 from Austin, Texas. It's theCUBE, covering OpenStack Summit 2016, brought to you by the OpenStack Foundation and headline sponsors Red Hat and Cisco. Well, good morning and welcome live here to the Austin Convention Center. We continue our coverage here on theCUBE of OpenStack Summit 2016. This is all about commitment today because our CUBE team obviously is bringing you the full Austin experience. That is our commitment to you, our viewer. And that's beyond OpenStack Summit. No keynote studies, so we thought, why not? Let's get out and experience the culinary expertise of this fine city. The social scene, the strata that we have invaded is almost beyond description. Stu Minimum is here to help me do that, Brian Grace Lee, and our barbecuber, Sam Cahane. I'll explain that a little bit. Stu, I want to start with you. Just set the table, if you will, for our discussion here about the delights we've had, the barbecue, the tacos, maybe a beverage or two, and the great live music. Yeah, John, so I mean, first of all, right. Austin's a great city. You've got six streets, live music, lots of places, and a lot of different foods. Of course, the brisket is the big thing, but tacos, I think it's like my eighth or ninth time here in Austin, but luckily we brought in a barbecue expert who did some research, and I've had the best culinary experience in this visit, probably then, you know, the rest of mine combined attending this week. Yeah, you know, keep Austin weird. I say let's keep Austin's recipes here is what I want to do, because whatever they're cooking in the kitchen, it's a winner. Brian, you know all about this, right? Yeah. Brian, maybe people don't realize, Oink Barbecue is a thriving business in eastern North Carolina, of which you are a principal member and participant, an extensive barbecue menu, and most impressively, sides for only a buck. That's right. That really is the headline here, but let's talk about the Austin barbecue you've had, I'm maybe perhaps inferior to your product in Carolina, but try to give me an objective criteria measurement here. Well, the great thing about Austin barbecue, I mean, Austin barbecue is central Texas barbecue, and if you talk to anybody in the barbecue space, Texas, like everything in Texas is huge, right? So what's eastern Texas, what's central Texas, central Texas always considered kind of the best of Texas, but it's handcrafted. I mean, you sort of taste the love. It's, you know, you see these guys who are getting up at three in the morning to put on thousands of pounds of brisket, they're there all night, they're stoking the fires. It's a long, tedious process, and people stand in line for it. I mean, there's sort of this just experience of the whole thing. It's not fast food, it's not restaurant food, it's an experience. It's an experience of, you know, them putting the effort into making it and you sort of standing in line, having that anticipation built up, and then, you know, just you sit there with your friends and just go for 10 or 15 minutes. It's just, it's an amazing experience. Well, you talk about standing in line, and that's a great segue to Sam here. Sam, for those of you probably not aware, Sam does a lot of work behind the scenes that make the cube happen in a number of respects. Yesterday though, Sam, perhaps the most important job you've had in quite some time. Sam was our line standard at Franklin's Barbecue, rated by Bon Appétit Magazine, Travel Magazine as the number one barbecue in all of the United States, and you are our man, Sam, to stand in line dutifully, waiting for our order to fill our lunch appetite, and how long did it take, and what was it like to be amongst the masses at Franklin's? It was quite an honor and a dream come true for me. I've been wanting to go to Franklin's Barbecue since the first barbecue I ever had, Blue Ribbon Barbecue in Newton, Massachusetts, and it did not disappoint. I'll tell you a little bit about the process. So we did a lot of research, went on Yelp, talked amongst the team, talked to people who've been to Franklin before, and you have to get there hours before it opens. So it opens at 11 o'clock to even get, you know, any barbecue. The barbecue goes quick. The place is open from 11 a.m. until they sell out. So it could be 2 p.m., could be three, so you got to get there early. So I woke up at seven o'clock, immediately went to the steam room. Frankly, I'm surprised you could sleep the night before. It was tough. No one was ahead of you. It was tough. I mean, the sense, I was imagining smelling it and it's getting overwhelmed. So I went to the steam room first thing, sweated out all the food from the night before, prepared myself mentally and physically. Then I ran on over there to get there in line. And by the time I arrived, I arrived at 7.50 in the morning. There were already 25 