You never mention poultry in any of your reviews. Don't you like it or is not available at Texas Q joints?

Some have it, many don't. I like chicken, but I really don't think chicken shows off real Q skills (as opposed to just being a fine cook). It cooks fast and most of the flavor is in the rub or basting. Nothing wrong with that, just not what I order when I go to a Q joint.

I wish you could try my brother's smoked duck. It's delicious. He has a marinade that he makes that is outstanding. And my smoked turkey breast is pretty good too. Neither of these would reasonably be called BBQ though, especially in Texas. In PA there is a highly expansive definition of BBQ that includes some pretty apalling fare.

I'd love to try it. I'll send you my address and he can put a LARGE sample in a bag with dry ice and ship it priority later this year when the weather gets more reasonable. We're having a cool wave now, barely over a 100 today, that makes 10 days in a row, I think.

I like smoked turkey. Quite a few Q joints now have smoked turkey legs and I like them, but you can't eat everything so to compare, I usually stick to the two most important items, ribs and brisket.

My brother lives in Austin so maybe you can try some when he's in town. I'll probably be there over Thanksgiving myself.

We had some friends from Florida staying with us last week so we took them for some Texas Bar-B-Q. He made a crack about being tired of Carolina Q. I told him we would get some Tennessee BBQ which put a frown on his face. Then I told him it was Hutchin's BBQ on Tennessee Street in McKinney. The last time (first time) I was there they were out of brisket.

This time they had the whole nine yards. The brisket and ribs were great. I didn't go for the peach cobbler or banana pudding. Neither looked that good, but our guests seemed to like them. The ice cream machine is nothing special. The bread and corn bread was excellent.

My wife got the ham which I consider a waste of time at a Q joint. Ham to me never tastes special. It just tastes like ham.

I had to go to Santa Rosa Beach, Fl (past Destin on coast highway 98) to pick up a boat I bought off ebay. Not to waste a long drive, I checked for Q joints on the way. The name most often mentioned was Leatha's in Hattiesburg, Ms. I stopped by there about 5 PM after driving for about 7 1/2 hours. Went inside to take a break and to review.....

#61) Leatha's Bar-B-Que Inn, 6374 US Hwy 98 W, Hattiesburg, Ms (roughly 3 miles west of 98 and I59 on South side of 98, look for sign since actual building is well off highway)My overall rating C--, so low because the meats had so little relationship to good Q. In fact, as a meal, it was edible, but not considered as Q.

Went inside and was met by an elderly black gentleman who was very nice, brought me an unsweet tea, and said, "Everything is made on sight, it's all good." Then was approached by a nice waitress, one of the 3, and the smallest. She was positively svelte compared to the other two and she had a hip measurement that would have easily stretched 60 inches. The largest moved somewhat like an aircraft carrier docking, slow and steady. At any rate, size aside, everyone was very nice and I wish I could give a better review, but, in fact, the Q sucked. I ordered a "Jumbo" plate which consisted of 3 of the 4 meats (No brisket, had pork ribs, pulled pork, beef ribs, and chicken). I ordered both ribs and pulled pork plus the "secret recipe" slaw and potato salad as sides. Waitress didn't write this down but probably should have, she came back fairly soon with a plate with the 3 meats and barbecued beans and steak fries. I pointed out that I wanted slaw and potato salad and she brought me out two more servings of them being very nice about it.

The best thing that could be said about the meats is that they are VERY tender. The pork ribs, which are baby back ribs, could not be picked up and eaten, the meat fell off the bone, which is considerably overcooked IMO. The pulled pork was fine with zero Q flavor. The beef ribs were pieces of meat, cut off the bone, somewhat like the burnt ends of KC fame. The best of the bunch was the pork ribs, but they were only ordinary to my tastes. They and the beef ribs had only the mildest acquaintance with smoke. Frankly it was damn hard to tell they had ever been exposed to smoke at all. They certainly survived the experience without getting it into their interior.

The famous sauce which generally receives rave reviews was extremely sweet. I hated it. The Federal governments sugar subsidy is not wasted here, the potato salad was fair, slightly sweet, probably from chopped sweet pickles in it. Not my style but some will like it. The Q beans were sugary as well. And the "secret recipe" slaw, was fairly coarsely cut cabbage with some other veggie slices in there, with mustard and sugar, quite sweet. Again, I really was not thrilled. The steak/cottage fried potatoes were good.

