Tom Micklethwait

The Training Central Texas barbecue is the frame for the work Tom Micklethwait built as owner and founder of Micklethwait Craft Meats in Austin, Texas. The form depends on plain elements handled correctly: oak, heat, meat, bread, sides, sauce, and timing that brings the plate together rather than treating the pit as the whole craft. Restaurant work at Vespaio in Austin sits in the foundation before the barbecue business took its smoke-driven form. From there, Micklethwait’s house style gathered around fire and scratch cooking: sausages made with intention, sides treated as part of the meal, fresh baked goods, and a full-plate view of barbecue rather than a meat-only one. Trailer service began in December 2012, when Micklethwait served his first barbecue plate from the trailer that became the business. The origin is direct enough for the trade: one plate, one trailer, oak-fired barbecue, made-from-scratch sides, and fresh baked goods. The broader operation came through repeated service, not through a break from that starting point.

The Lineage Regional technique supplies the lineage here more than a formally named master. Oak remains the constant, and scratch work sets the grammar. At the restaurant, the catering menu is entirely scratch-made, including sausages, sauce, and desserts, extending the labor of barbecue beyond the pit and into the supporting parts of the plate. Menu range stays legible when the smoke work and sides speak the same language. In 2017, StarChefs featured brisket, knockwurst, pork ribs, and sides including campfire beans, jalapeño-cheese grits, and white bread as dishes from the Austin barbecue counter. Taken together, those items show a table built from rendered fat, sausage craft, rib cookery, beans, grits, and bread doing its quiet structural work. Pulled lamb sits within Micklethwait’s own description of the menu as a special item. In that smoked-meat setting, the cut broadens the offering while staying inside the discipline of smoke, patience, and attention to each piece of meat.

The Table A standalone address changed the physical scale of the work on January 3, 2025, when the operation opened its first standalone restaurant at 4602 Tanney Street in East Austin. The move gave the long-running barbecue project a fixed restaurant setting while keeping it tied to its trailer-born practice. The standalone restaurant expanded the menu with an ever-changing lineup of specials and baked goods, and the kitchen butchers its own cuts of meat. Offset pits remain part of the cooking system, including one that lets Micklethwait cook ingredients and meats directly on the fire. Direct fire brings the work back to its most basic control point: heat meeting food under watch. From Vespaio to the first trailer plate in 2012 to the East Austin restaurant in 2025, the through-line is Oak-fired Central Texas barbecue, scratch-made supporting work, and service built plate by plate.

Signature

Signature dishes include Brisket.