Taylor Cafe

This is Vencil Mares:

I didn't know it when I first walked in. I even took the photo before I knew it. I just liked being back in a small town where you can go to a place like this and see regulars and locals, which I thought he was. And the conversation started up easily enough--we were the only two people in the place except for two waitresses and from the sounds in the back one person cutting the meat with an electric knife. He asked where I was from, and I told him. Asked what I was doing in town, and I told him. I asked if he'd always been from Taylor, and he said just since '46, when he moved from Cistern, Texas. Turns out he left out a few things that the conversation turned up, like being a medic in WWII. If you're not familiar with medics, especially back then, they're the ones who go into combat without guns. They're there to pull people out, and can't fire back, thought they were frequent and favorite targets of the other side. Shooting a medic meant wounded soldiers would continue to draw resources in order to get them off the field, or even more frequently, die before another medic could get to them. So if anyone has earned the right to have a long life in a quiet sleepy town doing what he loves in a way that makes him a legend at it, it's Vencil. And it's a bit funny that one of the best BBQ places in town is hidden damn near under a bridge behind this door:

But if you're coming from the north, be careful to divert to the right just before the bridge (you'll know it when you see it), or else this is all you'll see:

I guess he's content to be hidden, seeing as how people seek his BBQ out without so much as a website, although others put his store on theirs. Vencil's been doing it his own way for a while--he's 87, you see, and has an air of being proud of what he does without the need to glorify it. Although if you ask him about being one of the best BBQ joints in Texas he'll probably get up and walk behind the counter to get you an autographed copy of the September 26, 2010 Taylor Daily Press, in which he was featured.

I noticed the banner and asked when his birthday was, thinking I'd missed it by a day or so because the banner was still up. "Back in November." I guess if I live that long and anyone prints me a banner, I'll leave it up and slap a new number over the old one every year, too.

As for the food, well, I reached a sort of an epiphany. Not because of the food, but because of the man. I've tried, and think I have largely succeeded, in being constructive on this blog. Except where those have billed themselves as something they're not, I've gone fairly easy. And most of those are brewers, especially those who brew something ridiculous or make claims like being a craft brewer when they are clearly not. And even those guys won't see so much as a blip because of something I've written. Nobody reads this and nothing results from it. It truly is more of a journal, intended to suffice where my memory cannot, I've just left it public.

But it has become so easy to criticize the life's work of another person. To sit back and take shots at certain things that you presume to know more about. Vencil has been doing it for decades, and no criticism of mine will compare to his life's work. 64 years in Taylor, and someone who hasn't been alive hardly half that time can criticize him? No way.

But these are my notes, and I will make them.

I ordered my standard three meat plate of sausage, ribs, and brisket, with a half chicken as well. There were only two sides--potato salad and pinto beans, so that's what I had. The potato salad was pretty good. I'm not a huge potato salad fan, but it wasn't mushy and gooey like many are, and was a little zippy. The beans seemed a little ranchy at first, but settled down and were well-cooked and got more peppery the more I had. I was a bit surprised to see the meat come out with sauce on it. The sauce was a little tomatoey, with a slight vinegar zip. Not too spicy, but otherwise a good compliment to the food.

The brisket was good, but had a ton of fat on it. It trimmed easily, but if you're buying something by the pound it would be better of it was leaner. Otherwise, it was well smoked and tender. The ribs were outstanding. Again, I wish they had been leaner, but the rub was great and they pulled away from the bone nicely. The chicken was also outstanding, well smoked by not dry. And the sausage was probably my favorite of the Hill Country sausages. All beef and lean but not dry, and also not chunky like summer sausage, it was nice and peppery and as good as everything else was, this was far better.

There are very few days where you go to eat and feel like you can come away with a sense of what Texas and BBQ should be all about, but go early and sit by Vencil. You'll get that feeling too.

The Hickory Pit

This place is in the old fake Luling City Market off West Gray, and I'm in the area frequently so I thought I'd give it a shot. Plus, I was in between hearings and had plenty of time for lunch and a beer. Or two.

First impression: Five meat combo! Why don't more places do this?

Sauce is light and vinegary. Hint of black pepper, with a non-distinct red pepper zip. Not bad, but meh.

Cole slaw was light instead of sloppy and soaked in mayo, with chives. Good stuff. Pinto beans were well cooked with primarily black pepper and a bit of the sauce, it seems. Good, especially because there's no hint of the ranch style taste that so many places have.

