The backstory
Banger's owner Ben Siegel came across The Best Wurst sausage cart one night as a The University of Texas at Austin student. While waiting in the cart’s extensive line, Siegel wondered why the business didn’t open a brick and mortar with a focus on sausage.
With no experience in the restaurant industry, Siegel brushed off his idea for a sausage-focused restaurant thinking it was too big of a feat. He worked in the commercial real estate business before moving to Los Angeles.
One day a new restaurant named Wurstküche opened in downtown Los Angeles. The eatery mirrored Siegel’s idea.
“I walked in and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh here it is,’” Siegel said. “It was very successful and so I immediately was like, ‘Man, if this can work in Los Angeles, I think it can work in the capacity that I want it to work in,’” Siegel said.
While on a plane from a friend’s wedding in December 2010, Siegel had a handful of epiphanies in the air which led to his decision to move back to Austin and work on his restaurant idea. As soon as the plane touched ground, he called his boss and put in his two week resignation.
”That moment for me was very much that shift in my own system of, ‘Hey, this is something that I want to do. This is something I am going to do,’” Siegel said.
Since its launch 13 years ago, Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden has expanded in a few ways from opening a sandwich shop, a sausage house, a meat processing facility, a pickling facility, a curing facility and a smoking facility—all on the same property.
“One of the things that drove us to doing this big expansion and create this space that you're seeing now is to give our people and ourselves the opportunity to be excellent,” Siegel said.
Siegel said the restaurant’s menu has evolved throughout the years from a special event space to a dining spot locals and visitors alike can eat at everyday.
The eatery features 200 beers on draft and 20 varieties of sausage on the menu at any given time.
- Italian sub: featuring housemade salami, hot coppa, mortadella, provolone, giardinnaise and peppadew vinaigrette
- Jalapeño cheddar sausage: sausage smoked and stuffed with roasted jalapeños, cayenne peppers, red pepper flakes and two types of cheddar cheese
- Sweet and spicy pit ribs: ribs seasoned with brown sugar, mustard and pig dust, cooked over post oak coals and finished with housemade barbecue sauce
Siegel said the restaurant is taking its bites on the road with the upcoming launch of its catering operation, Bangers Cowboy Kitchen. Services will be operated out of a live-fire catering chuck wagon.
- 79 Rainey St., Austin
- www.bangersaustin.com
