50 in 50. Top 50 Texas BBQ joints in 50 weeks. 4th stop: Longoria’s BBQ in Fort Worth

Welcome to Longoria’s BBQ!!!

Longoria’s BBQ
100 S. Christopher Dr.
Everman, TX 76140
(817) 568-9494
Date visited: Saturday, June 1st, 2013

Unless you have been to Longoria’s BBQ before, you won’t find this joint by just going out for a leisurely drive on a Saturday morning. You have to have a reason to be in the area and you might need to have a GPS unit as well, but once you do find it (either on purpose or by sheer accident), you will not be disappointed. This place is not your average Texas BBQ joint, including the size of the building as well. It truly is what my dad would call a hole in the wall…but, don’t take that as a negative description, at least from my dad and our family.

Such a cool vibe to this little joint…

In our travels throughout the great state if Texas and the rest of our country as well, (we traveled many roads as we always had an RV) through trial and error we found out that some of the best food we had on trips were at hole in the wall joints. There is no doubt in my mind that my dad would describe Longoria’s as a hole in the wall – a glowing endorsement, and I would have to agree with him.

The first person we met in the parking lot was pitmaster David Longoria’s father, who opened the door for us and asked my son if he wanted a cookie. Yup, that is the kind of service you usually get at a hole in the wall. We were off to a fantastic start – at least my son thought that as he said “yes, please” to the offer of his cookie. Note: he did NOT share his cookie with me or my wife… So, we enter the small joint and belly up to the counter. As soon as I saw the menu board, I had to ask the girl behind the counter what BOLO was. I noticed you could get it on a sandwich or sliced as well, but I had no clue what it meant. She offered a smile and said “smoked bologna”…that’s right, smoked bologna. It sounded heavenly, and on our next trip there, we will get some for sure. But, for our purposes we ordered the Holy Trinity of Texas smoked meats: brisket, spare ribs and sausage.

So on to the revie….hold on.

Big Red on tap…yes, please!!!!!

If you read my previous entry about Lockhart Smokehouse having Big Red on tap (if you aren’t from Texas, you probably won’t like Big Red and that is okay – more for us Texans!) then you know how happy I was. I am happy to report that Longoria’s has Big Red on tap as well!!! Back to back places on our trip had Big Red on tap…I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I was…okay, so now, on to the review we go.

1. KING – Ribs. This is the first joint we have visited in our quest to visit all 50 Texas Monthly 2013 Best BBQ Joints that ribs have come in 1st. Now this is only our 4th joint out of 50 to visit, but nonetheless, ribs are King at Longoria’s. I like my ribs with a little heat and a little sweet, and these ribs were spot on for my taste. They had a very nice bark on them and the fat was rendered perfectly as well. They also had a great smoke flavor and the mixture of heat and sweet was just about perfect. That first bite of my rib was just about the best bite from a rib I have ever had. When I took that first bite, it had a great tug on the bone and the flavors were outstanding. I was very impressed with the quality of this rib, so much so that I polished it off in a few bites. On our trips to these 50 joints, I usually only take one or two bites of the three meats, but this rib deserved me finishing it off completely. The bone had a nice color as well, with a nice red-ish tint to it as well. That showed me it had been smoked long enough but it had not been oversmoked, as most ribs usually are. If and when you go to Longoria’s, be sure to order at least a half rack of these beauties…you and your taste buds will NOT be disappointed.

This was a very solid plate of Q….very solid.

2. QUEEN – Brisket. Although ribs were King here, the brisket was not too far behind. It had a great bark as well and had great flavors to boot. It was very moist and tender, so much so that my son only needed a fork to sample it’s goodness… (yes, as that point he had already polished off the cookie) – no knife needed for this beef. It had a nice smoke ring as well and every bite was full of flavor. It had a very nice mix of salt and pepper, and there was just a hint of sweetness as well. It was very solid, so much so that my wife ranked this ahead of the ribs for her taste.

3. PRINCE – Sausage. Coming in 3rd here at this hole in the wall (remember, that is a compliment!) is not too shabby. The sausage had a great snap to it and had just enough moistness as well. David makes his own sausage and most of it includes his brisket. It had just enough smoke to make it memorable, but for me, it was a bit heavy on the pepper. For those of you who love pepper, especially in your sausage, you will love this link a lot.

Pitmaster David Longoria showing me one of his three pits…

I don’t know if that means you will rank it ahead of the ribs and the brisket, but it was very solid as well.

All in all it was a great visit and the Q was very solid. I am still thinking about those nearly perfect ribs, and when we visit again, I know we will get a rack of them for sure. I might even get a cookie as well, even if I have to pay for it! And, we will have to venture in to the world of Bolo as well.