I mean, I know I'm from Texas and there are regional differences in Q styles (after all we have at least 4 regions in Texas), but this had only the faintest resemblance to Q, much less good Q.

I wouldn't go back if someone else was buying.

Too bad. Of course a q joint without beef brisket is automatically suspect IMHO What kind of boat did you buy?

A really interesting 26 footer. It's unlikely you'll see another one like it. Here's the auction....... Bearkat boat

So a couple of minor details came up with my two kids at UT Austin, I wanted some Q, it fit in with my wanting to hand deliver the books I sold him to Norman Conquest, so I made a quick plan to run down to Austin yesterday (350+ mi one way). Contacted NC and we decided to meet for lunch. For whatever reasons, I was unable to contact him by phone on the way down as planned the night before, so drove the 14 miles or so out of way to Liberty Hill and the Q joint, just in case he was there (he wasn't, don't know what happened, haven't heard from him) to......

#62) Smokey Mo's Bar-B-Q, 717 S Hwy 183, Liberty Hill Tx 78642 My rating B++

This is one location in a junior chain, with about 11 or so locations in the Central Texas area. They must be doing something right because this area is generally defined as Q heaven and to survive and expand they have to serve a quality product. As it turns out they do.

I ordered my standard of a pound of pork ribs and a pound of brisket. Later, Adam made a late lunch out of the leftovers and agreed with my rating. Prices were quite reasonable for this area (prices tend to be higher around Austin, perhaps because of demand from Qphiles), $12.95 # brisket, and $9.25 # pork ribs. This is a rare case where I really could not pick which one I preferred out of the two meats. They were both well smoked with a decent smoke ring and a dark bark on the brisket and dark exterior on ribs. They were both fine eating. I mean, they are not up to the quality of the very best, but are a very solid good eating Q.

The rub/exterior was very good, probably could have used a bit more spices IMO, but hell, I'm eating it, not selling it and I like spicy, hot or otherwise. Both brisket and ribs were dead tender without the dreaded overcooked disease.

They had 2 kinds of sauce, regular and hot, both tomato based, but both above average IMO. The "hot" wasn't very hot, but it had enough spice in it to counteract the sweet base to some extent. I somewhat preferred it to the "regular", which was a bit sweet, but not cloyingly so.

All in all, a good product with friendly people. I can only speak for this one, but it is worth a visit if you're driving on 183 (about 30 mi NW of Austin). Their only real problem is they're competing in the Q capitol of the world and there a lot of good Q choices not far away, some of which are definitely better (and usually more expensive).

Gato
That is a unique craft. I take it that it has a rudder for steering? Looks great for crabbing, trotlining and the like. Doubtful that it will help you chasing bikinis though.

No rudder, it's hard or impossible to tell without knowing what you're looking at, but the outboard motor is INSIDE the boat, in front of CC. In effect you have an inboard outboard, but not the kind that terminology is used for today.

This arrangement used to be fairly common in working boats but is nearly unheard of today. This boat was built in 1986 and is solid as a rock.

I don't chase bikinis anymore. Besides the issue of being happily married, I would be kind of like that pit bull chasing a car....what do you do when you catch it?

Totally unrelated, but my neighbor had one of his blackmouth curs grab a car tire ROLLING and puncture the side wall with his teeth. One tire gone.....I wouldn't have believed it but true story.

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
Clarks BBQ on 377, Tioga TX. Gotta try the dry ribs. and save room for the Coconut pie.

I have made the drive a couple times from Dallas, but it is a haul.

Dang, I am hungry.

Clarks is one of my lunch places...damn good too. But...Deiter Brothers in Linsay, TX has better ribs.

I reviewed Clark's on this thread. I wasn't impressed but I don't particularly like sweet ribs. Obviously others do.

If possible, I'll try to get by Lindsay and try Dieter Bros. out. Next time I go to Dallas, I'll just re-arrange the route a bit and stay on 82 past Bonham.

Let me know when you are coming and I will treat!

Did you review The Smokehouse in Lindsay, TX? Somebody mentioned it. Dieter's is right next door and has the best ribs and sausage I have ever eaten.

Lane

why didnt you mention them when I was up there the other day---

Damn son--

SSR

Didn't know you were hungry.

