Chuy’s BBQ

EDEN: Chuy's BBQ
606 W. Broadway
Eden, TX 76837
325-869-5200
Open W-M 8-8

I'll spare you all the details here. Chuy owns the joint and he's a past champion at the goat cook off in Brady. He doesn't normally do goat for the restaurant because of its high cost, but if he can truly do a mean smoked goat then he should stick with it.

Dry brisket was bad and the mushy ribs were worse. If I'd just stuck with the sausage and sides it would've been a good meal. A scoop of potato salad was so rich with egg it tasted deviled in a good way. The beans had some good spice and a piece of freshly baked bread was a cross between a butter biscuit and a dinner roll. Chuy gets the sausage raw from a meat market in San Angelo and smokes it well. The meat has great spice and it gets plenty of good smoke with a stout casing. So, when you stop at Chuy's get some sausage and hope for some cabrito on the pit because the brisket and ribs were pretty hopeless.

Rating **

Packsaddle Bar-B-Q

SAN ANGELO: Packsaddle Bar-B-Q
6007 Knickerbocker Rd.
San Angelo, TX 76904
325-949-0616
Open W-M 11-9
www.packsaddlebbq.com

With just the menu in hand, I was impressed. A surf-and-turf platter featured sliced brisket and fried catfish, there were meats aplenty and fresh cut fries. It was all sounding like the day in San Angelo might end on a high note, then the food arrived.

The catfish looked great and had a good crisp batter, but the fish needed a good rinse to get rid of the overly earthy flavor. The fries were fine once a generous sprinkling of salt was added. The thick slices of dry brisket were beyond help. A dark crust was plenty smoky, but there wasn't much else to like about it. All of the fat was trimmed off, the meat was cut thick making the tough texture even harder to chew, and it lacked seasoning.

Pulled pork was truly 'pulled' into large chunks, but the flavors were just of roast pork rather than smoked meat. A few slices of deli turkey came on the recommendation of the server. It's hard to fathom what folks find appealing with warmed over lunch meat, but I wasn't won over. The sausage at least had some good flavor and a pleasant snap.

I'm usually a fan of homemade onions rings, but so much flour had been dredged onto this hovel of onions that every bite came with a puff of raw flour.

The spare ribs weren't about to save this meal. A good bark, rosy meat and a a generous amount of meat made them look promising, but it took just a bite to know that they needed a few more hours on the smoker to render out the thick fat and tenderize the tough meat. The meat selection may have been generous, but I'd have rather had one item that was done really well.

Rating **

Bubba’s Smokehouse

SAN ANGELO: Bubba's Smokehouse
1801 Ben Ficklin Rd.
San Angelo, TX 76903
325-617-2913
Open M-Sat 10:30-8

There wasn't much that stood out here at Bubba's. Rarely do I have a meal that is so thoroughly mediocre. There's usually a high point and/or a very low one with one of the items, but these were all equally inoffensive and forgettable.

The ribs were well cooked, but the cumin-heavy glaze overpowered any of the smoke that may have existed. The jalapeno sausage had only a superficial cayenne heat and nothing more. Brisket wasn't so much slices as pulled into chunks. The meat was overly salty with little smoke. It would have been good with some gravy and mashed potatoes. Green beans from a can, grocery store potato salad and an overly sweet commercial sauce did little to bring it home.

Rating **

Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

SAN ANGELO: Smokehouse Bar-B-Que
2302 West Beauregard Ave.
San Angelo, TX 76901
325-942-0868
Open M-Sat 11-7

The signage and building made it obvious that this place had been around a while. The interior is divided into a lower portion for the dining and you've got to take a few steps up to the cafeteria-style ordering line. An older man started to trim the fat from the whole brisket for my order and I quickly asked him to leave it. It took a few more reminders before I got some good crusty slices, but the fat was long gone in the trash.

The menu featured "German" sausage which turned out to be a warmed-over commercial kielbasa. The pork ribs were well cooked, but needed more smoke. This was surprising given that they smoke with mesquite which usually provides a good punch, but the meat tasted more like a well seasoned roast pork. The rack of ribs got a bath in the thin sauce before slicing which didn't help with saving the bark which was missing. The brisket got all the smoke that was missing from the ribs. The crust was well formed, but the meat had dried out a bit and I didn't get any of that good looking fat.

 

Out back they had a smoker of their own design. I've seen plenty of commercially made rotisserie smokers in my travels, but there aren't many homemade ones. This one was definitely homemade, and didn't use a bit of gas to keep the mesquite fire going. If they'd only let the mesquite work its magic instead of over-trimming the beef and letting the pork braise in sauce, they'd have some great barbecue.

