I have this vision in my mind of driving out along a highway many miles from the next big town and happening upon a place just like Texas Pride Barbecue.
Like a scene from a movie, the place is inhabited by a few bikers, the occasional odd looking person and more than a few people enjoying a cold bottle of beer on a hot day. If you are looking for an out of the way spot and your biggest priority is atmosphere like this, go ahead; you have got to make the trip.
But in our case, the thrill of seeing an extremely well put together collection of gas pumps, old signs and the standard obligatory "flair" required in most barbecue places, doesn't make the drive worth it if the food doesn't meet the image of the name. 
I'll tell you about our eating experience in a minute, but first, this is a place worth visiting at least once, especially if you are already within 10 miles of it. We hit shortly after the regular lunch crowd on Saturday and even then, the inside dining area was fairly crowded. 
Of course, I'm a huge fan of the cluttered walls image and this place is loaded with memorabilia, old signs and autographed pictures.
And though the main inside eating area is fairly normal in size, the outer area is huge. It was like revisiting John T. Floore Country Store when we saw the outside with all the picnic tables and such.
They even have sort of a fenced in kids play area. Complete with slide and electric rides.
You can tell that this place attracts many visitors who have read a positive thing or two about it - as we ate, people would leave and stop to pose for pictures out front.
Like many of the places we have hit for barbecue, these folks go with the traditional butcher paper in a plastic Coke crate, and you go down the line for your order. You can look into the case and see some sides and some of the meats. 
The baked potatoes are huge! When we were first standing in line, we had decided that one of our 4 sides would include the pinto beans, but after seeing them in the case, we opted to swap it for the German potato salad.
There was a couple who ordered in front of us and we saw the size of the chop sandwiches they got. These people do not skimp. In all honesty, one of the chop sandwiches would have been sufficient for two people.
Our meal came out to $24.00, these folks some how managed to spend $47.00!
Anyway, we got two combos. The first one was a chicken and brisket combo. The brisket was not nearly as good as you would expect. It didn't look good, and it just didn't even come close to even some of the regular places we go like Bill Miller's or Grady's. And the chicken was fine, but after a few bites, my wife commented that it was just like normal chicken. Somebody notify Luby's. The chicken didn't even come close to McBee's and in all honesty, neither the chicken nor brisket should be mentioned in the same paragraph as Augie's Barbed Wire.
We also got the ribs and pork loin combo. These ribs were really good. With or without the sauce, they pulled right off the bone and the taste was superb. If I were to be in the area again, I'd surely order the full rack of ribs (like the couple in front of us did). The pork was fine, but I would have gladly taken more ribs instead.
Between the two meals, we got to select four sides. We had green beans which were okay, but not even close to Bill Miller's. There was some sort of macaroni with pepper on it and it was actually pretty good and I would definitely recommend it. Then we got two potato salads; the regular and the German. The regular potato salad was a No-Go. We both took two small bites of it and for the first time in the history of eating out, I left potato salad on the table. I think of the poor starving children in China and expect they will thank me for not sending this to them. It was horrible. The German potato salad on the other hand was Outstanding. I nearly licked the Styrofoam cup clean.
The final thing was the little side of peach cobbler. In my mind, it was burnt and the blackened, charred taste took away from it. My wife enjoyed it though.
So, to sum it up... If you are in the area anyway, by all means, give the place a whirl. I suspect it would be mighty fun during a night when a band is playing. If you decide to eat, go with the ribs, the German potato salad and the macaroni.
See more pictures on Flickr.
During the drives my wife and I take, we are constantly on the look-out for the perfect little place to stop and grab a bite to eat. We have a few methods of operation for finding places. First, it is not uncommon for us to get a recommendation from a friend to try a particular place if we happen to be in some town. Other times, we find our place visiting a small town and there is only one place to eat - that makes it pretty simple. The third and very often used method of selection is our friend Garmin.
When we made the decision to make our return home from Devine via Hondo, I consulted Garmin to reveal several potential dining candidates. One place that caught my eye was a Billy Bob's Backyard Barbecue. The other place that caught my attention was called McBee's. I recalled the name because we had seen a McBee's down in Pleasanton on Highway 97, and later, my brother-in-law told me that we had missed some good eatin'. There's only one problem; he is a vegetarian.
As it was already close to 2 in the afternoon, stomachs were rumbling and my wife and I thought we would give Billy Bob's a try. As we drove through town, we started to wonder if perhaps we would end up in some good ol' boy's actual backyard with a huge pit and a picnic table.
Well, it turns out, that is sort of close. When we pulled into the place, there seemed to be a regular restaurant called Billy Bob's Burgers, but in the back, there was a smaller take-out sort of place called Billy Bob's Backyard BBQ. It was such a beautiful day and the smell was great. But then the logistics of where to eat came up. There were a few picnic tables occupied by fine upstanding citizens I'm sure, but for my wife, this was not going to be her idea of a good time.
