Steers and....uh....BBQ

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A few years ago, following a 3 day backpacking trip in Arizona, myself and my two hiking companions decided to make a stop off at a BBQ place just off highway 10 north of the Phoenix area. The name of the restaurant was "Kick Ass BBQ" or something similar along those lines, and appeared to be just the place three rugged campers would want their first meal to be at after 3 days in the harsh wilderness (full disclosure: a swollen river limited our penetration into the forest and made fishing fruitless so we basically spent 3 days drinking on a big rock overlooking the stream, but you get the idea).

Such an occasion called for a manly man's meal, so I decided to order the beef ribs, which were delivered to me as the full length ribs and rib meat uncut: a gigantic tower of beef and bone that looked like it was straight out of the Flintstones opening scene. Though visually impressive, the meal was average at best. The meat was dry, semi-flavorful, and unremarkable in every way. That was my impression of beef ribs from then on, and being an Iowa native, I decided that there was no reason to ever have anything but pork ribs.

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Dallas is near the heart of cattle country, and specifically Central Texas, where the BBQ is beef based and pork runs a distant second. Arriving in Dallas, mission number one on the travel checklist was get some BBQ, and for that reason our party found ourselves heading towards Garland on the blue line, an inner suburb of the DFW metroplex. Some internet research had led us to Meshack's, basically a BBQ shack on the side of the road in a nondescript part of Garland, that enjoys a fabulous reputation amongst the locals.

Meshack's is not a restaurant, not even a food stand with outdoor seating. It is a roadside BBQ shack where Texans drive up, order large amounts of BBQ, then return to their cars and drive back home to enjoy their meal. So you can imagine how well our group of Yankees fit in when we showed up, walking down the sidewalk-less streets of Garland to get to Meshack's, and then taking our meal to a nearby baseball diamond to enjoy our delicious BBQ from the bleachers behind home plate.


I had a spiritual awakening on those bleachers, at least in regards to beef ribs. They were smoked beautifully, smothered in tangy BBQ sauce, and chopped into tender, manageable pieces. These ribs were everything that the ones I had had in Arizona were not. Texas. And the beef brisket was far better than any I had had before as well. Texas. Sausage links with BBQ sauce as a dish? Delicious. Texas. Everything we ordered as amazing, and well worth the adventure of getting there without a car. Eating this meal was probably the most connected to Texas I felt during our entire 4 day trip to Dallas.


We also ate at Twisted Root in Deep Ellum, though I swear to god I did not know at the time that Guy Fieri's hair and wrist bands had been there before. It was a friendly, entertaining place where every order is called out by celebrity or famous character names (Buzz Lightyear was one in our group) and the burgers come with a nice variety of Tex-Mex style toppings. It's a good burger joint that adds a Southwest touch to the idea of gourmet burgers. Honestly, if they could learn to properly cook them (when you have a sign that says "all burgers cooked to medium well unless otherwise requested", and someone requests medium, it helps to actually cook them to medium instead of medium well), they would have a pretty banging restaurant. The ketchup with ancho chili powder in it was all sorts of amazing. Wash it down with a Lone Star or six and you've got yourself a great meal just blocks from downtown Dallas.


Unfortunately not much to write about in the world of Texas beers as far as we could find during our trip. Lone Star proved to be a solid, low cost beer, and their caps provided a bit of entertainment for us while waiting for food. I can imagine a popular night time in the plains of Dallas suburbia might be to pick up a bunch of Lone Star and drink until you can't figure out the puzzles on the caps).Craft or Micro Beer wise I really felt that Dallas was still Boulevard territory compared to anything else. But we tried, and knowing is half the battle.

Texas. Come for the BBQ. Stay for the BBQ.