Tyler

Where to Stay, Eat, and Retreat in East Texas

In Jacksonville, Palestine, and Tyler, local entrepreneurs cater to tourists looking for luxury (and a very fine slice of pie) amid the Piney Woods farms and fields.

The Texanist: When Will My Yankee In-Laws Stop Complaining About Our Spicy Food?

A Tyler man is feeling a little hot under the collar.

Gobble, Gobble

Rose Diamond once ruled the world of smoked turkey. In 1938, customers in New York, Miami, and Hollywood enjoyed her smoked turkeys shipped out from her Fort Worth home. According to The Claude News, they brined for at least ten days before being smoked in a brick pit in Diamond’s

The Grove Smoke Shack

Decent barbecue staples in a carefully cultivated atmosphere.

Pat Gee’s Barbecue

The hand-painted wooden sign reads “Pat’s Barbecue,” but everybody calls it Pat Gee’s after its late founder, Mack Henry “Pat” Gee, who opened this barbecue shack east of Tyler, deep in the piney woods, sometime around 1963. Pat, his wife Vida, and their seven children lived just up the hill

A Tyler Man Is Suing the City After He Was Arrested for Swearing When He Picked Up His Missing Bird

A colorful man with a colorful bird had a hard time in the Tyler police station.

Hickory Hill BBQ

It was a phone call that brought me back out to Hickory Hill BBQ. It sits along a stretch of State Highway 31, right on the western edge of the East Texas pine curtain. I’d driven by it a few times, but always found it closed, then owner Kerry Shaw

A Tyler Family Was Reunited With Its Lost Dog After It Spent Six Years Living With A Family Who Rescued It From A Shelter

It's an impossible situation for everybody, but legal ownership goes to the people who are listed on the microchip.

Bum Steer: Fire-Prevention Inspectors Start Fire in Tyler Restaurant

Routine maintenance work at On the Border was intended to make sure the kitchen's fire prevention system worked. Two alarms and eight department units later...  

Preview: Who Is Johnny Football?

An excerpt from S.C. Gwynne's September cover story on Johnny Manziel, which will officially hit newsstands (and the web) on August 21. (Illustrations by Nathan Fox. Color by Jeromy Cox.)

Stanley’s Famous Pit Barbecue

Owner Nick Pencis isn’t going to take it anymore. For years he felt compelled by regional tastes to serve lightly seasoned briskets without a speck of fat on them. But when he renovated his restaurant in 2012 (adding a new bar and patio along with an impressive pit room), a

Louie Gohmert: Arm the Principals and Teachers

On a day that no other U.S. senator was willing to be interviewed on TV about gun rights, Rep. Louie Gohmert joined Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson in calling for more guns in schools.

Johnny Football’s Going to Win Heisman

Update: The Stiff Arm Trophy website calls it for the Texas A&M QB, its earliest ever projection. The Tyler/Kerrville native will take the home the Heisman Trophy Saturday. 

Louie Gohmert Schools Us On the Constitution

The headline-grabbing U.S. Representative from Tyler nominated Newt Gingrich to be Speaker of the House. Is he crazy like a fox?

Louie Gohmert Strikes Again

The Tyler congressman isn't buying Commerce Secretary John Bryson's story that his recent car accident was due to seizures. 

Bum Steer: Salon Owner Injects Clients with “Unknown Substance”

Authorities arrested Carmel Foster, the owner of Tyler's Queen Divas Hair Salon, for allegedly performing a procedure to enhance the butts and breasts of some clients.  

Church Burners

Why did Jason Bourque and Daniel McAllister, two Baptist boys from East Texas, set fire to ten churches across three counties last year?

A Q&A With Pamela Colloff

The executive editor, who wrote this month's story about the East Texas church fires, on getting subjects to talk, interviewing people behind bars, and defining turning points.

26–50

From Candy Montgomery and Allan Gore beginning their affair in Richardson to Robert Rauschenberg, Janis Joplin, and Jimmy Johnson graduating from high school in Port Arthur

26–50

From Candy Montgomery and Allan Gore beginning their affair in Richardson to Robert Rauschenberg, Janis Joplin, and Jimmy Johnson graduating from high school in Port Arthur

Pearl-Snap Shirts

For when you need a beautiful shirt that can be removed quickly.

Deer Attacks Men, Eats Marlboros

Disgruntled east Texas deer turns hunters into hunted.

Did a Prosecutor Keep a Murder Weapon as a “Souvenir”?

Kerry Max Cook's attorneys claim A.D. Clark III, a former Smith County district attorney, kept a blood-soaked knife at his home, an allegation Clark denies.

Bum Steer: That “Handsome Guy” Nickname Might Be a Curse in Prison

A man suspected in the “Handsome Guy” bank robberies was found on the run after he allegedly left his car keys at the scene of his last heist.

Peggy Railey

The wife of a prominent Dallas minister, who was left for dead some 24 years ago in her garage, finally dies after spending years in a nursing home in Tyler.

The Bucks Stop Here

East Texas deer breeder Billy Powell flouted the laws against importing live whitetails, emailing photos of his illegally obtained animals to prospective customers. Then Texas Parks and Wildlife came calling.

TMBBQFest, “23 Pitmasters in 23 Days”: Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q

Editor’s Note: The Texas Monthly BBQ Festival is almost here! Each day until then, we’ll be talking to one of the featured pitmasters, with questions from TM staffers, esteemed BBQ experts, Twitter followers and you, the readers of this blog.Today we bring you Nick Pencis of Stanley's Famous Pit

Tyler

Flower lovers drawn to the Rose Capital of the Nation will find snazzy frocks and spicy guisado de puerco amid the petals and thorns.

Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q

On a trip down to Nacogdoches, the family stopped for ‘cue in Tyler at Stanley’s. I’d visited once before with a friend and found many faults with Stanley’s although it seemed to have potential. After meeting owner Nick Pencis at the Gettin’ Sauced event in Austin, he urged

Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q

The four meat sampler plate should become a staple of every self-respecting BBQ joint. The idea of piling a plate with multiple proteins, and diggin’ in without the distractions of cole slaw, pinto beans or anything else to slow down the ingestion pleases me. The folks over at Stanley’s seem

Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q

The Brother-in-Law, a sandwiched smorgasbord of chopped beef, butterflied hot links, and cheese, has a powerful (and well-deserved) reputation in East Texas, but order the old-fashioned hand-pulled-pork sandwich, filled with juicy shreds of perfectly smoked pork shoulder. Nick Pencis, the owner and pitmaster, follows a fifty-year-old smoking method—meats housed for

Chasing Justice

As a Texas death row in-mate trying to prove himself innocent of a rape and murder in Tyler, KERRY MAX COOK was reminded of his fate every time another con made the death walk. CHASING JUSTICE is a hellish tour of a criminal justice system whose officers allegedly railroaded Cook

The New London School Explosion

How many people died in the New London school explosion of 1937?

Fame of Hall

You might not recognize actress Irma P. Hall on the street, but you know her from her films. And thatÕs just how she likes it.

TV on Trial