Dallas Food - DFW Quest for 'Cue (Part 13)

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DFW Quest for 'Cue (Part 13)
Posted on Thursday, September 29 @ 21:36:23 PDT
Topic: Barbecue

I had hoped that Singleton Boulevard would offer as many new barbecue opportunities as South Lancaster had. But a couple of the places that used to operate along there were no longer in business, leaving only Odom’s Barbeque. Since I found myself east of Dallas one afternoon, I’ve also included Mesquite Bar-B-Que, even though it breaks the southward focus. On to the food...

First of all, let me address the “barbecue bus” pictured at the top of this article. The bus sits in the parking lot of a strip center on Wycliff (the same one that holds Oishii) and advertises “fresh hot bbq.” I’ve driven by the bus many times in the course of my Maple explorations, sometimes seeing smoke billowing out of the small pit nearby. I made a mental note to drop by, if I ever got back on the barbecue track. The small size of the operation and the all-wood pit out front seemed promising.

Those hopes were not fulfilled. The owner was both friendly and frank. The pit out front was just for show, he informed me, as no cooking is done in it. He is essentially a barbecue reseller, obtaining the fully cooked meats from a local smokehouse and storing them in steam trays. Both brisket and ribs sat in pools of water in the trays. When asked about the sausage, the owner acknowledged it was Eckrich.

Duty has its limits. I’m not going to drop fifteen bucks on Eckrich sausage, gray brisket, and waterlogged ribs just so I can take some unappetizing pictures and make the startling announcement that it all sucks. I’m searching for greatness--not trying to exhaustively catalog local barbecue mediocrity. The latter would require that one be a masochist and a millionaire, and I am neither.

Odom’s Barbeque, at 1971 Singleton Blvd.

Odom’s Barbeque may be the first Dallas barbecue joint I’ve been to with a prominently placed “No Guns” sign. And, like many South Dallas barbecue joints, they’re open late--till 1:45 AM on weekdays and 2:45 AM on weekends. Odom’s format is similar to that of Hardeman’s, with barbecue and soul food offerings. (I read somewhere that there was a relationship between the two joints, but I can’t recall precisely what that connection was.) The only atypical barbecue offering was smoked turkey legs. Though a turkey leg sounded good, it would have to wait. Brisket, sausage, and ribs were the order of the day.

Odom’s brisket wasn’t quite as dry as it appears in the photo above. But it wasn’t as moist as it should have been. Rather bland and not very smoky. Barely acceptable sandwich fodder.

I didn’t ask who their supplier was, but these hot links tasted a lot like Smokey Denmark’s (which have turned up at a few other joints over the course of these reports). Not a bad sausage, but I’ve had much better. As with the brisket, smokiness was light on the links.

The short-end ribs had a slightly spicy glaze. They weren’t especially smoky. And they were tough. Slightly below average, in all.

I had hoped Odom’s would be comparable in quality to the Hardeman’s on Lancaster, but it wasn’t. In terms of meat quality, Odom’s was consistently average. I might go back to try the turkey leg, but that’s about it.

Mesquite Bar-B-Que, on S. Bryan Belt Line Rd., in Mesquite.

Mesquite Bar-B-Que, in the nearby suburb of Mesquite, maintains a small town feel. Trucks fill the parking lot (as can be seen above). The interior is unpretentious. The animals mounted on the walls seem authentic (read, “shot by owner”), rather than kitschy (read, “Jackelope”). Many of the customers know each other, asking about each other’s kids and jobs. In a booth near mine, two gentlemen negotiated a price on some duck decoys and a hunting bow. True Texas. I was troubled by the lack of smoke coming out of the stack, but ordered the usual line-up.

Upon seeing the thick, doubled-over Polish, I suspected Rudolph’s. The cashier confirmed that that’s where they get the sausage. The peppery sausage had Rudolph’s characteristic quality. What it lacked was smoke. For all I know, the sausage could have been warmed in a microwave.

Mesquite’s brisket was extraordinarily moist, almost like a pot roast, and had a bland, inoffensive beefiness. But I struggled to detect any smoke in the meat. Despite coming up way short in flavor and smokiness, its moistness and tenderness made the brisket decent sandwich material. (I’ll take moist and bland over rubbery and bland any day of the week.)

And with the ribs, things went south in a hurry. As with the other meats, there was almost no smokiness. But the ribs were very dry and tough. One clue to the problem can be found in the picture above. Notice the perfectly straight, evenly spaced black grooves on the surface of the ribs? Those shameful scars are grill marks. It took a lot of gnawing to get the meat off those bones, with little reward for the effort. Very poor ribs.

Were it not for the ribs, I would have thought Mesquite Bar-B-Que a slightly above average suburban option. But those ribs hold them to a gentleman’s “C.” (And, as for the ribs, keep in mind the usual caveats below.)

Caveats and Conclusions
All the standard caveats apply. These impressions are of particular cuts of meat on a particular day. Though the holy trinity of brisket, sausage, and ribs may be a good measure of a barbecue spot, it doesn't tell the whole story. But, for my purposes here, I'm honing in on the backbone of barbecue--the smoking of meat to perfection. I'm trying to find out if anyone, anywhere in or around Dallas-Fort Worth, is doing work that can compare with the best Texas has to offer.

Noteworthy Meats. Not applicable. (I should’ve expected as much, this being “Part 13.”)