Meshack Bar-b-que Shack, Garland
This is supposed to be one of the hidden gems, and by
the time we got there at 11:30ish, there was a sizable
line. One of the few places with a mixed-age and mixed-race
clientele (the staff are all black). It's really a shack.
We waited for a while to place our order and then a good
deal longer to get our food. The waiting area is a bunch
of logs in the sun next to the building.
I asked for a Diet Pepsi for lili and was told "we don't
have anything diet," which gave me a chuckle, and I would
have high-fived the order-taker if she hadn't been behind
a hold-up-resistant screen. Regular Pepsi and regular Dr.
Pepper it was, then.
When the food came, the brisket erred on the lean side,
though there were a few promising streaks of intramuscular
fat. It was rather firm; good smoke. By a good margin the
least good of the briskets we had, but still acceptable.
Ribs were very salty, shrivelled, and seemed to have
been exposed to too much heat. The hot sauce, a vinegar
and tomato thing that was actually very tangy and a bit
hot, was needed to redeem both the meats, but I took most
of the ribs back for a rainy day - they sat around for I
believe three days before being consumed, and like the
famed McDonalds food they hadn't changed a bit.
Our next stop was the newish Plano outlet of Lockhart
Smokehouse, which many deem better than the original in
downtown Dallas, which many see as reason not to have
to drive to Lockhart any more.
Free 4-hour parking downtown, but please note that
it's just a couple blocks from the Dallas light rail.
It's a nondescript storefront with a bar in front and
the pit in back. Seating was not generous bot adequate
for a weekday midday - I don't know, maybe 40 tops.
I recognized the meat cutter from the Internet photos
of the original place.
A bit of a line, despite its being just after the noon
rush. Worth it for the beautiful moist brisket - good
bark, perfectly seasoned, not quite as balanced as the
meat at, say, Franklin or Snow's, but, guess what, I
liked it better, because it was fattier. I could eat
this all day every day. Just to try, I also got a
perfectly moist rib that had a sweetish rub, almost
like char siu but in a good way.
The people in front of me had gotten vast quantities
of mac and cheese, so I decided to take a flyer and
get a pint (I had my pills with me). The stuff was
almost as much cheese as mac, and the infantile appeal,
considerable on its own, was multiplied tenfold by a
lot of dice of jalapeno stirred in.
Sauce here: meh, but you don't need sauce.
Great selection of brewskis.
I'm already making plans for my next visit, as I can
get here easily from the airport (it'll take over an
hour, but it'll be worth it).
Next stop - Hutchins in McKinney, a bit north of the
city, in what was terra incognita for me.
McKinney is another jumper onto the cute Texas historic
town bandwagon. We parked by the courthouse and checked
it out - I thought there was nothing that particularly
stood out; maybe if you wanted a lazy weekend where you
got soaked by hipster-friendly wine bars and bakeries,
it would be a good hideaway. Hutchins is a mile or two
out of town and seems to have cultivated the ramshackle
Q joint atmosphere, not that that's a bad thing. It
looks like Black's inside, but the meat isn't nearly
so enticing. We had a decent semi-moist brisket that
was nothing to write home about, and when I asked for
one rib, the counter guy cut me three small rib ends,
saying that was to make it up to a quarter pound. Well,
it was more like half a pound, but they charged me for
a quarter. The ribs were a bit chewy, though smoky
enough, and they suffered the same shelving as
Meshack's had.
A condiment bar, which was fine; a couple flavors of
sauce, none of which did any favors to the meat.
Soft drinks only.
Back at the hotel a bottle of Stump Jump 12, a Rhone blend
from d'Arenberg that I scorned when in Adelaide but that
seemed like nectar of the gods in the middle of Texas.