David was just as friendly as his dad and gave me a behind the scenes tour of his joint, including a look at the three smokers he uses. He told me that he can run 75 briskets at once on all three pits, but primarily dedicates one smoker for all of his meats.

David signing our copy of the Texas Monthly 2013 Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas magazine…thanks David!

He also let me know that he makes chorizo as well (and gave me a bag of it which we used in some scrambled eggs the next morning) and that it is in demand at his place. I can see why as it was great and was nowhere as greasy as the chorizo found at grocery stores here in our area. I grew up in south Texas (Harlingen, to be specific) and love chorizo, especially scrambled with some eggs and nestled lovingly in a homemade flour tortilla. If and when you do visit David and the rest of the crew, be sure to take home some chorizo as well and thank me later after you have some for breakfast.

I am very happy for David and his entire family as this is a big award for a small joint like this. He does things the right way and their customer service is excellent. We were very pleased with everything we ate, and trust me, we will be back again soon, and I hope the ribs will be just as good as they were during this visit. Good luck David, and we will see you in the near future!

Thanks again David…we really enjoyed the visit and your top notch Q as well!!!

Thanks to Jenny Dowdy of Keller Williams – a great realtor and an even better person! Thanks Jenny!

Looking for THE BEST car wash around? Look no more…QwikWash America is it!!!

50 in 50. Top 50 Texas BBQ joints in 50 weeks. 3rd stop: Lockhart Smokehouse in Oak Cliff

Lockhart Smokehouse, Oak Cliff…

Lockhart Smokehouse
400 West Davis
Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 944-5521
Date visited: Saturday, June 1st, 2013

Lockhart was the 2nd stop of 5 for us on Saturday, June the 1st. We had just been to Pecan Lodge, so the drive to Lockhart took us all of about 10 minutes (we are smart like that). I was really worried about the size of the line at Lockhart, so I dropped off my wife and son so they could get in line while I tried to find a parking space…did I mention the word try? Lockhart is located in the Bishop Arts District in Old Cliff, and is a very cool area with a ton of brand new shops and places to get some grub (and there are some art galleries and cool stuff like that as well), but parking can be a real challenge. It took me about 10 minutes to find a parking spot (found one in BFE – yes, pretty far from the joint), so I had quite a trek in to Lockhart.

Free pickles and more!!!

Even though it took some time to find a parking space, by the time I got inside, my wife had already ordered the grub for us: some moist or fatty slices of brisket, two spare ribs and one link of sausage (they feature sausage from Kreuz Market as the co-owner’s grandfather Edgar “Papa” Schmidt ran the legendary Kreuz Market from the time he purchased it from the Kreuz family in 1948 until he passed it onto his sons in the 1980’s) . This will typically be all we get from each of the 50 joints because sometimes, like this trip, we will visit 5 or more joints in one day. Now, while I could probably eat 5 meals from each join in one day, I won’t because all I am looking for is a taste from each meat so I can write down my thoughts and because my dear, sweet mom doesn’t want me to gain any weight as I have lost a few pounds in the last couple of years. So, on we go to my thoughts of our offerings at Lockhart.

1. KING – Brisket. Some of you may be surprised that I thought the brisket was the best of the three because a lot of people think their ribs are the best, but today, it was the brisket. I am surprised I am saying this myself as the handful of times we have been here, the brisket has been okay, but not great. Today, it was great. It had a very nice bark to it and it was seasoned spot on. For me, it was just on the verge of being a bit to peppery for me, but most people claim to love a very peppery brisket, so I might be in the minority here and most people will love it and might clamor for more pepper. it was very tender and very juicy and I was very pleased that the brisket had risen to this level. When they first opened I think this is the meat they had the most issues with, but if this is any indication of the brisket they are now cranking out, you need to order the brisket, and get a few pounds of it. I can see why they are on this list of top 50 BBQ joints in Texas, just because of the briskets. Kudos to pitmaster Will and the rest of the crew for this great piece of meat…it was very solid.

Good grub here….

2. QUEEN – Spare ribs. They were very meaty and very tender, but they were just a bit over-seasoned for me and a tad bit heavy on the salt. They did have a great smoke flavor and the ribs were very big. They also had a nice tug to them as well, and thankfully they were not “fall off the bone”….as any true Q fan knows that if they are “fall off the bone” then they are overcooked!!!! I know that it is a marketing ploy to get non-q people to eat their ribs, trust me on this, you want to have a tug on the bone when you take that first bite, and you want to see your teeth mark as well after said bite. The ribs had that today and they were good to the last bite, including the knuckles or tips. Yes, I said the knuckles and tips…if you don’t eat this part of the rib, in my opinion, you are missing out on the best part of a spare rib, but hey, what the heck do I know, I am just some dude on the internet with a blog! (although I have been smoking (BBQ mom, not anything else) for almost 5 years now).

