Get those sustainable reusable water bottles ready, folks, because today marks the start of an annual tradition that all of us here at the Chronicle, your friendly neighborhood hot sauce enthusiasts, can get behind: Heat Week at LeRoy and Lewis.
For the second July running, the folks at this beloved South Austin barbecue truck are celebrating (or mourning? It’s hard to tell) the beginning of what they claim to be the hottest month for Austinites with a week of extra spicy menu items. While I’ve personally lived through a couple of local Septembers (and even an October or two) that would make you swear the idea of winter weather is nothing but a beautiful dream, Heat Week is a great way to work up that extra sweat you so desperately needed. In a town of hot sauce afficionados , this gustatory challenge is here to help you find out once and for all who can take the heat and who should stay out of the kitchen.
They’re starting off strong today with high school vending machine favorite Flamin’ Hot Cheetos pie with five alarm chili. Tomorrow it’s by barbacado en fuego, followed by Holy Schnikes sausage, tingling Sichuan beef ribs (those peppercorns bring a whole new kind of nerve-blasting spice), and ending with jungle curry pork belly burnt ends, each dish challenging the tongues and digestive systems of intrepid snackers with pulse raising levels of spice. If heat proves to be too much for you, there are complimentary frozen treats like ice cream and popsicles to cool you down.
The brave souls who manage to finish the entire spicy special every day will be rewarded with a $75 gift card and special Heat Week swag to rock throughout the year. Your friends and family will know you’ve got a stomach of iron and a tongue of burnt sand paper and asbestos.
This article appears in July 20 • 2018.