PS...welcome back

Lane:

Thanks for the invite. We'll try to get together.

I had to make a quick business trip to Dallas yesterday, so one of my Q buddies and I did some mid-morning work and then we adjourned for more important business, Q eating. We drove from downtown to SW Dallas, an area I am somewhat familiar with since it has one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Dallas that serves cabrito (El Ranchito, 610 W. Jefferson Blvd. Dallas)and there ain't that many that do, sad to say. At any rate after a short drive, we arrived at:

#63) Lockhart Smokehouse, 400 W. Davis, Dallas. One of the Texas Monthly top 50 with a grade of 4.5. My grade B++

We arrived with great anticipation around 12:15. There was a short line and we waited about 15 minutes for our turn. Since there were 2 of us, I vastly over ordered what we could eat, but meat-wise we had 2 beef ribs (over 1 pound each), a pound of brisket, a pound of shoulder clod, and 2 pounds of pork ribs. Because it was so different, I couldn't help but try the blue cheese cole slaw and my buddy ordered jalapeno and mac (mac and cheese).

We dug in with great anticipation, starting with what turned out to be the best, by far, the beef rib. Well cooked, well Qued, tender, a truly excellent piece of Q. I rate it a very small step behind Louie Mueller's beef rib but that is very rarified air IMO. It was downhill from there.

Next we tried the fatty brisket. It might have been very good to excellent but the rub was just too damn salty to really enjoy it. I mean, I like salt, but this stuff was high blood pressure heaven. Because this was the only one of the four meats that was grossly oversalted, I have to think there was a mistake in preparation, but I can't guess whether it might be better next time, I have to grade what I'm eating. Really tender, typical mid-Texas dark exterior, but waay too salty. Really disappointing.

Next was the shoulder clod, which is basically a large beef roast Qed. It was really quite good, tender, but because of the size, the smoke couldn't really penetrate enough to make it seem like good Q. Decent, but more like good tender roast beef with a slight Q flavor on exterior.

Finally, the pork ribs. They were decent, nice appearance, had a distinctly different rub and finish than the beef, but are definitely inferior to some other ribs I've had in the general area (Pecan Lodge and some Ft. Worth joints). Not bad, decent eating, but not nearly up to the TM 4.5 rating IMO.

They started out with no sauce, now have some due to customer demand, but we didn't try any. Frankly between the quantity of meat, and the blue cheese slaw, I just forgot to try it.

The blue cheese slaw was interesting, had like a slightly diluted blue cheese dressing flavor, with some flakes of jalapeno in it, which added some spice. An interesting concept, which I might pursue at home, but not something I would order again at this place.

Jalapeno and mac was reported to be good with some heat to it.

All in all, this joint could have and should have earned a triple plus, but as was, with the disappointing ribs and the overly salty brisket it barely reached B++. I'd go again, just to check the brisket out one more time (or to have a beef rib which was outstanding), but not an eating experience I'd go out of my way to accomplish.

I finally tried the local Q joint in Allen, Texas; Big Ray's BBQ. I got there two minutes after the lunch special went off the board. No one volunteered to grandfather me in. I didn't ask.

I asked for the two meat plate with ribs and brisket. They don't allow ribs on their meat plates. They suggested the rib plate and a quarter pound of brisket. I took it.

At 2:02pm there was no one else in the place.

The brisket was so-so.
The ribs were excellent.
The "loaded" mashed potatoes were very good.
The baked beans were good.
The sweetened iced tea was very good.
The "spicey" sauce was too sweet, but had the right viscosity.
The toast was limp.
The desserts looked good.
I'm not sure about the price. The rib plate was $11.99. The 1/4# of brisket was $3.99. The drink was $1.50.

If I'm having a Bar-B-Q attack I can either drive ten miles to Hutchin's in McKinney, or four miles to Ray's in Allen. I'll give Ray's a second try, then make up my mind. I won't be going back to Rudy's. Once was more than enough.

I had to make a run to Beaumont yesterday to buy/pick up a boat. In order to make it more fun, I looked in Texas Monthly Q issue and stopped in for lunch at.....

