I’ve said it
before, and I’ve said it many times, “Barbeque is where you find it,” but in
Texas all trails lead to barbeque. In
central Texas, just crossing the street can lead to barbeque. While I haven’t been able to get back to Texas
for a few years, I’m certain the number of barbeque joints in the state is
greater than ever. Needless to say, I
have many fond memories of Texas barbeque.
In the
mid-‘forties, my grandfather and his friend Sam put their heads together to
start a barbeque restaurant. My
grandfather built the pits and a barn-like building for the restaurant and left
the rest to Sam and his family.
Sammie’s Bar-b-q is still there near the corner of N. Beach and E.
Belknap in Fort Worth, although the original pits were rebuilt long ago, and I
doubt if it is still family owned. This
was one of two main places providing the store-bought barbeque I grew up
eating. It was good, but my memories of
barbeque really began when I was a kid on a family vacation, and we made stops
in Elgin and Lockhart. ‘OMG!’ was not a
phrase used back then, but I can apply it in retrospect.
In the late
‘sixties, Hank and I traveled to Austin to visit a friend enrolled in the
University of Texas. Bobber decided to
take us to a couple of barbeque restaurants he liked to frequent, and we
couldn’t say ‘No.’
We spent nearly
three days just traveling from joint to joint sampling barbeque (Bobber told us
it was just two places, but one thing leads to another). While some were better than others, only one
place we decided shouldn’t keep its doors open. It was a Santa Maria California-style place specializing in
tri-tip. Now that I live in California
I realize that place in Texas was far better than many of the ones in
California. Anyway, we quickly reached
capacity, but that didn’t stop us from buying the barbeque and taking it with
us.
Hank and I drove
back to Fort Worth with more than thirty pounds of barbeque. Well, maybe I should say we left Austin with
more than thirty pounds of barbeque. By
the time we reached Fort Worth, our smoky stash was considerably smaller. And we were considerably bigger.
Just before I
moved to California in 1975, I decided to spend a couple of weeks or so driving
around Texas. I had been to almost
every corner of the state many times, but business was involved for most of
those journeys, and I just wanted to take time to enjoy this world I was
leaving one last time. The one criteria
I had for the journey was to have barbeque and Tex-Mex every day—several times
every day.
I packed my car,
and the next morning I left the old farmhouse about 8am. My first stop was a small restaurant about
10 miles away where I had a very small breakfast of eggs, chicken fried steak,
sausages, ham, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and French fries. I needed to save room for my next
stop—Angelo’s.
I met my
great-uncle George for an early lunch at Angelo’s and we worked our way through
way too much brisket and beer. From
there I drove south to Hillsboro where I met a couple of old friends for “2nd
Lunch.” The small café near the old
county courthouse was owned by a family from Harlingen, and they understood
what Tex-Mex was all about. Oh, my. I was full.
Too full. But I left there to
visit some friends in Waco where we were going to have an early dinner.
Waco is not known
for the world’s greatest Tex-Mex or barbeque, but at it’s worst, it’s still
very good. However, early dinner was at
my friend’s home where they were preparing brisket and sausage with several
sides. I couldn’t say ‘no,’ and I ended
up taking a small container of food with me when I left later that evening to
get to my reserved lodging in Killeen.
Killeen is home to
Fort Hood where my friend Zeke was stationed.
He had a week’s pass, and he was going to accompany me on some of my
journeys through the state. I picked
Zeke up about 7am the next morning and we immediately drove east a few miles to
Belton for a Tex-Mex breakfast. This
was the last Tex-Mex I would see for a week.
We were entering the heart of Barbeque Country—Central Texas.
For a solid week
we ate barbeque. Every meal. Snacks in between meals. Desserts.
Because it was there. There is
no remembering just how many places we visited. Usually we ate at the restaurant, but we often got it ‘to go’ so
we could eat outside in a park or at a roadside picnic table (remember
those?).
After returning
Zeke to Fort Hood, I continued my travels through other parts of the state (El
Paso, Alpine, Marfa, Marathon, Eagle Pass, McAllen, Corpus Christi, etc.), and
I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but the barbeque was the highlight.
Today, well over
forty years later, many of those barbeque joints are still there. Yes, some are gone, and new ones have taken
their places. I started hearing some
twenty years ago about the ‘Texas Barbeque Trail,’ and as I did a little
research as to what it was about, I realized that there is no actual
‘trail.’ It is simply a word used in
relation to all the barbeque places in central Texas. Some places are famous, and some are not. All are worth stopping at, just like Zeke
and I once did.
One could make a
case for a ‘barbeque trail’ by mapping out a series of stops at the more well
known places in a roughly fifty mile circle around Austin, but one would be
missing out on some great places only the locals know about. Sometimes the place is located behind, or
in, a grocery store, or bar, or gas station.
Sometimes it’s in front of a church or junkyard. You never know—as I’ve said many times
before, ‘Barbeque is where you find it.’
To me the best barbeque trail begins where you
live (even in California). It’s local,
and that’s a good start. To expand the
trail, just take the time on your travels to stop and eat barbeque at a new
place. And if your travels ever take
you to central Texas, your trail will be complete.
