For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants.
KIDDING. But seriously, the fried chicken here is outstanding. Get that.
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Have you ever walked into a restaurant where the staff is so kind and eager that you just don't want to say anything bad about the food? Such is the predicament I find myself in.
Chuck Cook Photography Skip the grocery store and take this chicken home instead.
When I read about a place called It's Ribs opening in Northwest Houston, dreams of meat candy danced in my head. I imagined a place that could make ribs far superior to any place else in Houston because that's their specialty.
The staff at It's Ribs are as friendly as you could ever ask for. There's a homestyle cooking vibe here, and any question about an item was met with an offer of a sample. Places like this represent what Texas hospitality is all about.
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UPDATE: J.C. Reid reports from Twitter: "Talked to Clarence Pierson. Still recuperating from 2x knee replacements. He vows to be back! Hopefully after holidays." Our phone breath must smell bad, but we're just glad that Reid spoke to Pierson and has good news to report.
Photos by Katharine Shilcutt A be-flagged Pierson & Company in happier times.
Earlier this year, local food writer J.C. Reid was stunned to pull up to Pierson & Company in Acres Homes and find the seminal barbecue joint boarded up. Reid called owner Clarence Pierson, and was told that due to a knee surgery, Pierson was temporarily out of commission.
Pierson told Reid that he planned on reopening his restaurant in two weeks. That was in August.
It's now midway through November and Pierson & Company shows no signs of life. The phone has been disconnected, the building falling into neglect and bills piling up in the black mailbox out front. It looks like Pierson & Company is closed for good less than four years after opening.
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.
Photo by Troy Fields
This week, Texas Monthly unveiled a new website and an application for the iPhone that claims to help you "discover, discuss and debate the best BBQ joints in Texas -- and worldwide."
Whoa, worldwide? Let's just take this one step at at time, Texas Monthly, and let's see how the app shakes out for Houston and Central Texas barbecue joints.
Unfortunately, you have to sign up for a Texas Monthly account to get full use out of the app, and I wasn't too psyched about going through that process. But at this point in my life, I have roughly 1,390,502 logins and accounts scattered across the wilds of the Internet, so I guess I stopped caring enough at some point. In this case, however, every time I tried to sign up for an account, the app crashed.
Perhaps in the future, then. Undaunted, I checked out the recommendations for our area.
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The Brisket House -- the subject of this week's cafe review -- may only be a year old, but it brings with it years of barbecue tradition in the form of owner and pitmaster Wayne Kammerl. A&M grads or fans of Central Texas barbecue may remember Kammerl as one of the men behind the now-closed Tom's Barbecue, home of The Aggie Special.
Photos by Troy Fields Assembling the famed "Aggie Special."
The Aggie Special was a half-pound knot of barbecue served on a sheet of white butcher paper along with a hunk of Cheddar cheese, half a white onion and a whole pickle. It was the stuff of legend, until new owners took Tom's over and ran it quickly into the ground.
Now rechristened by Kammerl as The Brisket House Special, it's being served up at The Brisket House, the only place in Houston -- and maybe the only place in Texas -- that's still serving this old tradition.
I had to go to Charlie's Old Fashioned BBQ (713-750-0562) three times before I made up my mind about it. For a while, I was half-convinced I had stumbled on some unexpected gem of Houston barbecue, hidden in the bowels of the First City Tower. I don't know if it was wishful thinking or the generous opinion of a growling stomach that clouded my judgment, but Charlie's, I'm sorry to say, is exactly what you're assuming it is.
Disarmingly, surprisingly good. Also, a lie.
It's easy to walk right on past Charlie's. It doesn't have much in the way of signage, and is tucked into the corner of a turn in a hallway leading from one stale-aired stretch of the tunnels to another. It looks like it must be a newsstand. I'm not really sure what lured me in to begin with, aside from a shrugging sort of "what the hell" curiosity.
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Monday morning found me in Conroe helping out a friend, which meant that I was outside of my comfort zone of Inner Loop luncheries. My web search sorcery pointed me to McKenzie's Barbeque. The McKenzie family birthed the restaurant in Huntsville in 1992, with the Frazier Road location opening in 1995. Upon stepping into the establishment, I was greeted by a smoked-meat aroma that confirmed what the full parking lot indicated; these victuals were going to be good.
Jason Bargas
Diners are confronted with a key choice right away: burgers or barbecue? The burger-and-fry dispensary has its own location to the left of the bbq-a-teria. I decided to forgo the burger experience this time, but I'll be back, as freshly ground leftovers and debris usually make for a good burger.
The brisket plate delivered delicious value despite not being out-of-this world. The $7.99 price tag affords you a half-pound serving of brisket and a shot at serve-yourself sides including potato salad, cole slaw and corn on the cob. I'm sure the beans were there somewhere, but brisket, slaw and tater salad are my litmus test for cue spots. Additionally, you can choose from plastic-wrapped white bread or wheat bread.
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