#64)Bob's Bar-B-Que, 1205 Pope St, Henderson, Tx. Bob's is not the easiest Q joint to find and is about a 100 yards off the main drag of 259/79 to the East. It is visible with some signs, and Q flags but I missed it on the first pass, not having a spotter and being too old fashioned to have a GPS. One of Texas Monthly's Top 50 with a score of 4.0/5.0 My score B

This is another place that I'd like to give a better score but I can't. The owner, Bob Allen, a well preserved 73 year old black man, cooks in the old stlye of Texas/Louisiana Q that I grew up on. That is, very little if any rub and his Q is done by letting time, smoke, and heat do their Q magic. And, in his case, it does. The quality of Q is solidly good but just not up to the better, more modern versions. I didn't ask, but a quick glance on the way in looked like he uses mostly oak.

At any rate, I ordered the usual pound of brisket and ribs and threw in a hot boudin (something I can rarely resist) for desert.

The brisket was pretty ordinary. While he was slicing it, I asked him to leave the bottom bark on, but he cut it off anyway. An example of the cook thinking he knows what I want, not what I tell him I want. No big deal, that's the way his customers want it but it removed some of the Q flavor, which it needed all it could get. He might pass some salt by the exterior of the brisket before cooking, but it is not readily detectable. Decent, very tender, well done, but just not really excellent.

The ribs were better, good color, nice taste, tender but not sloppily so. A very decent example of the old style of Q cooking. Again, with almost no external flavors added, basically just smoke and meat.

The boudin was quite good. I really enjoyed it. For those who don't know "boudin" is a mostly Louisiana based rice sausage, with a lot of rice, some sliced vegetables and spices and usually pork inside. It is sometimes smoked, as this was. The best boudin will make you "slap yo mama" as they say in Louisiana. I don't know if this is made by Bob's or not (I kind of doubt it but don't know for sure). I forgot to ask since I was thinking "boat" not details as I was leaving. At any rate, good eating and my wife, who loves boudin, (we make our own from time to time, but haven't gotten the ratios just right yet) is not happy that I didn't bring her some more home.

Sauce was a fairly thick tomato based with some nice spice flavors to it. Better than the usual sweet slop many places call sauce.

All in all, a solid Q joint with friendly people and a quality product. I'd stop by again but wouldn't go out of my way for it.

I always stop at Rudys in Amarillo. They make the best brisket Ive had and the sausage is outstanding. I also stop at the Waller county line near Hempstead TX they have smoked quail breast that is absolutely amazing and the boudin is great also.

Had to run to Shreveport this morning to pick up last year's taxes from my accountant. A dreaded yearly ordeal. I had been planning to do this for a while so on the way back I stopped in at.........

#65) Big Jake's Bar-B-Que, 2610 New Boston Rd (Hwy 82), Texarkana Tx. (My overall score B)

This is the old standby Q joint in Texarkana. We've been eating there occasionally since we moved to this area over 15 years ago, but this is the first time I've eaten there since I became "scientific" (yeah, right ).
They now have 4 or 5 locations, 2 in Texarkana and a couple in Arkansas. This is the original location and has been there for quite a few years. They are usually voted best Q restaurant in Texarkana. IMO they may not get there this year.

At any rate, I arrived about 12 and it had a busy lunch business going on. Friendly people and I ordered the standard with the brisket sliced thick, which they did nicely, probably averaging 1/2 inch thick. The ribs are styled as "St. Louis Style" ribs. Since I've never had any SL style ribs in SL, I'll take them at their word. I sat down and in a few minutes they brought my order out. Both meats were $13/lb which is slightly high for the area but not excessively so.

The brisket was decent, but just that. Tender, but a small fraction dry. In addition, as seems to be a common practice with E Tx Q joints, they trimmed a good bit of the exterior dark off the brisket. It would have been FAR better to leave it on, but I suppose they think or know that their customers prefer it that way. They may, I don't.

The ribs were far better, fairly dark exterior, very tender but still staying on the bone when you picked them up. This is another example where the Q joint seems to let the smoke do the talking with almost no spices on the rub or ribs. They were good and tasty, but did not rise to the level of very good or memorable IMO. With just a bit of uumph (another scientific term) in the rub, they could be excellent.

The sauce was slightly dark, medium thick, tomato based, somewhat spicy (not hot) that helped the meats because of the lack of flavor in the rub. A bit better than average as sauces go.

All in all, this is good solid Q, made in the old fashioned style, but not really deserving of going out of your way for.