Sausage had a crisp skin and were moderately smoked, but had a bit too much of a summer sausage taste to them. Nicely ground though, not chunky and fatty like a summer sausage.

Pulled pork is nicely smoked and lean. Pulls apart easily and is moist. Good stuff.

Finally, a well-smoked brisket in Houston. It could stand a slight salt rub, but not much of one. It's lean and moist with a substantial smoke layer. Good stuff.

The ribs are a let down after the rest. They're chewy, and because I was here fairly soon after they opened I suspect they're from yesterday. They were also a bit on the cool side. They have a slight rub that tastes like the sauce, which doesn't compliment the meat at all. They were lean and had decent smoke flavor though, so drop the rub and serve them off the smoker and I bet they'll be good.

I won't be back, mostly because it failed to top my favorite Mexican food restaurant in the area, but this place has potential. Just tweak a few things, and it'll be one of the best places in Houston. As it is, it's got a couple of high points but overall is solidly in the pack of halfway decent BBQ places in Houston.


138 West Gray
Houston, Texas 77019
(713) 527-8100
Mon. to Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Thomas Bar-B-Q

Alright, I ordered the three meat plate, with the holy trinity of brisket, ribs and sausage, which came smothered in sauce. Serious party foul. Sauce is nice though. Slightly vinegary and peppery, maybe a little tomotoey? I like it.

Green beans are overcooked and mushy. Black eyed peas too. They tasted good but it was kind of like black eyed pea soup.

They make their own hot links, and they're well cooked and lean, like I like. Great flavor, slightly smoky, well ground as opposed to the fatty and chunky summer sausage type.

Texas toast instead of bread, which takes me back to my DQ country basket days.

Only one rib? That's kind of a rip. It was kind of tough, and more like a pork chop. Not very much smoke to it at all.

Brisket is lean, but not dry and well smoked. Would be excellent if not smothered in sauce, but it's very good even with it.

Peach cobbler is great. Lots of crust, not soupy, and not too sweet.

Over all this is a good local place to stop in. I'll choose different sides and be sure to keep the sauce on the side in the future, but I think it's one of the best BBQ places in town. It's a damn sight better than Goode Co. or Pappas, but not up to par with anything in Luling or Lockhart. That's not really a fair comparison though, and I'll be back to this place whenever I find myself hungry on the north loop.

Spring Creek Barbeque

I'm not adding a map entry to this, because you can get this franchise's food just about anywhere. I went to lunch with several others recently, and the consensus (with my dissent) was to go there. So, I decided to hold my nose and try it.

But you know, it wasn't too bad.

The pepper sausage was decent. Not smoked enough, and slightly too porky tasting, it was still alright. The brisket was too fatty, but smoked well enough and also decent. The pork ribs were actually good. They used a sweet rub that is more molasses based than their sauce. They were lean and well-smoked, and came right off the bone. The sauce was a twangy vinegar-based type that is really not good at all. Sides were decent, beans like in a Luby's, large-chopped slaw, and decent enough pinto beans.

All in all, it was better than expected. But nowhere near the places where 80-year-olds man the pits in places that have been around for decades. I mention it here, I don't know, just for completeness, I guess.

Patillo's BBQ

So, a white man walks into a BBQ place in Beaumont...

Alright, admittedly I'm just checking to see if the Beer Brotha is reading. But, I was the only white guy around and to me that says I'm in for some good food. I circled past a couple of local BBQ places while in Beaumont today, and passed them up because they look a little too much like a chain or like Luther's. This place looked promising, so I'm glad I found it.

If you have to be in Beaumont, which I don't recommend, you should stop in here, which I do. Shoot yourself in the head for being in this God-forsaken town after you've eaten here, so at least you go out somewhat happy.

Also, if you're near a chemical plant, and smell something funny (I mean strong funny, not the usually funny smell of Beaumont), then the sirens all go off about a tenth of a second before every flare tower on the property starts shooting out 50' flames, get the the Hell out of Dodge.



Anyway, the beans are ranch style, but less than the usual in-your-face-ness that many have, which is a good thing. They're stewed for plenty of time and with plenty of pork--not fatty salt pork--which is nice. Slaw is better than some, but isn't much more than cabbage and mayo. It has something else in it, but not much. It's also got quite a bit of the thinner cabbage leaves in it, which makes it feel a bit mushy, but it's still fresh and good. The two-meat plate had a third side option, so I tried the rice jambalaya, which has a nice zip to it. So far, so good.