Not to worry - one day we'll try the burgers for sure.
But over two blocks or so is McBee's. As soon as we parked the smell hit us. This place meant business. The place had the look and style of an older Bill Miller's to it.
Everything looked and smelled good. I ordered a two meat plate - brisket and ribs with potato salad and Cole slaw. My wife got a single meat - chicken with potato salad and ranch style beans. As soon as we sat down, we divvied up all the food so we could each have a little of everything.
The sides are nothing to write home about. I'll just leave it at that and let you know that you can order meat by the pound instead of buying the plate with two sides.
You may recall my wife coined her Eeee-yuk rating when we tried Dickey's BBQ. She is a firm believer that good Barbecue must be able to stand on its own without the use of sauce, regardless of how good the sauce is. Dickey's had a great selection of sauces and for good reason; the meat was not that great.
McBee's chicken is pure heaven. The meat fell off the bones, the seasoning was not overpowering - just some sort of pepper and whatever goodness they rubbed into it before smoking it for however long it takes. I didn't even touch the brisket or the ribs until I had devoured ever edible part of the chicken pieces on my plate. I'm telling you, I would drive to Hondo for for a piece of chicken, and that is saying something.
I must comment on the portion sizes. This place does not skimp on the vittles. The single portion of chicken was enough for two people to share. For about a dollar more, the two meat plate was loaded down.
I am fascinated with ribs from the Rib House, but they are a different sort altogether. Those are your BBQ with sauce ribs. These are your BBQ with seasoning ribs. Do not under any circumstances spoil the deliciousness of McBee's ribs with sauce. They were tender and juicy and tasty.
The brisket had a great taste to it and again, they piled it on. I did break down and try out the sauce that was on the table. I don't know if it was some house brand or what, but it had sort of a sweet taste to it. At first, I wasn't sure, but when I took a piece of bread and covered it with the sauce to taste it, I decided I liked it.
Okay, I guess I will tell you about the sides. The ranch style beans were bland. The Cole slaw was passable and much better looking than what I got at the Rib House. The potato salad was dry. My wife ended up cutting up some pickles and mixing it in and sure enough, that was enough to fix it up. I put a little BBQ sauce on mine.
The chicken alone is worth the trip, and gets McBee's Bar-B-Q in Hondo both the Tasty Treats and the Eeee-Yum seal of approval. If you are heading out to Garner State Park but are worried about getting a grill site, just stop at McBee's, order up several pounds of the chicken and take it with you.
You'd think that we would have something better to do than jump in a little truck and head southwest of San Antonio just for a little drive, and today, we did. We drove through our neighborhood seeking out garage sales, and I must report that the pickin's were mighty slim. So, on a whim, I said, "Let's go to Lytle", and my wife simply responded with , "Let's go!" 
We took Loop 1604 from the GNW and headed south through Atascosa to I-35. At this point I usually insert a comment about how nice it is to drive just a few minutes and be out into the country. I won't repeat it this time, but you can appreciate the feeling (unless you live in a really huge city, or you already live out in the woods and are only reading this blog during your monthly visit to civilization).
Directly west of San Antonio along Highway 90 is a town called Hondo which we have visited before, and today, we ended up there for lunch. I'll tell you about that later. But to orient yourself, check out the handy map provided by our friends at Google Maps, and appropriately annotated by Bill Gates and I using PowerPoint.
I had originally thought of this as being a very brief trip down to Lytle, perhaps lunch at some undetermined restaurant, a few pictures of the things we find interesting and then back home. I also can tell you that I was eager to see first hand the evil Cabaret that has opened outside of the greater Lytle Metropolis, and get a picture of it. I did. You can read more about that over at Strange in SA.
From I-35 south, we headed down 132 which is also US-81 and for those that live there, Main Street. Lytle looks like a typical small town farming community, but a lot nicer than many of have seen in South Central Texas.
Of course, I love the older buildings along the main drag, but the mixture of new homes tastefully interspersed among the older neighborhood just a few blocks in town was a welcome sight for someone who would like to move outside of San Antonio, but not feel as though either everything will be brand spankin'-cookie cutter-new, or completely run down shacks inhabited by folks hiding from the law. Think Christine.
If you need to mail a package or a final resting place, you can do it in Lytle.
Okay, one final shot at the goofy Cabaret thing. The place is not only out of town, but by my calculation, it was also in the next county. When someone in Lytle says, Not in my backyard, they ain't kidding!
Just a stones throw down the road from Lytle is a tiny place called Natalia. It is probably much bigger than what you pass on 132, I mean, there is so much farm land out there and just wide open space, but to the Saturday afternoon drive-by, Natalia looks pretty small.