I had to make a business trip to Arlington yesterday, so because it was a weekend, I foolishly asked wife and youngest daughter (nicknamed "Shopping" since that is her favorite activity, I'm not complaining, it could be much worse)if they wanted to come along and shop while I took care of my business, 2 hours worth of business and 8 hours worth of shopping later, we FINALLY left for home. It was late and there was a helluva lightning storm going on, so we ducked into a previously reviewed joint.....

40) Hutchins BBQ and Catfish (founded 1978), 1301 N. Tennessee St. McKinney, Tx My prior rating B+++ for a quick dinner. They maintained their rating and the food was excellent and the table service, unusual for most Q joints, was fast and friendly. One comment when asked if I wanted some more unsweet tea (this is basically a serve yourself set up) and I said, "I can get it", lady replied, "No, I'm here to help you enjoy yourself, I'll get it". I left them a ten buck tip for being extra nice.

Both wife and daughter are not NEARLY as Q crazed as I am, but wife and I both got the all you can eat plate (Now $16.49, up a bit from before but understandable because beef is as high as it has ever been, probably also influenced by being mentioned as one of the top 50 in Texas Monthly with a score of 4.25/5.00) and daughter got a pulled pork sandwich with 2 veggies on side ($8.99).

I asked cutter to cut me some thick brisket and he cut a whole slice about 1/2 inch thick, asked if I wanted it trimmed and I emphatically said "NO!". Damn it was really some fine brisket.

The ribs were very good as well, but I thought the brisket was the star. The banana pudding which I loved the last time we were there, is still wonderful, and it is whipped, not the usual gluey concoction (which can be quite good, don't get me wrong). There was peach cobbler but I couldn't get past the banana pudding and the pound plus of meat.

I had the jalapeno sausage which was slightly spicy but not exceptional. Wife had regular and it was again, rated as OK but nothing extra. We are not real sausage nuts.

Cutter really loaded my plate up, probably after looking at my rotund girth, and one plate full was all I or my wife could handle. We didn't go back for more, although the servers asked us several times if we wanted any more meats.

My daughter really enjoyed her pulled pork sandwich but that's all I know about it.

Sauce was only slight downer, comes in two versions, "Hot" and "Regular". Both tomato based, and both not bad but the "Hot" was barely spicy. At least the "Regular" wasn't overly sweet. I'd grade them as slightly below average, but that beats many of them.

Again, highly recommended if you're in the area. Not really easy to find off of 75 but well worth it. They have a T shirt with the saying on it, "You may go to Lockhart, but I'll go to Hutchins" or similar. Personally I'd say their meats hang right in there with the big 3 of Lockhart, which aren't my faves anyway. Maybe not better, but certainly on the same playing field.

Not a BBQ review, but related. If anyone is making a day-trip around Texas, one thing to have in your car, as essential as a spare tire, is a small Styrofoam cooler.... for barbeque.

This past week my wife and I were in Houston for a nephew's wedding. We stopped at Woody's Smokehouse in Centerville (Exit 164 on I-45). We stopped for gas going down but got fascinated by their, meats, sauces, bakery items, and amazing bathrooms. The ladies working at Woody's were great and allowed us to sample about a half pound of sausages, bacon-wrapped quail breast, brisket, etc. It was like visiting your mom. They just kept wanting to feed you. I bought some jalapeno jerky and we got back on the road.

Days later, on the way back home we were escorted by just a portion of the biker rally at Galveston that weekend on their way home, including one guy doing wheelies at 70mph.

We pulled off at Exit 164 and found Woody's has a smokehouse on each side of I-45. The one on the east side had about 100 Harley's and other bikes out front, so we crossed over.

We looked for a while, sampled for a while, then ordered their sliced beef sandwich and ate it at one of the few booths they have in the store. The sandwich was excellent. After that we bought their Styrofoam ice cooler and loaded it with about $75 of packaged meats to take hom. The bacon-wrapped quail were great, but too expensive we thought at about $2.40 each.

.... and about the bathrooms. I've never seen a better bathroom in all my world travels. They belonged in a six star hotel. My wife couldn't stop talking about it. We used them coming and going, and I had to laugh while eating my sandwich when a boy of about six came running back into the store with his dad, yelling to his mother that those were the best bathrooms EVER. I doubt he would have been more excited if it had been Christmas morning.

Pack a styrofoam cooler. You never know in Texas when you might need one.

