Top Fifty

(alphabetical, by city)

by Paul Burka, Jane Dure, Michael Hall, Christopher Keyes, John Morthland, Joe Nick Patoski, Eileen Schwartz, Patricia Sharpe, John Spong and Katy Vine

(Page 3 of 4)

HOUSTON Goode Company Texas Bar-B-Q Jim Goode outfitted this piece of his Texas cuisine empire with all the right elements 31 years ago, from the big barn exterior to the giant pit cookers out back and the Texana on the walls. Despite the massive volume of traffic, the place turns out surprisingly consistent, high-quality mesquite-smoked fare. The choice of cowboy-style meats includes jalapeño sausage, duck, turkey, and ham. Pork butt, which is typically “pulled” Memphis style when it’s done in these parts, is smoked here and finished with a red ring, like Texas-style brisket. The sauce could use some more market research. Jalapeño-cheese bread and Brazos Bottom pecan pie are house specialties. Brisket plate $7.65. Beer. Rating: 4.5. 5109 Kirby Drive, 713-522-2530; second location at 8911 Katy Freeway (I-10), 713-464-1901. Open daily 11—10. JNP

HOUSTON Thelma’s Bar-B-Que This three-year-old eatery in a Third Ward industrial ’hood occupies a sagging frame house that looks as if it’s been around since the Allen Brothers did their first land flip. At lunchtime, downtown workers enter through the screened porch, sidestepping the broken-down couch, for melt-in-your-mouth pecan-and-hickory-smoked fatty-brisket sandwiches and soul-food sides like okra and mashed sweet potatoes. There’s even catfish. But the real attraction is the place and the gracious Thelma Williams herself, who cruises the tables to check on how her fare is going over, addressing diners as “love,” “brother,” or “sister” while “Honky Tonk,” by Bill Doggett, “I Pity the Fool,” by Bobby Blue Bland, and a whole lot of Johnnie Taylor blare over the juke. Just be sure to get there before the brisket runs out. Brisket plate $6.75. Beer. Rating: 4.5. 1020 Live Oak, 713-228-2262. Open Mon—Thur 11—7, Fri & Sat till 10, Sun till 5. JNP

HOUSTON Williams Smokehouse This little redwood cabin on the edge of the piney woods on the north side of town is a picturesque setting for enjoying country-style African American barbecue: meat that is smoked until it is falling-off-the-bones tender, usually served smothered in sauce. The firebox of the pit has been stoked since before dawn, and the brisket and ribs have been smoking over oak “a good little while,” reckons the young man overseeing the cooking. The proof’s inside. Instead of a sliced-beef sandwich, pay a few cents more ($3.19) for the chopped version. The bun is stuffed with big chunks of brisket swimming in a sweet but decidedly kicky sauce. It’s classic soul barbecue, only with more fire than usual and easily the equal of the vaunted Thelma’s (above). Otherwise, opt for a mess of ribs and take advantage of that bowl of thin, tangy sauce, because these bones, firm and well rubbed, are made for dipping. The sliced brisket is almost as righteous. Brisket plate $5.50. Rating: 4.5. 5903 Wheatley, 713-680-8409. Open Tue—Thur 11—7, Fri & Sat till 9. Cash only. JNP

KINGSVILLE CB’s Bar-B-Que The fifteen-table layout under the geodesic dome isn’t much to look at, but the barbecue more than compensates for the austere setting. Owner Jerry Wayne Miller, a.k.a. CB (short for Christian Brother’s), started smoking meats for social gatherings at the Peaceful Holiness Church, where he still preaches on Sundays. When the compliments from his flock kept coming, he decided to go secular. Now the whole town is getting religion over his mesquite-smoked brisket, ribs, chicken, and V&V sausage from Flatonia, all of which pack a wallop of woodsy flavor and black-pepper fire. The sauce in squeeze bottles has plenty of zing too. Heck, there’s even a hint of spice in the stellar sweet-potato pie that Miller’s wife, Cynthia, bakes, along with peach cobbler and bread pudding. Brisket plate $7.25. Rating: 4.5. 728 N. Fourteenth, 361-516-1688. Open Mon—Thur 11—8, Fri & Sat till 9. JNP

KIRBYVILLE Lazy H Smokehouse In a little log cabin on the side of the highway, amid the antique farm tools and clutter, we found 68-year-old Velma Willett running the show, as she has for almost thirty years. “Here, try this,” she commanded, handing us a piece of luscious hot ham. “It just came out of the smokehouse.” Willett slow-cooks everything there rather than over a fire in a pit. The result is amazing brisket—moist, tender, and smoky, with a perfect thin pink ribbon. The large, slightly sweet pork ribs are almost fat-free, and the sausage, made with only pure shoulder pork and no preservatives, is superlative. The homemade vinegary sauce is the perfect condiment—neither sweet nor thick, so it doesn’t mask the meat’s smokiness—and the thick, lean beef jerky is the best we’ve ever had (worth its $22-a-pound price tag). Brisket plate $5.85. Rating: 4.5. U.S. 96, six miles south of town; 409-423-3309. Open daily 10—8. ES

