Cans of Natty Boh and Pabst for sale at a place with an Escoffier cookbook on the shelf? At this barbecue joint, there’s no shortage of quirkiness. A hot-sauce display offers Megadeath and Memphis Mojo, there’s an eBay addict’s assemblage of vintage knickknacks, and the front counter is plastered with bumper stickers (you look better on myspace).
The menu sticks to the classics: tender, sweetly basted barbecue chicken, snappy house-smoked sausage, brightly flavored slaw, and mustard-stoked red-potato salad. Many smokehouse aficionados judge a place by its pulled pork, and this tender pile of shredded meat is up to snuff, whether heaped on a kaiser roll or dipped in vinegary sauce. And though they might blanch at seeing a crab-cake sandwich on the menu, this one is pretty good. Despite the place’s obvious Texas pride—longhorn skulls and chili-pepper lights are everywhere—the Lonestar-style brisket and too-sweet chili are weak spots.
Though the place does a big takeout business, you can eat at one of a handful of tables, each with its own roll of paper towels and bucket of plasticware.
Open daily for lunch and dinner.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
