Red Barn Bar-B-Que

3/26/11 Colleyville, TX. So at the corner of Glade and Hwy 26 is this big red barn that sells BBQ. I must say that I wasn't expecting much, and my first visit there fulfilled those expectations. The brisket and sausage were ok, but not really memorable. However, I got the ribs this last time and they were solid. They looked strange and literally fell off the bone, but they were undeniably good. I should have taken a picture. I've grown accustomed to good ribs having a color stratigraphy to them, like brown areas surrounded by red surrounded by black. Red barn ribs are just brown, ugly bag brown. But hey, they taste good. 'Nuff said. If you go to Red Barn, don't pass up the ribs. Just eat them at night or in a dimly lit room! The banana pudding is supposed to be good, but I didn't try it. I get the feeling this was a mistake. Reminder to self: When you read this on your phone while waiting in line a Red Barn Bar-B-Que, DON'T FORGET THE NANNER PUDDING. I'm reasonably sure Red Barn is the best BBQ in Colleyville.

Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que

3/12/11 Ft. Worth, TX Welcome to North Texas, Cooper's! Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que is a landmark in Llano, but has decided to expand their market northward to Cowtown. I say good for them. They did a good job of recreating the Cooper's experience, complete with your food getting an initial dip in some sauce before it's wrapped n' served, bench seating and jalapinos floating in the community beans. Cooper's is good stuff and it's even better when compared to most other North Texas BBQ joints. I went straight for the brisket and sausage. The brisket is pretty good, not overpowering with rubs and so forth, but enough smoke taste to keep you from leaving any on the butcher paper in the end. Cooper's cooks their meats directly over the fire so that whole "slow and low" method of smoking meats doesn't apply here. It works surprisingly well for the amount of time it takes to say, cook the brisket (about 3 hours). The sausage was ok, next time I'll get the jalapino version to keep things interesting. Cooper's really has good sauce. It's really watery and has a tangy taste that hits the undersides of your tongue. In any case, it's different and a big plus. I didn't bother with any sides, but they looked good enough should you choose to leave room for them. I did try the pecan cobbler and it was a good way to wrap up the dinner.

Cooper's is right next to the Ft. Worth Stockyards, so the location is ideal if you want to buy a fancy saddle for your horse or ride a mechanical bull. As mentioned in previous posts, Hard 8 in Coppell is very similar but I'll give Cooper's the edge with the sauce as a tiebreaker. Both have solid 'que for scratching that itch. Let's Rodeo!

Smoke

3/5/11 Dallas, TX So there's bad news and there's good news. Which do you want first? Ok the GOOD news of course! Well the good news is that nobody got seriously sick or died during this past visit to the fancy-pants, quasi-bbq Dallas establishment called Smoke. The bad news is that the food now sucks, or at least the pork chop does. It would have been one thing if it was just a shitty pork chop, like something at Golden Corral, but they didn't even bother to cook this thing all the way through. When I discovered the raw center, I released the pork back into the wild to pursue a 2nd chance at making something of itself.

In all fairness, not everything on every menu at every establishment is great. I know that. YOU know that, but this pork chop has been recommended by waitstaff ALL THREE TIMES I've been there! If you have Filet Mignon on the menu, and a bag of shit, why the hell would you recommend the bag of shit to customers? The attempt was made to dress this thing up with some sort of fruity sauce with these brussels sprout balls or something, but none of it made up for the chop itself with it's jerky-like outside and a plastic center, sort of like a reverse Joan Rivers (jerky inside, plastic outside right?). Whatever, that wasn't as bad as this food so Smoke gets an F. As in F that place.

I still love your ribs though, Smoke but we are definitely on a "break".