table and said "here is a better looking shirt for you to wear next time, and don't tell anyone I gave it to you because I'm supposed to be an asshole". 


As many of y'all know, I'm active with the Q committee for Rodeo Austin. Our annual event other than the cook-off is an auction / dance.

Around the time of that magazine cover for Texas Monthly, I asked both Aaron & John fort a gift cert donation & to autograph the magazine for the auction.

I got one magazine for me & the other for the auction. Aaron was 1st. & it had a more "official" coupon type thing.

Went to John & he saw Aaron's signature... had to write his larger than A.F. (pic on the other BBQ thread).

J.M. asked me how much was coming from Franklin & without asking to see proof, he doubled from 1 full rack of pork to 2.
Double the weight in brisket.
Added 4 links of sausage (2 reg.,2 jap).
2 Beefers.

Tore a sheet of butcher paper & wrote it all down via sharpie, signed his name on it.
Folded that up 5 or 6 different ways & then somehow created a type of envelope from another piece of butcher paper.

The auction item was for the gift cert. from both John & Aaron + the autographed magazine... total package.

I don't know who "won" that auction however I do hope they still have the magazine.

Sent from my SM-A326U1 using Tapatalk



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Judge Roybeanbag

Judge Roybeanbag 11819

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20 minutes ago, ROFL BOX said:




 

 


As many of y'all know, I'm active with the Q committee for Rodeo Austin. Our annual event other than the cook-off is an auction / dance.

Around the time of that magazine cover for Texas Monthly, I asked both Aaron & John fort a gift cert donation & to autograph the magazine for the auction.

I got one magazine for me & the other for the auction. Aaron was 1st. & it had a more "official" coupon type thing.

Went to John & he saw Aaron's signature... had to write his larger than A.F. (pic on the other BBQ thread).

J.M. asked me how much was coming from Franklin & without asking to see proof, he doubled from 1 full rack of pork to 2.
Double the weight in brisket.
Added 4 links of sausage (2 reg.,2 jap).
2 Beefers.

Tore a sheet of butcher paper & wrote it all down via sharpie, signed his name on it.
Folded that up 5 or 6 different ways & then somehow created a type of envelope from another piece of butcher paper.

The auction item was for the gift cert. from both John & Aaron + the autographed magazine... total package.

I don't know who "won" that auction however I do hope they still have the magazine.

Sent from my SM-A326U1 using Tapatalk


 

 

Always wondered if you ever got the Bud light and onion storage smell out of that camper you parked there.

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Judge Roybeanbag

Judge Roybeanbag 11819

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3 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

@ArmybratDo I remember correctly that you shared booze with Bordain on this occasion?

I think he had some reserve he shared.  @blacklab was there that day but if I recall one of his youngsters was sick and puked. I may be confusing that with the time we cooked the steer.  

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