On the Menu: Goode Company Barbeque

“You might give some serious thought to thanking your lucky stars you’re in Texas,” advises the motto on the side of the barn that houses Goode Company Barbecue. That’s food for thought, and many a famished barbecue fanatic has taken it very seriously—as any Texan would on the subject of barbecue. Out-of-towners have also recognized the ascendancy of Goode Company’s smoky, juicy brisket, ribs, chicken, ham, turkey, and duck; its thick-sliced bread studded with jalapenos and cheese; and its soul-stirringly sweet-and-piquant barbecue sauce. The barbecue here has been frequently anointed by national publications such as the New York Times as some of the best in the country.

Restaurateur Jim Goode came by his talent honestly—he is from a family that did a lot of cooking, and many of his most popular recipes are from his mother. Goode’s pecan pie—spiked with vinegar and slowly baked in a convection oven—is his mother’s recipe. Some have called it the world’s best. But Goode didn’t start out planning to run a restaurant, much less the four that he now has. He was a successful commercial artist until 1977 when he tired of deadlines and the advertising business. Goode had considered opening a bait camp, but when a down-and-out barbecue business came up for sale he plunked down the $4000 asking price and started stoking up the mesquite fires that were to become his trademark.

Goode is also famous for using as many Texas products as he can—Navasota honey adds the magic in the tart barbecue sauce—and he insists on doing a lot of the work himself. Goode Company makes its own pork-and-jalapeno sausage, grinds its own chiles, smokes its own bacon, and bakes buttermilk buns, bread, biscuits, tortillas, and pies from scratch. Wooden tables, old cowboy photos, signs, deer heads, cow horns, and junk-tiques complete the picture—a genuine tribute to the west many of his customers remember from the movies of the thirties, forties, and fifties. Remember, Goode started out in the advertising business, and he’s got a knack for marketing his product—but it’s a product that lives up to its name.