Rating **

Highland Grocery

SAN ANGELO: Highland Grocery
1001 South Chadbourne St.
San Angelo, TX 76903
325-655-5586
Open?

We noticed Highland Grocery across the street from a donut shop while we were eating breakfast. The letters B.B.Q. on the side of the building secured its place in the day's itinerary. We came back for an early lunch and the interior was that of a convenience store with a barbecue counter in the corner. Brisket and hot links sat under a warmer, and the hot links were most definitely of the commercial variety, so we skipped them.

Out at the car I unwrapped the sliced brisket sandwich to find some slices that looked pretty good. There was a black crust and a deep smokering, but the smoky flavor was missing. A little seasoning would have helped bring out some barbecue flavor, but they just ended up tasting like a decent slice of roast beef. With a good sauce and a warm buttered bun, it would have been a good sandwich, but alas they served it on a cold bun with a boring sauce. I left hoping I would have tasted more than solid potential.

Rating **

Hog Heaven B-B-Q

BIG SPRING: Hog Heaven B-B-Q
4009 Old State Highway 80 
Big Spring, TX 79720
432-264-0905
Open M-Sat 11-8

The guy behind the counter here didn't know much about what wood they used or how they smoked the meats, and the girl behind the cash register wasn't much help either. At least he knew what I meant when I asked for both fatty and lean brisket. His preference for sauce was the jalapeno cheese, and he confirmed that it came from a Sysco truck.

That brisket wasn't half bad. A fatty slice had well rendered fat, a nice crust with good smokiness. A little more salt and pepper would have helped tremendously. The lean slice was a bit tough, but above average. Pork ribs were ridiculously sweet, but at least well cooked. That jalapeno sausage was way to salty with loads of precessed cheese. A complimentary mini-loaf of corn bread was a nice touch, but the watery beans were bland. One item they need to eliminate altogether are the 'armadillo eggs'. These bacon wrapped smoked jalapenos were smoked over a smoldering fire with poor quality smoke and loads of it. The flavor was as if they'd been marinated in a used ashtray. It's odd that brisket would shine through on an otherwise mediocre menu. Maybe I just got lucky.

Rating **

Big John’s Feedlot B-B-Que

BIG SPRING: Big John's Feedlot B-B-Que
802 West 3rd St.
Big Spring, TX 79720
432-263-3178
Open M-F 11-8

"Welcome to BS!" was the loud greeting from a lone diner in the corner after we had told the owners that this was our first visit to Big Spring. We had just placed our order at the counter then found a table next to the window where a mural depicted Big John with a cleaver in one hand and dragging a cow with other. The meal that arrived looked good on the blue plate with the checkered table cloth as a background, but some of it looked better than it tasted.

The brisket was smoky with a good seasoning, but it was also very tough. We learned from the pit man that he pulls the briskets form the smoker once they hit 180 degrees on a thermometer. This is about 10 degrees cooler than the target for most pitmasters because the collagen inside the meat hasn't yet had time to render out and help tenderize the beef. Knowing this made it easy to figure out why the slices were so tough. The ribs were about the same. The meat had great flavor, but it took some real effort to get some meat torn from the bone. Dry slices of pork loin were a disappointment, but the sausage made up for it.

At Big John's they order their sausage from Jackson Brothers Meat in Post just and hour and a half away. After the sausage gets up to temp in the smoker they dunk the links into a hot vat of the captured brisket drippings for a final marination. This creates not only and excellent additional layer of flavor, but also provides a great snap to the casings. The sausages don't really have the chance to dry out, so it was no surprise that they were good and juicy. On the next visit I'd be happy to forget about the rest of the menu and just order a few links of sausage and keep it all to myself.

Rating **

Mesquite Bean Bar-B-Q

MERKEL: Mesquite Bean Bar-B-Q
610 Kent St. 
Merkel, TX 79536
325-928-5618
Open M-F 8-7, Sat 8-2

I noticed this tiny joint from the Interstate a while back and added it to the list in hopes that the mesquite bean, rather than just the wood, was somehow featured on the menu. Owner Urban Bright says the name came from one of his first jobs where he would get paid a few dollars for every hundred pound bag of mesquite beans that he could collect from a nearby ranch. Those beans weigh almost nothing, so it took a long time to earn those few dollars. Urban does smoke with mesquite, but there's no mesquite beans on the menu, not even mesquite bean jelly. He isn't afraid to warn you from ordering a few things on his menu. He actually steered me away from the barbecue and towards a pork guisado taco, and flat out told me I didn't really want the store-bought peach cobbler. I heeded his advice on dessert, but ordering the barbecue was inevitable.