Took off last Wednesday morning for Harper's Ferry, WV (really pretty area if you like vertical, with the beautiful Shenandoah River to overlook)to pick up a urinal I bought with a stop on the way back in Whitesburg, Kentucky to pick up a damn big boat I bought. With my diesel huffing and puffing the boat and I made it the remaining 850 miles home. 2600 mi in 3 days and 4 hours, long drive.

Unfortunately, I was only able to stop in Memphis for some Q on the way up. It was too early in the morning when I came back thru.

At any rate, I went to.....

#66)Cozy Corner BBQ, 745 N. Parkway, Memphis, Tn. It is relatively easy to get to if you're coming from the W, just after crossing the Mississippi R on I40E, exit N on Hyw. 51 (Danny Thomas Blvd), go a short distance to N. Parkway, turn rt and it is not far on the rt. It is reputed to be one of the better Q joints in Memphis and it was certainly very good. My overall grade B+++



I ordered my standard of ribs and brisket. I considered the cornish hen, but one only has so much room. I also considered the bologna sandwich....NOT.

In spite of asking twice to have the brisket cut thick, it came our relatively thin. The brisket was good and had a different style than the Texas briskets I'm used to. It applies to the ribs as well, and the flavor depends more on the rub/mop than on smoke. Fairly dark on outside with a very good flavor, but not very "smokey".

Not surprisingly, the ribs were the star, again, they had a distinctly different style than most Texas ribs. Less smoke and a slightly different set of spices. Dark exterior but not very smoke flavored. They were tender but not falling off the bone, which is a good thing IMO. I really liked them but they were just a tad dry on the ends. Not a big sin, but taken as a whole with the brisket, enough to lower the overall grade to a B+++. In fact, it was so close to A---that it should really be B++++, but that's cutting a hair too fine.

The sauce, which they put on top of the meats without my asking (which I would have preferred they not do) was their "hot" variety. It had the faintest hint of pepper and was ok, but nothing extra.

I can highly recommend this joint if you're passing thru Memphis. I hope to make a run back there before long and try some others. This was a good start and some damn good Q.

I like that you are adding pictures now. Really adds to the presentation. Hoping to try one of your Houston spots next week if I can get away from my business associates.

Yeah, I get paid more for the pics......

Gatogordo, next time you are in the Memphis area I will treat you to BBQ at the Germantown Commissary. As a transplanted Texan I can't tell you how many lunches I ate at Sonny Bryan's. My office was at Love Field in the 70's.

I'll try to take you up on that offer. Hard to beat free.

Years ago, Sonny Bryan's was considered the height of Texas Q, but that style and time has passed. Currently, after Sonny Bryan's passing, and the sale of the name, it is a poor reflection of it's former glory.

On the way back from the aforementioned urinal/boat pick up trip, I stopped just outside of Roanoke Va off of I 81 for the night. After checking in, I went down the road about a half mile to......

#67) Three Lil Pigs Barbecue, 120 Kingston Dr, Daleville Va. This is a local joint, started by a man and his wife from the Carolinas in 1990 and moved to this location in 2003. This restaurant is more similar to Lambert's in Austin (but not nearly as good) than most "real" Q joints IMO. It has a large varied menu, with several salads and other entrees. They may be doing alright as a restaurant but as a Q joint, based on what I had (more later) they are not there. My overall rating C+



Staff was friendly and I had a nice waitress. Place was moderately busy as I was there before 8 PM. The best thing I can say about the place is they have a couple of nice draft beers.

I had the roasted corn and bleu cheese salad, which was ok but nothing special. There really wasn't any "roasted" flavor evident in the corn. Tasted like it was straight from Libby's to me.

Then I debated whether to order the brisket special (only available from time to time according to waitress) or a rib plate. Being as I was in pork country, I opted for the rib plate, which is available in 3 versions, Tomato sauce, jerk sauce, or dry rub. Not knowing any better, I chose the dry rub. Decent food, but not as Q. I actually asked the waitress if they smoked their meats? She said, yes, with hickory, right outside. Coulda fooled me.

Ribs were very slightly overcooked, and had a rub that was not memorable.

Sauces, of which there were 3, vinegar, tomato, and jerk, were not to my tastes either.

I tried 2 of the drafts, a locally made Roanoke Railhouse Track No. 1 which was acceptable, but not outstanding, and the widely available Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which is decent, tasted better than the Railhouse, but not one of my favorites.