LILLIAN Casstevens Cash & Carry We didn’t believe that a Diamond Shamrock station could have such great food, yet there it was, just across from the batteries and the baskets of fresh farm produce. There’s only one little table, so don’t expect to sit inside while you enjoy 79-year-old Harold “Cass” Casstevens’ mesquite-smoked meats: tender brisket in thick slices, pork ribs, turkey breast, hot links, Eckridge skinless beef sausage, ham, and bologna. Casstevens rubs garlic, salt, and pepper on the meat and then lets it smoke and blacken for fourteen to eighteen hours in two gigantic old propane tanks in front of the station. Sometimes peach cobbler is offered (hot, with ice cream) but, wouldn’t you know, not the day we visited. Brisket plate $5.95. Rating: 4.5. FM 197, 817-790-2545. Open Mon—Sat 4:30 a.m.—8 p.m. KV

LLANO Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Q The first time we did this story, in 1997, Cooper’s was one of our shining stars. The place is a “barbecue fanatic’s dream landscape,” we wrote; “the brisket fairly explodes with . . . flavor. . . . Everything else is fabulous too.” But these days, friends, there’s trouble in paradise. How so? Cooper’s has fallen victim to its own fame. At lunchtime the parking lot is a sea of pickups, minivans, and sedans and people are lined up practically around the block, waiting patiently for their chance to personally point to their selection of sirloin, mammoth pork chops, pork-and-beef sausage, chicken, goat, beef ribs, and more from the battalion of mesquite-stoked black pits. What this means is that, yes, Cooper’s can be glorious—the brisket, for one, is pretty much foolproof. But it can also produce a pork chop so oversalted and dried out it’s like an old catcher’s mitt or a steak so undercooked it’s still cold in the center—which leaves you feeling pretty burned if you were counting on this citadel of barbecue to make the earth move. We argued and debated—six years ago Cooper’s in Llano was one of our Big Three. This time we’re barely letting it into the top fifty. Is anybody minding the pit? Brisket plate about $5 (if the free beans are one of your sides). Beer. Rating: 3.5. 604 W. Young (Texas Highway 29), 915-247-5713. Open Sun—Thur 10:30—8, Fri & Sat till 9. JNP

LOCKHART Kreuz Market (See “The Best of the Best”)

LOCKHART Smitty’s Market  (See “The Best of the Best”)

LUBBOCK Whistlin’ Dixie A New Orleans-style restaurant in the middle of the High Plains of Texas? Well, why not? Just because it has white wrought-iron trappings, photographs of old-time jazz musicians, and fake ivy doesn’t mean Whistlin’ Dixie can’t do decent barbecue. Big piles of oak logs out front attest to the popularity of the meat that comes from smokemaster Jesse Castañeda’s pit. In keeping with the Old South shtick, pulled pork (average quality) is offered. But the two best things to get are the baby back ribs basted with homemade honey sauce and the so-called burnt ends, which are not charred at all but more like big chunks of well-cooked fatty brisket. Table service. Brisket plate $5.49. Beer and wine. Rating: 3.5. 3502 Slide Road, 806-795-9750. Open Mon—Fri 11—9:30, Sat & Sun till 10:30. PS

LUFKIN Stringer’s Lufkin Bar-B-Que No mere joint, Stringer’s is a big restaurant with waiters, real plates, and a nod to Western decor, even though it’s deep in the heart of East Texas. Its brisket, quite lean and moist enough, has a handsome maroon smoke ring and blackened edges that bespeak serious time in the pit. The large, meaty pork ribs boast a hickory tang and almost taste like bacon. Don’t bother with the sausage, which tastes commercial, as do the opaque, thick sauce and the sides (the pork and beans are fine, but the drippy coleslaw appears to have been run through a paper shredder). The sinful fried yeast rolls are another matter altogether. Brisket plate $7.10. Rating: 3.5. 203 S. Chestnut, 936-634-4744. Open Mon—Sat 8 a.m.—9 p.m. PS

LULING City Market (See “The Best of the Best”)

LULING Luling Bar-B-Que One reason Luling’s City Market is so consistently good is the competition a block away. Luling Bar-B-Que has been here for years, but it really started cooking in December 2002, when Ed and Lee Chambers, who used to run the Chambers Meat Market a few blocks west, took it over. On our last visit, they were doing a great job with their brisket: moist, packing a strong oak flavor, and tender enough to pull apart with a fork (or your fingers). The homemade beef sausage had a definite zing, as did the peppery red sauce. Unremarkable sides, though. Brisket plate $4.99. BYOB. Rating: 4.5. 709 E. Davis, 830-875-3848. Open Wed—Mon 7—6. JNP

MASON Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Q (See “The Best of the Best”)

Pages: 1 2 3 4   next>>