That pork taco wasn't bad at all, but the meat had only been stewed rather than smoked. I guess there's only so much room in the smoker.

No ribs were available on this day, so we opted for the brisket, ham and sausage. The slices of sausage were just re-warmed links of cheap commercial sausage, and the ham was little more than deli ham with just a whiff of additional smoke. The brisket was most certainly from the day before, since we learned back in the pit room that part of the brisket preparation process is a generous layer of plastic wrap and an overnight stay in the cooler. Not surprisingly the meat was dry, but it at least had some well rendered fat and smokiness to it. It's not often that day old brisket is the best meat on the menu, but it's a little easier when it's up against precooked grocery store meats.

Rating *

Joe Allen’s Bar-B-Q

ABILENE: Joe Allen's Bar-B-Q
1185 China Street 
Abilene, TX 79602
325-672-9948
Open Sun-Thur 11-9, F-Sat 11-10
www.joeallens.com

After a disappointing meal at Sharon's Barbeque down the street, we were hoping more from Joe Allen's. I had heard that Joe Allen's was a great joint that had fallen out of its prime. If it was once worth exaltation, then it has certainly fallen.

The sausage had good smoke and the links were well seasoned and moist. They had an odd sweetness to the flavor, but were still enjoyable. The brisket was bland and undercooked with a thick line of chewy white fat. Ribs had decent flavor, but were also undercooked. The beans and slaw were both the tops in town, but good sides are not what makes a great barbecue joint. This might be the best Abilene has to offer these days, so too bad for Abilene.

Rating **

Sharon’s Barbecue

ABILENE: Sharon's Barbecue
849 E Hwy 80 
Abilene, TX 79601
325-672-3330
Open Daily 11-9
www.sharonsbarbeque.com

Sharon Riley opened this joint in 2005 with all of the recipes from Joe Allen's BBQ. She got them as part of her divorce settlement with Joe Allen, so Abilene gets to have two joints that are almost exactly alike to choose from. Unfortunately, neither are very good joints.

All of the meats are stored under a powerful heat lamp and cut to order by a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing with a knife. This made it all the more bewildering that I received a rib on my plate that literally had no meat on it. It was a seasoned and smoked bone. The rib that did have meat on it were well cooked, but lacked a good bark or much smoke. The brisket looked good with a black crust and a nice smokering, but the meat was so dried out that it crumbled before I could even pick it up. The sausage was so dried out under the heat lamp that the casing was unpleasantly crunchy. Bland beans and soggy slaw didn't do much to make up for the poor meat.

Rating **

Betty Rose’s Little Brisket

ABILENE: Betty Rose's Little Brisket
1055 North Judge Ely Blvd.
Abilene, TX 79601
(325) 672-3500
Open Sun-Thur 11-9, F-Sat 11-10
www.bettyroses.com

Betty Rose's doesn't have much going for it in the ambience department. It was tough to find the front door of the joint tucked into the corner of a retail center. Ordering is done at the counter, but there's no meat carving to witness. After a few minutes my Texas trinity plate was ready.

A soupy side of beans had a pleasant bite from the heavy black pepper, but the slaw was sad and soggy. Brisket was underseasoned with hardly a lick of smoke. "German sausage" on the menu, but what a I received were some sad slices of a cheap fatty link like Hillshire Farm. Germans everywhere should take offense at the association. The real bright spot was the well smoked rib. It was just barely dry, but not in a bad way. The meat was tender with good flavor, and compared to everything else on the plate, they were pretty good to look at too. Ribs alone just aren't worth a special trip to Abilene.

Rating **

Branding Iron Restaurant

WICHITA FALLS: Branding Iron Restaurant
104 E Scott Ave
Wichita Falls, TX 76301
940-723-0338
Open M-Thur 11-3, F-Sat 11-8

I was traveling with a couple of folks who had differing ideas from me when it came to barbecue. While I was happy to try the take out only Prine's or the Bar L Drive-in, one of my dining companions was looking for one thing in their BBQ joint - good old air conditioning. This led us to the sit down joint in the middle of town called the Branding Iron. As we walked through the door and made our way into the cafeteria line, it was quickly made obvious that the A.C. was not functioning or did not exist. We hurried through the line and found an empty table just below a ceiling fan.