I liked the painting of the 3 lil pigs on the wall....

Bottom line, not a bad place to eat, but don't think of it as a Q joint. It got the + mostly because of friendliness and decent beer. If I was staying in that area again, I might go back, but it would only be after I had carefully considered alternatives.

Last night, we attempted to go to a local Women's HS basketball game, supposedly in Mt. Vernon, Tx. Our daughter, a freshman, warms the varsity bench, but gets to play from time to time, so we like to be there. It turns out that our information was incorrect and we couldn't find the game, which was played about 45 minutes farther W in Millers Grove. No, we hadn't heard of it either.

In order to make lemons out of lemonade, we stopped in for dinner, we thought, at.....

#68) Texas Bar-B-Que Corral, I-30 S. Service Road, Mt Vernon, Tx. My overall grade C

I had this on my mental list of places to try for a while, but its location, about 60 mi from our home, is such that we are usually coming or going and stopping to eat there is not convenient.

Owner was friendly, restaurant had decent, old style Q joint atmosphere but the meats just weren't up to the appearance.

We ordered a pound of ribs, pound of brisket, sliced thick. He did slice brisket thick, but managed to trim off much of the outside while doing so. Very little smoke flavor, tender but almost zero seasoning, in short, what we in the Q trade, refer to as roast beef.

Ribs were better looking, dark on outside, but the story was the same, little smoke flavor and no seasoning. Of the two, I'd give a slight edge to the ribs, but that is choosing the better of two very mediocre choices.

The sauce, in a highly unusual circumstance, was really very good. Dark tomato based, thinner with vinegary tones.

My wife and I both took a couple of bites of each meat, put them back in the to go boxes for sandwiches or a quick lunch at home, and went on to Mt. Pleasant, where we ate at a very decent Thai restaurant which we frequent quite often. Thai Lanna, 208 Lakewood Dr, Mt. Pleasant, Tx, just W past Super 8 Motel on N side of I30. Not Q, but I'd give it a B++ as Thai. BYOB is permitted, I'd bring Singha if I could find it.

I hate to give this Q joint such a low grade, the owner was nice, but I can't help that he can't cook good Q. Don't misunderstand, the "C" doesn't mean it's horrible, just that it is not good Q. I wouldn't go back.

Pecan Lodge, the best Q joint in Dallas according to Texas Monthly, announced today that they are moving from the Farmer's Market to Deep Ellum.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews...for-deep-ellum.html/

Coincidentally, I made it a point to go to Pecan Lodge today for lunch. Weather was crappy at 37 degrees and rainy, Kennedy 50th Anniversary in full swing nearby, it's a Friday; why not.

Step #1 in the process was skip breakfast. Step #2 was to drive the 40 minutes to Pecan Lodge with time to spare. They say the line forms an hour before the open at 11:00am. The Farmer's Market location, Shed #2, is basically a food court with every type of food imaginable, and some that wouldn't ever come to mind.

There is more than enough parking if you arrive early. To my relief I got there at 10:15am and found I was 8th in line. At 10:30am there were 11 of us in line. At 10:45 there were 15; and at 11:00am there were 25 in line. In other words, get there before 10:45.

There are actually two lines. The "Express" line was for people ordering over 5lbs of meat. That line was about half as long as our line. The good news is that both lines are indoors so everyone was toasty warm.

While we waited, a film crew showed-up and the owners were interviewed on camera.

If you get real bored while you wait, you can scope-out the skinny redhead in he Boom Juice booth next door.

At 11:05am Pecan Lodge rang the lunch triangle and started taking the first order.

The Pecan Lodge clientele are hardcore, blue-collar Q-eaters, and quite a few first-timers; excited like they were going to see Miley Cyrus in concert.

I ordered the 3-meat plate; rib, brisket, and Jalapeno-Cheddar sausage with one side, beans, for $16.00. Notice I said rib. You get one rib, but it was very meaty.

The beans were outstanding; spiced to perfection. I would give the Q-sauce a perfect 10 as well. You don't get much of it, and there is no bottle on the table to get more, but it was enough, and it was spicey and had some viscosity to it, which I like. The sausage was tangy and I would say it scored an 7.5 out of 10.