3. PRINCE – Sausage. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the sausage gets shipped from Kreuz Market in Lockhart as co-owner Jill Grobowsky Bergus’ (friend to all and enemy to none – she is truly a class act and very hospitably as well) grandfather Edgar “Papa” Schmidt owned and ran Kreuz from 1948 until the 1980’s. I don’t know if it was just my “luck” to get this particular link (and I am hoping this was just one lone rouge link) but when I took the first bite of it, a grease missile shot across the table and just about took out my wife. Thankfully she was just to the left of the grease path, but it did leave a trial of evidence on the table (which we cleaned up before we left). I do like some grease in my link but this one had way too much. The taste of the link was very solid, but it was just too greasy. I have had their links before and they are very good, so like I said, I think I just got one lone “scud” who was bound to go down in infamy!!! Don’t be afraid to order their links, just don’t sit in the direct path when that first bite is taken…I kid, I kid!

Big Red on TAP?!?!?!?!?! Yes, please!!!! Worth a bump up in ratings as far as I am concerned!!!

I know some people are thinking, why is this guy writing this blog about the 2013 Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ Joints when Texas Monthly did a much great job at doing it than iu would, but the neat thing about our journey is that we are getting each pitmaster to sign their article in our copy of the issue. So, hopefully at the end of our little (yeah right, Pecos and Amarillo have a join on the list!!!!!) journey I will be quite possibly the only person who will have this issue of the magazine with all 50 signatures of the pitmasters.

Pitmaster Will Fleischman signing our magazine…

So far, so good. Getting pitmaster Will Fleischman’s proved to be a struggle as Lockhart’s network crashed, as did the ATM located inside of the joint, so he has just a tad bit busy when we got our food. I told him we would wait, and he was nice enough to come out and sign our copy and take a photo with us as well. I wish we could have visited with him, but I certainly understood his dilemma and again, we were very thankful he did what he did. Thanks Will, and kudos for making the list!

Thanks again Will, we really appreciate it!

50 in 50. Top 50 Texas BBQ joints in 50 weeks. 2nd stop: Pecan Lodge in Dallas

We were lucky enough to be 3rd in line…

Okay, so here we are at stop #2 on our 50 in 50 tour of Texas Monthly’s 2013 Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas…stop #2 was Pecan Lodge Catering in downtown Dallas, in the Dallas Farmers Market in Shed #2. This was our first of 5 stops on Saturday, June the 1st…yes, the first of 5 stops for the day.

Two summers ago this month we were fortunate enough to be included in a backyard smokeout that the Texas BBQ Posse invited me to, and Pecan Lodge owners Justin & Diane Fourton and Lockhart Smokehouse owners Jeff and Jill Bergus were there as well. I could not believe the company I was in! As soon as we turned on to the street the house was on in north Dallas, I knew where this shin-gig was taking place as there was a DP Fat 50 sitting out in a driveway. Without hesitation I told my wife Nikki, “That is where the smoekout is” and I was right. That DP Fat 50 is now famously known as “Lurlene“, which Justin uses each work to crank out some of the best BBQ in the country.

Here is the famous Lurlene chugging along…

I wanted to get to Pecan Lodge no later than 9:30 a.m., as if you get there any later than that on a Saturday, you might as well bring your camping gear with you. We got there at 9:35 a.m. and I was presently surprised as we were number three in line. Ever since Guy Fieri invaded Pecan Lodge in April of last year (episode aired May 28th, 2012), the line has been CRAZY long!!! In case you missed the episode of Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives where Pecan Lodge was featured, have no fear, it appears that the episode will be re-aired on the Food Network on June 8th, 2013 at 7:00 PM ET/PT. So, here we are in line, patiently waiting for Pecan Lodge to open…at 11 a.m.!!! By 10 a.m. the line was pretty long and by the time we left at 11:15 a.m. the line was out the front door of Shed #2…I told you the line was CRAZY!!!

Yeah….long line. It went all the way to the beginning of Shed #2.

Thanks Guy…lol. I am sure Justin & Diane (lovingly know as Boss Lady) don’t mind the lines, but I think some locals do. They have a neat bit as well at Pecan Lodge – the 1st person in line each day gets to ring the triangle, signifying that the joint has opened – sort of like someone ringing the famous bell to close the stock market, but the ringing of the triangle is a better payoff, at least for me.