people there in chairs, sitting and waiting. People were drinking beers. It was a tailgate experience. Immediately they welcomed me in. I made some great friends. We took a lot of Twitter pictures together, put them on Twitter, Facebook. And four hours later or so, three hours later, the line started moving. And I was the last one in the door. So the first 25 people make it inside the door. And if you're there after 8.30 or 9, the line's all the way around the block. So you got to get there early and it was so, so worth it. How many people do you think were in line when they opened the door? You said open the door at 11. Do you have any idea how many people were behind you in line? I mean, it was beyond my eyesight of vision. There must have been a hundred, 150 people in line. And this is on a Tuesday. Imagine on a Saturday or a Sunday. Did you take a chair? I did take a chair. So they have chairs available. All right. So the CVS is pretty much in business next door because of Franklin Barbecue. You walk in and it's just chairs all over. Everyone's buying chairs. Chairs, coolers, umbrellas. They got it all, right? Exactly. And sunscreen. And sunscreen. If you don't make it in the first 50, you're out in the sun and that's where trouble is. And what was our order? Now I think, Stu, actually, I think, Stu, I think you, I'll give you credit. You put together a fantastic order. So why don't you go ahead and fill in the blanks here. Just what did we send Sam to pick up for us? Well, first of all, I'm sure Brian can explain to us why, but it's the brisket. So that was the thing. I think we got five pounds of brisket to start with. They had the pork ribs, which are also excellent down here. We've had the chance to sample a couple of them. Unfortunately, the beef ribs are only available on the weekend because I haven't had a chance to sample them on this trip. We got some of the sides and everything, but it's all about the meat. A little bit of barbecue sauce if you want there, but Brian says you don't need to do it. The rub is enough on it. So that's where it is. We had big box for our team to have, and some of our key guests and friends in the community here cut a little bit of extra out. We didn't want to promote it too much because we were afraid we'd have a riot of people before the mass rush. No, it would have been ugly. It was ugly anyway. Well, tell them how big an order, like big box you think like, oh, okay, it fits like, how big was the order? It was huge. How many pounds of food did we get total? We had 12 to 13 pounds of meat, and it was incredible. My big suggestion is the moist brisket. That is the fattier brisket, and it was the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. It melted in your mouth. It was the winner. Tom, any barbecue you've ever had before, made the weight worth it. And Brian, what is it about the brisket? Stu said that that's king. What is it about that that you think really sets it above the chicken or the pulled pork? It's, the crazy thing about it is, brisket is about the worst piece of meat that you can find on a cow. It's tough, it's uneven in size, and so I think what it is is it's such a difficult thing to cook. So to put it in perspective, think about having a piece of meat that on one end is that fat, and on the other end is this fat, and you're trying to figure out, how do I keep heat from making it uneven? How do I keep it from burning? How do I, so anybody who can make it tender, keep it moist, cook it evenly, it's really almost, you're experiencing the taste as much as you're experiencing somebody who has this unbelievable amount of skill to figure out how to do that. And that's sort of the Texas thing. They're proud of the idea that they can pull off this really difficult piece of meat. And again, it's, how do you do that well? It's an art form, it really is a science and an art. Let me get a reminder, we are covering the OpenStacks Summit 2016 on theCUBE. Well, put it in perspective, OpenStacks is about builders, about people who make things, about people who are in their hands on, that's what barbecue is as well. And in fact, we're open source with our advice here, is what we're doing because we're offering, up to the public or private cloud, we don't care, we're non-discriminatory here. So, I mean, John, if you want to bring it home to some of the OpenStack activity here, there was the stack party last night that we went to, and what was really nice about this, I don't know, it was about a dozen bars, live music in all of them, plenty of beer, drinks in all of them, and there was local food. Sam tells me there was 17, he went in each one of them. Yeah, maybe Sam might have hit a few more than I did, but, and there was food at a lot of them. So, the tacos, we haven't talked about the tacos yet, the barbecue food, lots of things, sausages