What you come to Pecan Lodge for are the brisket and ribs, and they don't disappoint. Both have a good outside bark on them. The brisket you don't cut as much as just pull apart with your knife and fork. The rib meat stays on the bone until you ask it to come off, and then it offers little resistance. I would score them both a 9+.

There aren't many extras at Pecan Lodge. No iced tea. No piece of Texas toast. All drinks are out of a can. The pickles and onions included on your plate look like they were an afterthought.

Over all, I was well satisfied, although I probably won't drive 40 minutes for Bar-B-Q very often when I have two good ones 10 minutes from the house. When I left Pecan Lodge at 11:35, the line still had 25 people in it, and a second camera crew had arrived to begin their interview.

One thing I've noticed since all the cooking shows got on TV is that everyone is a food critic. My wife and I find we critique every meal when we eat out. At Pecan Lodge it is no different. I noticed one man even taking notes, and three people at an adjoining table were critiquing everything they put in their mouths.

If you are going close to downtown Dallas and it is about 10:30 in the morning, you're crazy not to drop by Pecan lodge for lunch.

The weather slowed the lines down. They were a helluva lot longer when we were there (see review #55). Damn fine eating and there has been an ongoing and public dispute with the new owners of Farmer's Market. I can't blame them for moving, but the parking and general access at Farmer's Market is going to be hard to duplicate.

This week while in Houston I stopped off at Goode % Company for lunch. the place is large and and there was a suspiciously large number of BMWs and Lexuses in the parking lot. I tried the brisket, turkey and duck. The brisket was juicy and tender and had a good but mild smoky flavor. the turkey was juicy, but with very littl smoke flavor. The duck was juicy and flavorful and a real novelty to me. The potato salad was bland but ok. The cole slaw had relatively little dressing and was flavorless. Meals come with their cheese and jalopeno bread which was ok. Everything is served cafeteria style and if you don't ask for the sauce on the side they dump it on. The decor is interesting ranging from numerous saddles, a full body mount of a bison and a dozen model 94 Winchesters and the like. I won't steal Gato's thunder and give it an alpha rating, but I was satisfied.

Across the parking lot is a fairly decent small gun shop with dozens of deer mounts and a full body mount of by far the biggest rattlesnake I ever want to see. Over 7 feet long and of immense girth.

The newest book: The Prophets of Smoked Meat...did you ghost write this one? Still waiting to take you to the Germantown Commissary.

quote:

Originally posted by Dall85:
The newest book: The Prophets of Smoked Meat...did you ghost write this one? Still waiting to take you to the Germantown Commissary.

No, but I read it from time to time. I don't like the way the book is laid out. It is difficult to find a specific Q joint in it, but the author, Daniel Vaughn does know his Q. IMO the latest Texas Monthly top 50 list, which he edited as I understand it, is more politically correct than I would like. Meaning, they spread the top awards around geographically more than the quality of the cooking deserves. I've been to 5 or 6 of them since the latest awards that flat are not all that great. Not bad, just not Top 50 in Texas quality IMO.

I can highly recommend D. Vaughn's old blog "Full Custom BBQ". Texas Monthly also has a Q blog now, run by him, TMBQ.com (?, or similar).

One has to keep in mind that Q is like women, what turns one person on, may turn another person off. I try to review the joints I go to from my perspective, not that of a general Q consumer. I like spicy, I like heavy smoke, I don't like sweet exteriors on meat, I don't like really sweet sauces, and I'm not overly fond of sausages.

AFA the Germantown Commissary, my son and I are coming thru Memphis in the next couple of days on the way to Columbus, Ohio to pick up a motorhome I bought. I haven't contacted you because I have no idea yet when we're going to leave or what time we'll be going thru Memphis. I hope to make a Q stop there, but arranging a meeting is not easy to do, until we're actually on the road when I'll know if we'll be in Memphis during Q opening hours. In addition, while I really appreciate the invitation, Germantown is kind of on the wrong side of town from our "flight" path. Again, depending on the hours we come thru, we might be able to slide over there, but if it is anywhere near rush hours, I'm not going to fight traffic to go out of our way because of the distance we still have to go.

Memphis is just over 300 mi from us, and Germantown is another 20 on top of that, kind of in the wrong direction.

We'll see, and I'd enjoy meeting you, but it might work better when I'm not in a rush. I'm trying to get to Columbus, pick up MH, and head back before the next winter storm hits.