Chad can ring that bell, bell, bell, ring that bell! Pecan Lodge is now OPEN!!!

Since this was the first of 5 stops, we decide to get brisket, ribs and sausage only (we did order the Mac & Cheese as my wife was craving it for breakfast – that is why I love her so much), as this is what Texas Monthly primarily ranked each joint on. Yes, atmosphere and sides did go into the final Texas Monthly rankings, but the three meats we ordered carried the highest percentage of scores for each joints ranking. We only took a few bites of each meat, as we knew if we ate everything at all 5 joints we would be in a meat coma – not a bad place to be, but when attempting to visit 5 joints in one day, it was not the feeling we disired to have at the end of the day. We came prepared as we brought gallon size zip lock bags and a small cooler. We put the names of each joint on their respective bag with a Sharpie marker and put the leftovers in the bag and then into the cooler. Okay, so enough of the boring stuff….on we go to the review of the meats.

1. KING – Brisket. Hands down for me, this was the best of the three meats. The smell of the slice I took a bite of was beef heaven, and the first bite was just as good as the smell. It has a very nice bark to it and the fat had been perfectly rendered. It was beef candy, no doubt. The fat just about melted in my mouth and the smoke flavor was outstanding. For people who love a peppery crust, this is the perfect peace of beef for you. I am not a huge fan of pepper, so for me, it had a bit too much pepper, but I know I am in the minority when it comes to peppered BBQ, especially here in Texas. I also favor mayo over mustard, so sue me. I also really enjoyed the thickness of the slice of the brisket as it was probably twice the size of two pencils put together side by side (I hate math, so don’t ask me how many inches wide it was). I can’t stand a paper thin (don’t know how many inches that is either) piece of brisket, especially if it is a good piece of brisket, so thanks to whoever did the slicing. There is a reason that Pecan Lodge is one of the top 4 joints this time around, and it was very clear after my first bite of brisket. Justin has Lurlene dialed in, and what is impressive is that they weren’t even in existence 5 years ago when the last rankings came out. Get the brisket, and get more than a few slices.

2. QUEEN – Ribs. These spare ribs were perfectly smoked as well and left teeth marks after each bite. They had a nice crust or bark on them as well, and there was a slight sweetness as well. There was no heat that I could detect, but there was plenty of salt and pepper, which created a very nice bark. For me, the it I took had a little too much salt on it, but the smokiness and the tendersness of the ribs was flawless. The taste was great as well, and I love the fact that they keep the rib tips attached, which I think is the best part of a spare rib, especially if the joints are tender enough to eat, which these tips or joints were. Next time we go back, I am going to order at least one beef rib as they looked absolutely amazing. Do yourself a favor and order a few spares and at least one beef rib, and let me know how the beef rib was….please!!!!!

Great looking ribs and sausage…can you smell the goodness?

3. PRINCE – Sausage. Justin makes his own sausage and it is very good. It could have been a little more juicy, but I am glad it did not ooze grease out of the end when I took the first bite. That has happened to me numerous times and if you were sitting across from me when it happened, consider yourself lucky to still have an operating set of eyes. More on sausage squirting on my next entry. This sausage had a nice snap to it and the flavor was good as well. It is a very mild sausage, so if you are not a fan of hot links or spicy sausage, this is the sausage for you. I aqm fairly certain he carries more than just this regular sausage, so if you like your sausage “hotter” be sure to ask Mark when you place you order. By the way…Mark was very cool and looks like a skinny version of Lance Berkman.

Here is Justin signing my copy of Texas Monthly…2 down, 48 to go!!!

All in all, it was a great way to begin our day…to me, there is noting quite better than BBQ for breakfast(and especially if you have a really good flour tortilla on hand, or a few dozen), especially if it is from a joint like Pecan Lodge. Kudos to Justin and Diane as they both quit very high paying (but very demanding and time consuming corporate jobs) to follow their dream, and boy, have they made their dream come true…big time!!! I know that they will be turning out great Q for a long time, and I wish them nothing but success in the future.

But, remember that with success like this comes long lines, so if you want to be the “ringer of the triangle” and open the day here, you better get there by 9 a.m., especially on a Saturday. If not, plan to hang out and visit with the people in line as we did. I met a guy named Chad (first in line and ringing the triangle in the photo above…lucky dude) and we talked for over an hour about our love of BBQ and talked about life as well…it was the perfect beginning to a perfect day. I hope you will enjoy standing in line as much as we did for this great Q…

Here I am on the left, Justin is next to me and my son Dustin in the Spurs shirt. 2 down, 48 to go!!!