Recently my review of Southwest Market in Elgin attracted a comment from an employee of their competitor, Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse, who was wondering if I was going to give their meats a try and write a review. It had been in my plans for this summer anyway, so last weekend I dragged my teenage daughter along and gave Meyer's a try.

Meyer's is on the strip of businesses that line Highway 290 running to the south of downtown Elgin. It's on the east end, balancing out the presence of Southwest Market on the west end. Meyer's has been well known in Elgin for 75 years, but as a sausage factory which sells their sausage all over the Central Texas area, rather than as a restaurant. A few years ago they moved to the current location and added a dining area with a full menu of barbeque to their offerings. You can still buy their sausage to go, but now you can sit down and eat it too, along with a variety of other meats and side dishes.

As usual I tried to get a little bit of everything, though I have to admit to stealing some of it off my daughter's plate. The selection is pretty standard, with brisket, sausage, pork ribs, chicken, turkey and ham steak. The sides include beans, German potato salad, pickles, onions and creamed corn and banana pudding for desert. Either by intent or omission our plates didn't include any barbeque sauce which was okay with me since I'm kind of a meat purist. There was a bottle of pretty deadly chili sauce on the table, but I decided not to kill my tastebuds by trying it. I ended up ordering a three meat combo plate for just under $10 and my daughter got a half chicken for a bit less.

Not surprisingly, with 75 years of history behind it, the sausage was the best thing on my plate. It's the first time I've had Meyer's sausage and I was pleasantly surprised. It's different from the style of sausage I think of as Elgin sausage based on my experience at Southwest Market. It's less greasy and has more black pepper and the meat is coarse ground beef rather than the pork or mix of pork and beef I'd expected. Overall the flavor of the sausage is excellent, rather like the sausage at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, but in a longer link and less greasy. They also offer a sage sausage and a hot sausage, but you have to call ahead for them.