there, really good event. One of the challenges, of course, 7,500 people here at the show, there's a limit as to how many could fit in, they'd capped it. If you hadn't registered about two weeks ago, you probably wouldn't have got in. But that also made it, it wasn't super packed there, but there's few places that you can have kind of this combination. I mean, I don't know any place that has the music, the food, and that atmosphere. San Jose has a great group of bars that I've been to at some conferences. Vegas, of course, you've got new shortage of places where you can eat and drink, but Austin really showed the local flavor, which was nice to get here at the event. Yeah, I want to give the foundation a lot of credit because they put together a great social event that really, there was professional development there, believe it or not, and we heard a lot of conversations going on, people having a lot of fun, but it did create, I think, just a really nice vibe to what, for many people, is the last night of their show. They're here for a couple of days. Maybe they don't wait for days three or four. But they closed down the entire Rainey Street, which is a very social area here in Austin. There were several bars, probably 16, 17 or so. Each one was sponsored. So you had the Ubuntu bar, you had the Red Hat, you had the Cisco, you had the OpenStack Foundation bar, and again, a lot of fun, and Brian, a lot of good times out there last night that ran into you and Stu, you managed to work one side of the street, we were perhaps working hard on the other end, but yet you managed to make the round-size soon. So, Austin is sort of one of the perfect towns for a big community. It's a people-centric town, right? Everywhere you go, you're going to interact with people just based on kind of the pace at which they do things, whether you're waiting in line for food, you're trying to get closer to a live band, like it's a very people-centric thing, which is exactly what these community events are. They're people-centric, they're open so that you're interacting with people. There's certain towns that are sort of great alignments for that, Portland's one of those, Nashville's one of those, Austin's one of those where you combine great food, you combine outdoor spaces. So it's sort of a perfect marriage of what this community's trying to do and just what the city has to offer. It's really an awesome combination. Yeah, I said kudos, certainly to them. You mentioned tacos. I mean, we've got to hit it. Torches, I didn't have the tacos. I missed that on those. So I'm really, I'm an observer right now. So Sam, were you in on the taco thing? I was definitely in on the taco thing and like the barbecue, a lot of preparation went into the tacos. This was not my first trip to Austin. I've been to- It's not your first rodeo is what you're saying. Not my first rodeo. And I was waiting out, I've always heard about torches tacos. And I've been to all the other taco places because that's a little mainstream, so I try to find the underdogs. But this time we went to torches and there is a reason it's rated number one. I mean, it was truly tremendous. Stu, what did you think about torches? Yeah, so first of all, I think there's five or six locations of torches and it's been explained to me, it's Austin tacos. It's not, you know, Mexican tacos. So, you know, lots of different options. Greg Stewart actually did a good job scoping out the menu for us and helped. I had, you know, a fried avocado taco. It's a team effort, Stu. I had a chopped, you know, brisket one. You know, they've got, you know, sauces and, you know, fresh cilantro. But I tell you the thing that like blew me away was their queso that they had was phenomenal. I mean, just like the perfect balance of, you know, just a little bit of spice in it, the nice cheese, really good chips. Like, and even like the right amount, we were like, we finished the chips and like there was just the right amount of cheese. It's like that never happens. And it's funny, people that, you know, we talked to some international people and they're like, what is this queso thing? You know, I don't understand it. Only in America would you have, you know, a big bowl of cheese that we just kind of scoop up and eat. Stu's not over hyping that at all. And the big thing he forgot in the middle of the queso is guacamole in the queso dip. I've never seen that before. It's a first. It's a first. I saw a great sign outside of one of the restaurants. It says, you can't please everybody, dot, dot, dot. You're not queso. And the music. And we haven't really touched on the music here either because you walk outside and we're right downtown. The two big anchor hotels are married on one side. There's a Hilton on the other. But you come out of either one and you hear music on either side. And that's really what Austin's all about too. I think the live music down here is that we've heard a lot of great tunes last night, a lot of different bands, a lot of country, obviously, down here, but a lot of other sounds as well to kind of give it a real nice vibe, Stu. