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For the last several weeks, Aaron Franklin (he of the massive overnight success Franklin Barbecue, in Austin) has been building an additional smoker in his backyard, to increase the capacity of his perpetually sold-out joint at 900 E. 11th. Yesterday he and his wife/biz partner Stacy were in New York for a little R&R and they met up with Gabe Ulla of eater.com, who posted a long, fun interview, excerpted below. Incidentally, Franklin Barbecue will be the featured “newcomer” at the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, to be held in Austin on October 30. And we interviewed him for our cover story Cook Like a Texan, in April, where he explained how he does it, step by step–check out his secrets of his craft here. Franklin: I’m going to double what we do and hopefully let us open at nighttime. Right now we are doing 35 to 37 briskets, each of which feeds about 10 to 15. So this enormous, twenty-foot long smoker will hold 37. This thing is frickin’ ginormous. Eater: It’ll be the same menu? Franklin: Yeah, same thing, we just will be able to serve more of it, and the lines will hopefully be shorter. . . We’re also hiring a few more people. Eater: How did it get this crazy? Franklin: It was really through the internet and bloggers. . . . Initially we were open until 4PM, and it just kept getting earlier and earlier. Eater: It seems like that cycle just keeps on going. Franklin: It does. It’s jut never enough. We’re already too big for the building we’re in right now [which we only recently moved into, from the food trailer where we started]. Eater: Everything you’ve described suggests that it’s pretty much impossible for you to open up another place. Franklin: It would never happen. Keep it small, keep it good. [ Read the whole interview here.]