Interesting sauce. Heavily peppered, it also has a bit of a chili pepper zip to it. Clear cajun influence that is a nice take on a sauce. And that's a good thing, because the meat came smothered in it. It's neither molasses nor vinegar based, seeming instead to be a base of some sort since it had quite a bit of rendered fat in it. In hindsight, this seems to be te flavor for the beans as well.

The brisket was good. The smoke had to fight its way through the sauce, but it did. It was tender, but sliced a little too thinly for me. The pork ribs were less smoky, but for some reason also less affected by the sauce. I wish they had been left in the smoker a little longer so as to reduce the amount of fat on them. The rub is primarily finely ground pepper, but appears to be otherwise similar to the sauce. The chicken was very good. Because it had the skin on, you could take it off and have chicken with little or no sauce. It was well smoked and tender, just right.

The pecan pie was most likely commercial, and was just OK.

The only issue is that I thought maybe the ribs should have been smoked longer. They were just a little too fatty, although they were good. That and the thinly sliced brisket are really not terribly substantive criticisms, and although I do intend to try different Beaumont BBQ places, I definitely want to come back. I'd recommend this place to anyone, it's a slight spin toward the cajun, I guess because Beaumont is just a little too close to Louisiana for my taste. Maybe that's what the funny smell is...




Patillo's BBQ
610 N 11th St,
Beaumont, TX 77702
(409) 832-2572
Monday 10am-4pm
Tuesday-Friday 10am-8pm
Saturday 10am-6pm

Kreuz Market Update

Well, if you remember my last post on Kreuz Market, you know that I was there so early that they had no ribs for me. It was a let-down, but gave me an excuse to go back, as if I needed one.

So I made the trek back and had plenty of just about everything. And to my surprise, and disappointment, the rims were the least of their offerings. The brisket was better than I remembered, the pork chops were the same, and the beef shoulder was better. The ribs, though, were probably the least favorite ribs from anywhere in that area. Yes, even Black's BBQ beats them. They were too big, and far too fatty. Flavor was OK, but it was just a chore to eat them at times.

I'll go back most likely to give them a third shot at it, but all in all City Market is still the best of the bunch. I have yet to have them tell me they were out of anything, and everything was perfect. I wish they offered pork chops and beef shoulder, I'd never go anywhere else.

MO's BBQ

Too bad. I remember this place being much better than I'm about to describe, and I'll haev to go back to double check it.

MO's is a popular place locally, and for good reason. There's a dearth of good BBQ in a city the size of Houston. Unfortunately my visit started off with the slowest order taker on the planet, who just could not get my order right, which was no surprise by the time I got to place my order because I'd seen her butcher four or five others before I got there. she also told me they didn't do beef ribs, and never had, although I've had them there before. It's been a few years, but I remember them being the best beef ribs I'd ever had. Whatever, I'm here for food, not service.

I ordered two two-meat plates to go. I was hungry. I ordered ribs, brisket, chicken, pork loin, slaw, baked beans, and a huge baked potato. Alright, my eyes may have been bigger than my stomach.

MO's has always had the leanest brisket I have ever seen. That makes it drier, but if you've read my other posts you know I'm ok with that. It is also smoked for a shorter period of time, but for some reason always has a good smoke flavor to it compared to the light crust on the meat. The brisket was a little tougher than what I remembered, but still very good.

The chicken was an outright disappointment. Well cooked and tender but firm, it tased more like an overcooked turkey than a chicken and had little to no smopke flavor.

The ribs were tender, but also had little smoke flavor. They were also fairly lean, but hadn't been cooked long enough so the fat that was there was still fairly white and gelatinous. Meh. Longer in the smoker would have fixed every problem they had.

The pork loin was very lean and well done, but a bit tasteless. Again, more time in the cooker...

The sauce was too smoky, almost in an effort to cover up the lack of smoke in the meat. If you're used to better places where sauce is almost never even wanted, you see through that real quick.

Their slaw was very good. Light sauce (or whatever you call it on slaw), it's shredded with carrots and tastes almost nutty--probably due to what looks like poppy seeds. I'll have to remember not to take a drug test for a few days. Anyway, it's very good, not the soupy, glumpy, mayonnaise covered goo that many are.

The baked beans are some of my favorites anywhere. Slightly zingy with a ketchupy hint that doesn't detract a bit. They feel slowly cooked, and I can't think of a thing wrong with them.