Sure, they have the post office and even their own memorial to those who have served. Very nicely done and well maintained. This alone is worth a trip to Natalia.
I noticed this tiny little chapel and I swear, I think I have seen this thing in another small town. And if you look at the picture, it looks as though it has been moved. Who knows? I know it is tall enough to walk in, but seriously, you'd have to go outside to change your mind.
Further down the road is the town of Devine. I really enjoyed this little place. We have some friends who live just on the other side of I-35 and it is easy to understand why they are willing to make the commute to San Antonio for work.
And these people put on a serious flea market! We didn't stop, although we seriously thought about it.
This is sort of interesting. You know how sometimes, some guy will open up a business and it does so well, he decides to open up another one right across town? Well, it turns out that some lady named Ruthie knows a good thing when she sees it. Hence, two lounges less than a mile apart. Technically, that is across town.
Devine does have your standard items - the water tower labeled appropriately, and a big huge bank. We actually stopped in the parking lot of the bank and purchased some Girl Scout cookies. The taste just the same out in the country as they do in the city.
One thing that you don't see everyday. A motorized wheelchair junkyard. I guess I just didn't realize there was such a market.
There is an intersection of Highways 132 and 173, and when you head back north, before long, you will make your way to Hondo - and that is what we did. The drive is wonderful. Open farmland and the occasional house. About half way to Hondo, you can begin to recognize the change in landscape. Off in the distance you can see the beginning of the Hill Country. On such a beautiful day, it is a crime not to own a convertible anymore.
I only post a handful of pictures on these little reports, but I often take close to a hundred pictures in just an hour or so. I have a method where I transfer the full-sized photos onto a portable hard drive, then delete the images on my 1gb disk for the camera. Apparently I forgot to clean up the disk, so by the time we got to Devine, my disk was full. First stop in Hondo was the Super Wal-Mart where I purchased two 1gb SD disks for $18.00. How did the people of Hondo survive before Wal-Mart?
Once in Hondo, we were simply famished. I'll tell you about the vittles next time.
Like a scene from a movie, the place is inhabited by a few bikers, the occasional odd looking person and more than a few people enjoying a cold bottle of beer on a hot day. If you are looking for an out of the way spot and your biggest priority is atmosphere like this, go ahead; you have got to make the trip.
But in our case, the thrill of seeing an extremely well put together collection of gas pumps, old signs and the standard obligatory "flair" required in most barbecue places, doesn't make the drive worth it if the food doesn't meet the image of the name. 
I'll tell you about our eating experience in a minute, but first, this is a place worth visiting at least once, especially if you are already within 10 miles of it. We hit shortly after the regular lunch crowd on Saturday and even then, the inside dining area was fairly crowded. 
Of course, I'm a huge fan of the cluttered walls image and this place is loaded with memorabilia, old signs and autographed pictures.
And though the main inside eating area is fairly normal in size, the outer area is huge. It was like revisiting John T. Floore Country Store when we saw the outside with all the picnic tables and such.
They even have sort of a fenced in kids play area. Complete with slide and electric rides.
You can tell that this place attracts many visitors who have read a positive thing or two about it - as we ate, people would leave and stop to pose for pictures out front.
Like many of the places we have hit for barbecue, these folks go with the traditional butcher paper in a plastic Coke crate, and you go down the line for your order. You can look into the case and see some sides and some of the meats. 
The baked potatoes are huge! When we were first standing in line, we had decided that one of our 4 sides would include the pinto beans, but after seeing them in the case, we opted to swap it for the German potato salad.
Our meal came out to $24.00, these folks some how managed to spend $47.00!
Anyway, we got two combos. The first one was a chicken and brisket combo. The brisket was not nearly as good as you would expect. It didn't look good, and it just didn't even come close to even some of the regular places we go like Bill Miller's or Grady's. And the chicken was fine, but after a few bites, my wife commented that it was just like normal chicken. Somebody notify Luby's. The chicken didn't even come close to McBee's and in all honesty, neither the chicken nor brisket should be mentioned in the same paragraph as Augie's Barbed Wire.
We also got the ribs and pork loin combo. These ribs were really good. With or without the sauce, they pulled right off the bone and the taste was superb. If I were to be in the area again, I'd surely order the full rack of ribs (like the couple in front of us did). The pork was fine, but I would have gladly taken more ribs instead.
Between the two meals, we got to select four sides. We had green beans which were okay, but not even close to Bill Miller's. There was some sort of macaroni with pepper on it and it was actually pretty good and I would definitely recommend it. Then we got two potato salads; the regular and the German. The regular potato salad was a No-Go. We both took two small bites of it and for the first time in the history of eating out, I left potato salad on the table. I think of the poor starving children in China and expect they will thank me for not sending this to them. It was horrible. The German potato salad on the other hand was Outstanding. I nearly licked the Styrofoam cup clean.