Both the brisket and ribs on this plate lacked smoke and were severely overcooked. Brisket was also dry and fell into chunks when bothered. The meat was pure roast beefiness. Pork ribs fell from the bone and had a mushy texture. They needed more seasoning and a whole lot more. Pea salad from canned peas was equally limp, and the okra had lost its crispiness on the steam table. Hopefully those other joints in Wichita Falls have a bit more to offer.

Rating *

Joe's Smokehouse

WICHITA FALLS: Joe's Smokehouse
740 Sheppard AFB
Sheppard AFB, TX 76311
No Phone
Open M-F 1030-1400 & 1600-1900, Sat 1100-1900

Update: This joint is CLOSED.

2011: I was on site at Sheppard Air Force Base for a store renovation project I'm working on, and I noticed a BBQ trailer next to the store. No smoke was being emitted, but the menu was up as was the window. They were open for business and I had just a few minutes to spare before my actual BBQ lunch in downtown Wichita Falls.



Pulled pork with an Alabama white sauce has been rearing its head around Texas recently at places like Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas. At just $9 for a three meat combo, I thought I'd throw in the extra protein on top of brisket and ribs. In asking about the pit, I was told by the owner that a Fast Eddy was his smoker of choice and that he smoked off a number of briskets twice a week and rewarmed it the other days. Now I was just hoping for somewhat fresh beef.



Brisket slices were trimmed too close and dry. A good crust had formed, but the smokiness was still fleeting. Just as I was about to finish my second slice, the owner came over to give me a few more slices that he said were fresher. While they were certainly better than the first batch, it made me wonder why he wouldn't have served me the good stuff to begin with. Pork ribs tasted like they had been stored a while. The meat was good and tender, but no crust had formed due to the heavy rub. They had decent spice and hint of sweet, but needed more smoke. Pulled pork looked like the best option with its numerous black flecks of crust, but it too lacked good smokiness. The meat was certainly moist with the white (yellow) sauce making a good complement, but on all accounts, this was meat that was meant to be sauced rather than enjoyed alone.

Rating **

Duncan's Smokehouse Pit Bar-B-Que

VERNON: Duncan's Smokehouse Pit Bar-B-Que
829 Wilbarger St
Vernon, TX 76384
940-552-2764
Open Tues-Thur 11-2 & 5-8 F-Sat 11-2 & 5-9

It was Summer's Last Blast weekend in Vernon, and the classic cars were everywhere. The revving of engines was incessant, and the streets were packed. I pulled off the main drag into the Duncan's Smokehouse parking area to run in and grab a to go order.



Watching the staff open a residential oven to retrieve the foil wrapped meats was not a good sign. Then I watched as they sliced brisket from a rolled portion of the familiar muscle. Ribs and hot links were also part of the package.



Both brisket and ribs were awful, and should not have been labeled 'barbecue'. The meat were overtender, underseasoned and straight up oven-baked protein. There wasn't much to like until I bit into the bright red hot link.



Normally in a link of this bright red color, I would expect a hot dog like texture on the interior with a faint one dimensional heat. This one however had great seasoning and fine-to-medium grind with real identifiable heat. While the link was also not smoked on site, it had plenty of good flavor and a satisfying bite. It's too bad the rest of the meal was so poor and that so little attempt goes into making real barbecue here.

Rating *

Dairyland Bar-B-Que

JACKSBORO: Dairyland Bar-B-Que
325 S Main St
Jacksboro, TX 76458
940-567-5000
Open W-Sun 10-?

The sign out front says "DINING ROOM DAIRYLAND", but my eyes were focused on the yellow letters plastered on the front awning - "Brisket, Ribs, Ham, Sausage". We were wrapping up a long weekend of barbecue and had no other joints on the itinerary. There would only be more brisket if we happened upon a place that seemed meant to be, and this was it. I'd never heard of the joint before, but figured a town the size of Jacksboro would have at least one joint serving smoked meats. It just happened to be one that also specializes in flavored soft serve ice cream as well.



Pulling towards the back of the parking lot, we saw the homemade brick smoker covered by a suburban seventies style carport structure. It was late afternoon on a Sunday so the fires had been out for hours. Signs on the side of the building again spelled out the many smoked meat offerings including ham and fajitas, but one placard was missing. The menu had all of the other meats accounted for, so I'll never know the one that got the ax. A smoked meat mystery.