Like I said, I know they can do better. Hell, I've had better there.

Smitty's Market

Any BBQ joint that you walk in and have to dodge the fire has to be good. And this is the view back through the door to the back parking lot:

When I passed that wall, the heat surprised the hell out of me. It was awesome. The fire boxes are to the left of the fire, and the heat draw the smoke in from the fire and over the meat. The other side has an identical fire outside an identical box, drawing the smoke toward the center like this one, and up through the smokestack that's visible from the street. As you walk up to the boxes the old guy behind the counter with ham-fists asks grumpily what you want. I would too, if I worked in an oven. They seemed to specialize in sausage, but they had beef shoulder, pork chops, brisket, and ribs as well. I ordered all of the above, plus slaw and beans, my usual for BBQ.

The slaw was finely chopped and creamy. Bland. Could use a hit of horseradish, for some zip. The beans, though, are probably the best I've had aside from my mother's. Like hers, you can actually taste the beans. They're not hidden by an overdose of pepper and spices that are so prominent that they even change the color of the beans. It has salt pork and a few scattered onions, peppers, and tomatoes, but they're complimentary, not overpowering.

The sauce was a bit reddish and tomatoey, with a vinegar twinge. Not too much of either though, and I like the sauce.

The beef shoulder was moist and well smoked with a great, simple flavor. The brisket was tough and fatty though. disappointing. Whereas the sauce was a good compliment to the shouder, it was a requirement for the brisket. The pork chop was excellent. It was a little drier but not quite as well smoked as those at Kreuz Market, although the meat on the other side of the ribs was deeply smoked and the best part. The rest was almost a dry pork tenderloin, but that was perfect. The ribs were amazing. Perfectly smoked and almost falling off the bone, sauce would have actually hurt them. I'd say they were almost as good as City Market. Almost. The sausage wasn't quite as dry as I like, but I'm not a sausage fan so I'm probably too quick to judge on that one. The casing was slightly crisp and the sausage tasted good, I just wish sausage didn't feel like I was chewing on fat. This was a bit porky-tasting for my taste as well, I actually prefer more spices in sausage and less on everything else.

Hearing that this was the site of the original Kreuz Market made a lot of sense. The Kreuz ovens were far too clean and new to have dated back as long as the business does, and these look far older than the 1999 est. date. The similarity in meats offered makes sense too, what with the father owning Kreuz, and the daughter owning Smitty's. Hard to pick a winner, and I can't wait to get back to either, or both, of these places.



208 South Commerce
Lockhart, Texas 78644
512.398.9344
Mon. - Fri. 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sat. 7:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Sunday 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Dave's Rib Shack

I drive past this hole in the wall on West 1960 every once in a while, and I never would have noticed the place if not for the guy with a bullhorn yelling at me as I drive by. I figured his hard work should pay off at least once, so I pulled in.

The place always seems empty when I go past, so I was glad to give the little guy some business. I ordered the three meat dinner with ribs, chicken and brisket, and beans and slaw for sides.

The beans tasted like they were straight out of a can, but they were cooked long enough and not too bad. The slaw was shredded and seemed like it was made by them. It was a little peppery, but good. The dressing was light and it didn't clump up. Pretty darn good, to me.

The ribs came with sauce on them, which is not ideal, but it was a good molasses based sauce that wasn't too sweet or too spicy, but was zippy. It was better than store-bought, and about what you would expect from a roadside joint. The ribs, though, were great. They fell off the bone easily and were fairly lean. Great smoke flavor.

The chicken was even better. It had sauce as well, but it came off with the skin so it wasn't overpowering. Even the dark meat was firm without being too dry, and had a great smoke flavor as well.

The brisket was dry, and needed the sauce. It seemed like it had been cooked far more than smoked, and it had very little flavor. It was pretty lean, which I like, and I'm not really offended by dry meat, but it was tougher than it should have been. All in all, it was the only halfway disappointing part of the meal. I'll definitely go back again, but I'm sticking to ribs and chicken. I'll update of I try anything new, and I noticed they had beef ribs and maybe a few other things on the menu, which I look forward to trying.





5102 FM 1960 West
Houston, Texas 77069
(281) 537-1125
M-S, 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Kreuz Market

The Kreuz Market v. City Market debate is kind of like the Ford v. Chevy one. I hear people talk about Kreuz market all the time, and I have to say, to this Chevy driver, they're driving Fords.