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they had the foundation brought in, a nice local band to do the keynote, do plenty cover songs, do plenty of their own. So track band. This is something like that. And, you know, so many last night, you know, some country, a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll in some of these places. And, you know, definitely a fun vibe and the weather held out, which was really nice. They'd actually, you know, bought, you know, God, I think thousands of umbrellas just in case because, you know, some of Texas has been having some pretty severe weather and it was getting close to here. But, you know, all worked out. And yeah, it's been, you know, really enjoyable location for the event. I sure hope my backyard of Boston, you know, will have, you know, tough shoes to fill and hope it'll do well next year when the summit's there. Yeah, a tough act to follow in a lot of ways. I think, you know, Austin, as you said, Brian is uniquely situated to host an event of this type, you know, with the crowd and really the philosophy and the mindset that they have coming into their work. It takes, it goes to their play too, I think. All right, let's go around the table before we wrap up. Sam, I'm going to start with you. Just some brief overview from your perspective of the Austin experience when it comes to, you know, the show being here and with the fun that we've had and with the entertainment value. Austin is very unique. You know, they always say, Austin, keep Austin weird is the big saying. And truly you walk through the different burbs and the different areas of the city and it's incredible. You walk into Southern Austin and it's like you're stuck in the 70s. All the bars are, you know, converted houses or old garages and it's all very vintage and it's such an interesting, interesting feel. And the food, the barbecue, it makes for a big winner. I might move down here one day. I love it here, so. And you got a hat. And I got a hat from Franklin Barbecue. Brian Grayson, myself got these. I'm going to actually toss it on here, if you don't mind. No, that's fine, please. Yeah, it's a good fit. Well, if I had a 10 gallon hat, I'd tip it to you right now. The line waiting was outstanding. And yeah, you wear it well. All right, Brian. So it's been a great week. You know, in sort of reverence for the locals, I'm not going to talk it up too much. They don't want too many outsiders coming in, Sam. They don't want you and your Yankee sort of ways coming down and you're making it unweird. But it's a great town. It's everything's walkable. You've got the university close by, the food's great. You know, it's a good, I don't want to say it's a good Southern town. It's a good Texas town. Texas is its own country. Austin's its own, you know, it's its own universe. You know, it's fantastic. It's great music, great food. Smart technologies around here. You know, so it's good. It's a lot of fun. It's been a great week. It's great. And Stu. Yeah, I mean, Brian mentioned a bunch of things. You know, walkability. One local site that actually Sam and I saw the first night we were here, we went and saw the bats. So Congress Street Bridge, there's, you know, million and a half bats that live underneath it. If you get there after dusk, you know, they just like all flock out. It was a pretty amazing site. I'd seen it once before, you know, did lots of walking, but unfortunately with the amount of food, I don't think the balance was in my favor. That being said, you know, I definitely, you know, didn't need three square meals a day. Like usually it was like one big meal a day and you kind of nibble on stuff throughout the day. But, you know, Austin's always fun. And yeah, it's always a great vibe. Very different from, you know, the rest of Texas and just, you know, cool culture down here. Yeah, you mentioned the bats. I'd kind of forgotten about that. I saw them many years ago and somebody at home might be watching this but they're often saying bats, that's cool. Trust me, you know, Stu nailed it. It is cool. It is an awesome site. So anyway, all right, believe it or not, we are going to talk a little bit more about OpenStack throughout the day here. We thought we'd just kind of set the flavor of what Austin's all about and have a little fun with you here and talk about the barbecue and the beer. And we'll talk about containers later and not the kind that hold barbecue but the kind that hold great applications. All right, that's it. From now, we'll be back with more here on theCUBE from Austin, Texas. See y'all then.