We thought we'd had our fill of battered and fried onions, but no. These babies were thick, wide and crisp with a thin flour batter. The onions beneath were not yet translucent and offered some bite. My traveling companion and trip photographer, Nick, decided then and there to start an onion ring blog. There's no word on when it will go live. The third meat in a three meat combo is always a toss-up. I'll always try brisket and ribs and save the third meat for a regional specialty, an unusual meat offering or a staff recommendation. On this day the staff recommended the sausage which ended up being a very boring Eckrich quality kielbasa. This girl didn't know good sausage, but in her defense she spent most of the day adding flavored syrups to soft serve. Luckily, ribs and brisket were both very much commendable. St. Louis cut ribs were perfectly moist and tender and had a decent bark with a heavy powdery rub. The foremost flavor was pork with a good hint of smoke. Tightly trimmed brisket slices were a bit dry. The slices were tender enough and had a great smokiness in the black crust. This was some good brisket made better by a dip in the subtle homemade sauce which used mainly ketchup and beef broth. As we dined on the picnic table out back, we realized we had been led here so we could end this epic trip on a high note before making our way back into the concrete tangles of DFW, where good onion rings are hard to come by.

Rating ***

Big Boy's Bar-B-Que

SWEETWATER: Big Boy's Bar-B-Que
2117 Lamar Street
Sweetwater, TX 79556
325-235-2700
Open Tues-Sat 11-8

A large pickup truck whizzed along Lamar St. (State Highway 70) in Sweetwater while we sat in the parking lot of Big Boys enjoying some smoked meats while my newborn son ate in the backseat. The scene was only worth a glance until a State Highway patrolman followed with lights and sirens blaring...then another, and another, and another until five police cars had passed, one of which narrowly missed a semi truck as it passed under the I-20 overpass. We wouldn't know until the next day that the driver had stolen the vehicle and was shot dead just a few blocks north of where we had sat.

Moments before, things were much more calm inside Big Boy's. It was getting near closing time and the place was pretty empty on a Saturday night. I chatted with owner and pit master Gaylan Marth while my order was being put together, and he made no qualms about sharing his cooking method. "It's not smoked" he said. In the way of Cooper's, Hard 8 and Schoepf's, this meat had been cooked directly over mesquite coals. Gaylan uses whole briskets that are around eight or nine pounds so that they cook a little quicker under his 275 degree fire. On this day I was seeking some of that brisket along with the ribs and beans. Dessert wasn't in my plans, but they generously offered to give me a large serving of banana pudding gratis after they returned with a huge pan of it from a catering gig.



St. Louis cut ribs had more than a subtle glaze. This one was pretty thick with black pepper and possibly honey. There wasn't really a smoky flavor to cover up given the cooking method, but it would have been duly covered. While providing and enjoyable flavor, the glaze was certainly the dominant flavor on these perfectly cooked ribs. Brisket was sliced from the flat end and was very tender. I'm used to seeing brisket sliced very thick at other direct-heat joints because of the tenderness, but these were sliced thin and fell apart completely after handling. Even if only small pieces could reach my mouth, the flavor was excellent. The meat really took on the flavor of those mesquite coals unlike I've seen before. The sweet black pepper rub was a good complement. I just hope the next visit will be a bit less dramatic.

Rating ***

Love's Texas Style BBQ

CHILLICOTHE: Love's Texas Style BBQ
14211 US Hwy 287 S
Chillicothe, TX 79225
940-852-5400
Open Tues-Thur 11-8, F-Sat 11-9
lovesbbq.net

Chillicothe, Texas, population 707 is one of the smaller towns I've had reason to stop in, but it has a solid barbecue joint. A metal building sits along highway 287 in the middle of town, and I could smell smoke when I got out of the car. Inside were posters from local tractor pulls and exposed sprayed-on insulation in the ceiling. Homemade sausage was on the menu, so my three meat combo was complete.



St. Louis ribs were well smoked and had a heavy salt, cayenne and black pepper rub for a bold flavor. The meat could have been more tender, but this was good BBQ. Brisket also had good smoke, but it was too tender and even soggy from what was probably a long bout of improper storage. The fat was well rendered and the flavor was fine, but it would have been better fresh.



The best item here was the fresh homemade German sausage. The coarsely ground meat was laced with a good level of spice and herbs, and the casing was slightly charred while retaining a good snap. These deeply smoky links came with some sauerkraut and were made to be dabbed in some mustard rather than barbecue sauce. The people of Chillicothe are lucky to have such good barbecue joint given just how far the decent barbecue is spread out in these parts.

Rating ***