First impression is that this place is made for crowds, unlike any of the other local BBQ joints. Several huge rooms lined with tables give you plenty of options on where to eat. Head back to the smokers, of which there are also more than usual (making me wonder just exactly how old the current grills are), which are cleaner than others. You can't tell where the fires are from that room, which is in stark contrast to places like City Market and especially Smitty's.

Alright, so it's a newer building and suspiciously clean for the caliber of BBQ place I'm looking for, and that's made a little worse by the fact that I went very early in the day when they had run out of ribs the night before, so they didn't have ribs ready yet. This is what happens when you go to a BBQ place that has run out of ribs:


Fine, it gives me an excuse to go back. Instead I ordered a pork chop, beef shoulder, brisket, and jalapeno sausage. For sides I went with beans and slaw, and a pecan pie that was pre-packaged. They threw in some cheddar cheese and onions as well. This was my haul:

The picture was taken on my blackberry because I'm not carrying a camera into a restaurant, so everything is much smaller in scale than it really was. That's a big pork chop in person, and the picture doesn't do it justice.

First, the lack of ribs is a cardinal sin, but like I said I just have to go back. And second, the brisket was amazingly and unfortunately fatty. It was fairly bland (like a Ford), and I usually wouldn't care about the amount of fat I had to trim because I trim it religiously anyway, but when you're throwing away a third of the meat you buy by the pound it's altogether different. It was decent, but not smoked nearly long enough. If you happened to get an edge piece you got some flavor, but otherwise it wasn't anything you couldn't get in your H-E-B. There was no sauce to spice it up, well, they had a hot sauce that I didn't want to try because I don't like hot sauces, but there was a salt rub in shakers on the table that was pretty good. It was mostly salt, but seems to have had some crushed red pepper and black pepper in there as well. It zipped it up some, but was too salty if you tried it in an amount to compensate for the lack of smoke.

The pork chop gets its own paragraph, because damn if it wasn't amazing. A tad dry, which I love, but almost two inches thick so it had to be to get cooked all the way through. The bits along the inside of the rib were moist despite being the most thoroughly cooked, and had great flavor. The rub was probably the same thing that was on the table, since it was saltier than it was anything else, but the smoke flavor was great for the pork chop where it was almost absent anywhere else. I wouldn't have ordered it if not for the fact that they were out of ribs, but I'll order it everywhere else that it's offered from now on, and this will be the metric by which the others will be judged. It was that good.

The beef shoulder was fairly dry (probably from yesterday), which again is the way I like it, and had a better smoke taste than the brisket. I'm hoping the brisket was also just a result of the time of day I went, and that the next time it'll be much better. The shoulder doesn't need anything though, it was great as is. The jalapeno sausage was also good. Firm, and not fatty like some sausages can be, with a zip from the pepper that keeps it interesting. I'm not a sausage fan, but when it's done this well I can eat quite a bit of it.

The slaw was unimaginative, basically cabbage and a light mayo. The beans were great though. Well cooked and not overly spiced, whereas some places like to make them taste like Ranch Style beans. The pecan pie was as expected of a pre-packaged pie you can find in most gas stations.

In a head to head comparison with City Market, which doesn't offer pork chops, only the beans are better at Kreuz. But where it counts, City Market is far and away better. I'll come back later in the day to give Kreuz a second chance and will never turn it down of offered, but it's not even as good as Black's, much less City Market.




619 N. Colorado St.
Lockhart, TX 78644-2110
Phone: 512-398-2361
Monday through Saturday 10:30a.m to 8:30 p.m. (Mon-Sat)
Closed Sunday

Black's BBQ

Alright already, I get it. Once you've seen the first 20 signs advertising the oldest continually operated BBQ joint by the same family, you've seen them all. I guess in a town where you're tucked in the back of the place, with 20 other BBQ places between you and the major roads, you have to advertise a ton. I saw half a dozen places between the city limits and Black's, one of which was Kreuz Market, so I'll forgive the aggressive signage/visual pollution.

Right when you walk in you know you're in a great place. Hasn't been changed in decades, judging by the dust covered paneling. Right off the bat you're in a line where you pick your own sides, and they have a better than average selection considering the fact that most BBQ places have only one or two things that aren't meat. I chose pinto beans and peach cobbler, both of which were very good. I wish the beans had been cooked longer, but it wasn't a distraction. The person I was with had blackberry cobbler, which was a bit tart, and green beans, which I thought made her a communist and didn't try. I just couldn't.

