Top Fifty
(alphabetical, by city)
Jennifer says: Does anyone have the recipe for the Salt Lick’s coleslaw in DriftWood, Tx? (August 16th, 2009 at 5:53pm)
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MIDLAND Sam’s Bar-B-Q Owner-operator-pit boss Lee Hammond, 64, keeps things simple and in the family within the lime-green cinder-block walls of Sam’s. He still makes the same sausage—80 percent beef and the rest bacon scraps—that was sold at his family’s Odessa deli seventy years ago, and it is perfect, smoky and moist. The brisket, smoked for seven to eight hours over a mesquite fire started each morning by Hammond’s uncle, gets a basic salt-pepper-and-garlic rub, as do the small pork ribs and chicken. They’re served covered in homemade sauce (tomato-based, with pinches of brown sugar and pepper and a squirt of fresh lemon juice) and carry the slightest bite when the sweetness fades. Hammond makes sure the beans get the right amount of salt jowl and the potato salad gets the right mixture of mayonnaise and mustard. His 84-year-old mother, Myrtle, bakes the sticky-sweet cobblers. Brisket plate $6.75. Beer. Rating: 4. 1113 Scharbauer, 915-570-1082. Open Mon—Sat 11—9, Sun noon—7. JS
PLEASANTON McBee’s The exterior is Western (wood beams, hitching posts, metal wagon wheels), while the interior calls to mind a no-frills hunting lodge (deer heads, family photographs, and posters on the walls). It all adds up to a perfect setting for Robert and Lucy McBee’s peppery mesquite-smoked ’cue. They developed their style in Brady, where he was the county extension agent, and have passed on their knowledge to pit boss Fausto Rodriguez, who has been with them for eighteen of the twenty years they’ve owned this place. Crusty red rings circle thick slices of moist brisket. The stubby pork ribs are tender and delicious (although the meat doesn’t fall off the bone), and the flavorful smoked pork chops surpass even the ribs. The sausage, from Pollok’s in Falls City, holds its own against the other smoked meats (including fajitas). The usual sides are offered, plus chunks of cheese and, for dessert, peach cobbler and cake. The McBees’ sons run the McBee’s in Jourdanton, but the McBee’s locations in Hondo and New Braunfels are unaffiliated. All-you-can-eat pork ribs $5.25 on Fridays. Brisket plate $5.95. BYOB. Rating: 5. 309 Second, 830-569-2602. Open Tue—Thur & Sat 10—8, Fri till 9, Sun till 7. JNP
ROCKDALE No Teeth Bar-B-Que You can’t miss the handmade signs in front of Wallace Brandyburg’s cozy, friendly place. The fourth-generation barbecuer has been cooking meat since he was young, and for the past five years he has been selling it too, first at a stand by the side of Texas Highway 79 and now at his restaurant. His brisket, which he cooks over mesquite coals for 16 to 24 hours, is good and smoky, and he gives you a choice of lean, fatty, or in between; his ribs are thick and pink. He dishes out his homemade habanero-jalapeño-and-cayenne hot sauce by the drop; mix it carefully with his honey-sweetened barbecue sauce (“It’s my granddaddy’s recipe, which was his granddaddy’s recipe”) for a singular yin-yang effect. Brisket plate $6.50. BYOB. Rating: 4. 1012 W. Cameron Avenue, 512-446-7024. Open Sun—Thur 9 a.m.—10 p.m., Fri & Sat till 2 a.m. Checks accepted, no credit cards. MH
SAN ANGELO RJ Catering Started just a year and a half ago by Charles and JoAnna Thomas, this little cinder-block take-out place is already making the best barbecue in San Angelo. Order at the window and enjoy the Thomases’ smiling, snappy banter as you peer into their tiny kitchen. All the meat is prepped with a secret rub, then cooked over mesquite on a converted 250-gallon steel water tank. You can taste a little pepper on the brisket as it melts in your mouth, pull the pork rib meat cleanly from the bone with one bite, and feel the sausage’s smoky flavor fade into a spicy pop. The mustardy potato salad includes sweet green bell peppers. Dessert is either Charles’s peach cobbler or JoAnna’s lemon pound cake, depending on which of them woke up early enough to bake that day. Brisket plate $6.25. Rating: 4. 1516 Martin Luther King, 915-659-4422 or 374-4317. Open Tue—Thur 11—8, Fri till 10, Sat till 2:30. JS
SAN ANTONIO Bar-B-Q Patio When pitmaster and co-owner Maurice Kemp starts talking physics while explaining why he uses a particular blend of mesquite, oak, and pecan, and co-owner Michael Chad Verstuyft says his inspiration for Texas barbecue came from growing up in Oklahoma, red flags naturally go up. But when the brisket comes out, the flags go down: It’s so skillfully smoked it cuts with a fork. The spare ribs, chicken, turkey, hot links, and Polish sausage are equally serious. Sauce lovers can choose from two homemade versions: hot and hot-hot, the latter loaded with chile paste that will flame your nostrils. This four-table operation surrounded by a red corral fence is definitely a cut above the usual. Brisket plate $7. BYOB. Rating: 4. 8791 Old Pearsall Road (one block north of Loop 1604), 210-622-0660. Open daily 11—9. JNP
