Just east of Round Rock is a little town called Taylor. The first Mikeska’s Barbeque location in the world is in Taylor. John Mikeska started a “Beef Club” there in the twenties. His son, Rudy, came home from WWII and expanded the idea into a catering company which soon served many clients in the Texas political arena. LBJ, John Connally, etc., etc. A sit down restaurant evolved from this beginning, and as they say, the rest is history. During the fifties and sixties, Rudy’s brothers opened Mikeska Barbeque locations of their own.
Now, Mike has a place in Smithville; Jerry is in Columbus; Louis opened in Temple and Maurice in El Campo. Clem also went to Temple and all the restaurants use the same basic approach to the business---good quality, honest value and great service. I have eaten at all these places except the ones in Temple. I was disappointed in the Columbus location, but, even so, I can’t find much wrong with any of them. I think the Mikeskas have earned the title, "First Family of Texas Barbeque."
The original location in Taylor is a fiftyish-looking establishment. I looks that way because it was built in the fifties. The testimonials on the walls are more impressive than the food. I found myself wishing I was out at the little league park, eating a meal catered by these folks instead of here in their restaurant. I found it sterile, which may be strange criticism, but barbeque is not supposed to make you feel sterile. Also, it was lonesome. I was there before two in the afternoon and had the whole place to myself.
Just across the street from Mikeska’s, the best barbeque, to my mind, in the city of Taylor is served. Louie Meuller opened a grocery store in 1936, and in 1949 added a barbeque business to the food store. In 1959, he moved into the present location in downtown Taylor and has been there since. I can’t swear that the food is that much better, but the experience is absolutely fantastic. I sat there, breathing in decades of atmosphere, eating succulent beef and sausage, and I entirely forgot about my grading system. Save the ambiance at Kreuz’s Market (now Smitty’s) in Lockhart, this is the best place to eat barbeque in Texas. The best barbeque is somewhere else, but this is right up there with the top few.
There’s a place called Rudy’s in Leon Springs, with several clones---I know of New Braunfels, Austin, and, I think, one in Dallas. He serves his meat on white butcher paper, pushed down in a red plastic Coke case. You must stand in a different line for side orders, and eat it all with plastic knives and forks. The brisket I’ve had there was over-cooked and not properly sliced, but there’s always a line around meal time. That proves to me that most people don’t know much about barbeque, but do like to be pushed around. (“Lookey here, Hershel, ain’t this quaint?? They’re gonna make us carry this silly looking plastic Coke case full of groceries all the way out to them tables, and drizzle sauce all over our new Fiesta Texas tee-shirts. Look out for them pigeons, now!!)
Many years ago, when I lived in Dallas, my favorite barbeque was at Sonny Bryan’s on Harry Hines, his first location, I think. As I remember, it was very good back then. The restaurant has grown, as has their reputation, and I was anxious to try it again.
I heard a San Diego, California, talk show host on the radio. He said if you go through Dallas, arrange for a four hour layover, catch a cab to Sonny Bryan’s and chow down on his barbeque. That proves you can be dumb as a post and still host a talk show. I went to a lot of trouble to arrange to eat at Sonny’s place downtown, and was really looking forward to the experience. I should have saved my time and money. The brisket was overcooked, sliced wrong and seemed to grow as I chewed it. A friend described it as “mediocre at best.” That’s lavish praise.
On another day in Dallas, I stopped at a joint called Hardeman’s B.B.Q. on Martin Luther King Street near the Cotton Bowl. It was real dark in there, if you catch my drift. The brisket was not world class, but it beat Sonny Bryan’s all over Dallas and the East Texas hot links were absolutely outstanding. If I live long enough, I'd like to go thru every black owned barbeque place in East Texas, sampling only the sausage. It is sooo good.
Out in Lubbock, Stubbs is good, but I think they are pushing the music as much as the meat. My favorite place there is Tom and Bingo’s on Thirty-Fourth Street. They serve a great sliced beef sandwich---fresh buns and plenty of perfectly prepared brisket. I hear it is a favorite hangout of some Tech football players, but none came in while I was there. My brother’s favorite place in Lubbock was out on East Broadway. It was called Jug Little’s and served good barbeque. One of the favorite meals there was a kind of Frito Pie, made with chopped beef, beans, cheese and Fritos.
The restaurant closed when Jug Little came to an untimely end. It seems Jug was speeding down the freeway in his new Corvette and became so distracted that he ran under an eighteen wheeler and died instantly. How he was distracted is the subject of some conjecture, but let's not go there.
There are those who will tell you that I hit Sonny Bryan’s on a bad day, Mikeska’s too late in the day, Rudy’s too early in the day, or Cooper’s on the wrong day. All that may be true, but to earn and keep the title of “Best Barbeque in the State of Texas and Thus the World,” according to Jim McLaughlin, there can be no “bad” days. For a barbeque place to be that good, they must be absolutely excellent on their very worst day.
Next time, I’ll tell you where that happens.
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