When you step up to the meat counter you see the smoke boxes behind the folks cutting and weighing it for you, and I will say they were reasonable in their prices. They also had a wider selection of meats. They had the standard pork ribs and brisket, but they also had chicken and beef ribs that looked like some caveman had just cut it off a buffalo. I ordered a quarter pound each of brisket, pork ribs, a quarter chicken (white meat), and I tried to order some beef ribs but when I asked for a quarter pound the guy pointed at the single rib laying on the chopping block and said that was one rib. I knew it was one rib, as evidenced by the enormous single bone sticking through it, and it had about a 4" square of meat on it that looked great, but they wouldn't cut anything off of it. The guy told me it would be about $14.00 for the one rib, and then he measured it. "Nope, it's $15.00." And while I hesitate to say that price was no object, I was going to hike some later that day and the real object was that I couldn't eat five pounds of meat all at once and my companion looked at me like there was no way in hell she was going to eat any more than what we'd already ordered, so I decided to make a second trip someday for one beef rib.

The chicken was very tender and moist. I'm a weirdo and like it drier, but it was very well done, although not hugely smokey because it was still on the lighter side of done. The brisket also looked like it could spend more time in the smoker. It was tender and moist, and had good flavor, but just not quite enough of it. The pork ribs were fantastic. On par with City Market, they were well smoked and had great flavor. The rest was good, but these were great.

The sweet tea was great, just like Grammy used to make, although one old lady at the next table over was a bit put out that it was Luzianne instead of Tetley. I can go toe-to-toe with just about anyone on BBQ and beer, but I'm at a loss for the difference in iced teas.

The BBQ sauce was good, but had a slight vinegar twinge to it that I just was not prepared for in Texas. It tasted like a light A-1 with a vinegar base, and was the part of the experience with which I was least pleased. Cumin? No thanks. Good, but not up to snuff with the meat. I used it to dip the bread in, but nothing else.

Overall, Black's is a must-see for Texas BBQ. Except for the pork ribs it's not as good as City Market, which is my standard since it was my first real BBQ experience. I wish City Market had chicken and more sides, but otherwise it's unbeatable so far.




215 North Main Street
Lockhart, Texas 78644
(512) 398.2712
Sunday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

My Next BBQ Grill

This is Jimmy. Jimmy is an old guy from, well, I'm not sure where he's from. What I do know is that he lived in Gilmer, Texas at one point about 30 years ago, and while there managed to weld two stamped steel bathtubs together with hinges to make a grill. How it found its way to Groesbeck I still don't understand, especially with Jimmy drinking Bud Lights one after the other in a Homer Simpson koozie. "You a fan of The Simpsons?" was a question I had to have answered by 80 year old Jimmy from Gilmer. "Hell, I don't know whatcher talkin' 'bout. I prob'bly found that on the side of the road somewheres" was the answer, which is pretty much what I thought it would be.

Anyway, damn if it wasn't an excellent grill. Now, a bathtub is pretty deep, you see, and Jimmy is a short fella', he explains, so he trimmed the bottom one up so that it was only about 18" deep. Then he welded some stops so he could put some mesh steel in for a grill. And because it would get too hot to make the whole thing a grill, inside off to one side is a truck wheel that he puts his coals and any wood for smoke on, and you can either cook right over it or heat things up off to the side. He welded a pipe over the drain, and a thermometer into the side wall. Weld a chain to allow the lid to hold open without flipping back, re-bar frame to slide it in, a formica front counter and a couple of wheels, and you're in business. Or, as Jimmy says, bid'ness.

We had hamburgers cooked directly over the charcoal covered wheel with pecan thrown in for smoke, hot dogs cooked about a foot off to the right, and heated sausage up in there as well. Then one of the most interesting tips I've ever seen was that he dumped all of the buns into one brown paper bag, inverted another bag over it, and put it on the grill the farthest away from the flame and just left it there. It heated them up perfectly, and although the bags got hot and smoked they never burned.

Rednecks are the mothers of all invention. The only way this grill falls short is that nowhere is bailing wire involved. Other than that, it's perfect. In case you're wondering, and because according to Jimmy the old bathtub plant in Gilmer has been run out of business by the Chinese, you can make one out of tubs that still have enamel on them. You just have to grind the enamel off anywhere you want to make a weld. As a matter of principle, I recommend scrubbing the years of soap scum and tub rings off first too, even if they would cook off eventually.