SWEETWATER Big Boy’s Bar-B-Que Things are definitely homemade at Big Boy’s: The kitchen is a twelve-by-twenty-foot utility building constructed in pit boss Gaylan Marth’s back yard and plunked down in a parking lot. The dining room is enclosed in sheets of plastic, with one long picnic table on a dirt floor and a swamp cooler to keep things comfy in the summertime. But the draw here is the pork ribs, called “Your Ribs” (lean spare ribs) or “My Ribs” (a country-style rib with a piece of pork butt the size of a New York strip steak left on). The latter, which are the color of a red velvet cake from the paprika in Marth’s rub, may be the best specialty item in the state. Marth grills directly over a mesquite fire in—what else?—homemade pits, and the results (moist brisket, pork sausage, and chicken in addition to the ribs) taste smoked, not smoky. Still, the biggest sellers are the concoctions made by his wife, Jane: the Big Boy’s Special (a chopped- or sliced-beef sandwich with homemade coleslaw on a sourdough bun) and heavenly cakes and pies. Brisket plate $6.50. BYOB. Rating: 4. 2117 Lamar, 915-235-2700. Open Tue-Sat 11—8. Checks accepted, no credit cards. JS
TAYLOR Louie Mueller Barbecue (See “The Best of the Best”)
TYLER Stanley’s Famous Pit BBQ Stanley himself has been off the scene for more than a decade, but new owner and pitmaster Chris Smith, who took over the nearly sixty-year-old joint in 2000, has revived the quality of its barbecue—all the usual suspects plus ham and turkey—and spruced up the atmosphere: It’s now a cross between a fifties diner and a rustic hunting lodge. Smith also tinkered with the tangy house sauce, but his thick slices of lean brisket (hickory-smoked for fourteen hours) and his juicy pork-and-beef sausage taste better left alone. If you visit at lunch, consider a sandwich called the Brother-in-Law: sausage, chopped beef, and cheese. Yes, cheese. You’ll wonder why it hasn’t been a barbecue staple forever. Brisket plate $8.75. BYOB. Rating: 4. 525 S. Beckham, 903-593-0311. Open Mon—Fri 11—8, Sat 10—7. Christopher Keyes
UVALDE Haby’s Hot Pit B-B-Q Not much has changed at this family-run restaurant since our last report. The mesquite-smoked brisket is still fall-apart tender; the pork ribs are meaty and moist, with a wonderful salty crust; the chicken is near perfection. Yeah, the sausage is commercial, but we rather like the sweetish links, especially soaked in the runny, tangy barbecue sauce, whose ingredients are known only to certain members of the Haby clan. Standard sides, all homemade. Brisket plate $6. BYOB. Rating: 4.5. 529 E. Main, 830-278-5746. Open Mon—Thur & Sat 11—7, Fri till 9. Jane Dure
VIDOR Burr’s Country Store Bar-B-Q Despite its proximity to I-10, this place has an authentic country vibe, helped along by the antique farm implements hanging on the outside of the building and the vintage album covers—from Hank Williams to Johnny Mathis—that decorate the walls inside. Meat cases display several varieties of hickory-, mesquite-, and oak-smoked sausage (we like the Creole version with bits of green onion) and uncooked chickens and pork chops stuffed with jambalaya. The smoky brisket all but melts in your mouth, the pork ribs are admirably lean, and the tangy sauce is the kind we like: not too sweet, not too thick, and not greasy. The usual sides plus tasty jambalaya. Brisket plate $6.75. Rating: 4. I-10 at FM 1132 (exit 864), 409-769-2309. Open Mon—Sat 8—7. ES
WACO Tony DeMaria’s Bar-B-Que You can’t judge a joint by its cover. On the outside, DeMaria’s is a bland, corrugated-metal building that looks like a place that sells farm machinery; on the inside, it’s all meat. Tony DeMaria started a meat market in the early thirties; his son, Tony Junior, started cooking barbecue in 1946 when the men building the new interstate nearby came in looking for lunch. Tony Junior’s son Geoffrey put up the new building eight years ago. The brisket, cooked over post-oak coals, is tender and pulls apart easily, and the hot links are thick and tasty. You get little cups of gravy, kind of like beef jus, to dip your bread and meat in. DeMaria’s is very relaxed, with all ages and colors sitting at bowed tables in mismatched metal chairs. Get there early on weekends—the staff usually runs out of meat by one o’clock and goes home. Brisket plate $5.59. Rating: 3.5. 1000 Elm, 254-755-8888. Open Mon—Fri 9—2, Sat till 1. MH
WINGATE The Shed You know the place has to be good, because it’s a mile down a back road in the middle of nowhere and yet on a Saturday the parking lot is half full by the five o’clock opening time. Hollis and Betty Dean started the Shed in 1989 on their family farm, which lies just behind the yellow building. Take your choice of the one-, two-, or three-meat plate (brisket, sausage, chicken, pork ribs, or—on request—ham). The daunting three-meat version provides three generous slices of mesquite-smoked brisket, six chunks of sausage, and two hefty pork ribs that are meaty and tender. The strong, slightly sweet flavor of mesquite mingles magnificently with the fusion sauce, a brown sweet-and-sour concoction with Asian influences; take a bottle home for $4. Standard sides. Brisket plate $5.95. Beer (when you buy a membership in the Shed’s private club). Rating: 4.5. One mile north of town on Texas Highway 153, turn left on County Road 226 and go one mile; 915-743-2175. Open Fri 5—9, Sat noon—2 & 5—9:30, Sun 5—9:30. Paul Burka
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