For my money, Cackle & Oink on Texoma Parkway in Sherman is the best sit-down BBQ place in the area. My opinion is that for BBQ at its best you can’t beat a top notch stand, joint, or shack. But when it comes to a comfortable place to sit and enjoy a plate of ribs or pulled pork, Cackle & Oink is the place.
Over the past few weeks our family has tried every one of the recommendations from your BBQ Joints, Shacks & Stands article. All have something special to like and two were new to us altogether. How about taking on something different like chicken fried steak, hamburgers (again), and other kind of traditional comfort food? Texoma Living! is a treat that can’t be beat.
While you can order a brisket or pulled pork sandwich or a barbecue plate, what sets Denison’s Old Mining Camp apart are the innovative things Darrell and Rebecca Harris come up with to utilize their smoked meats.
In the wide world of barbecue, the spoon vittles that come along side the main attraction depend on where you are. In the South, there is usually a cup of Brunswick stew, the everything-in-a-pot concoction originally made with rabbit, squirrel, chicken, beef, pork, corn, potatoes, lima beans, tomatoes, and whatever, and claimed by both Virginia and Georgia. The other staples are coleslaw, and crackers—for the stew— and cornbread, well larded with cracklin’s if you’re lucky.
Nick Williams at Williams Old Style BBQ in Colbert, Oklahoma is the hands down choice for the POSam Memorial Brown Gravy Sauce Award for the second year running.
His smoker is hitched behind his truck, and he takes it home every evening when he closes up his stand just east of the Interstate. The work space in the stand he had built and then mounted on a homemade trailer is tight—submarine galley tight. “It so small, I just about reached the point where I can’t add anything else to the menu,” he said. He prepares an order when it’s ordered and not before. “I make real food, not fast food,” he tells customers who get impatient.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Edd’s potato salad. It’s way more than just good. “I can’t take credit for that,” Fleming said. “My mom makes the potato salad, and I’m not quite sure everything she puts in it.” Oh well, even the closest of families have a few secrets.
In Texoma recently, a baker’s dozen of serious barbecue students spent a Saturday afternoon looking for something good to eat. What follows are the notes from the road, a consolidation of their opinions, as they went looking for barbecue, looking for meat, and finding Texoma’s Favorite BBQ Joints, Shacks & Stands.
Use these links to find stories from our 2009 coverage of Texoma’s Favorite BBQ Joints, Shacks & Stands. A reminder to call ahead to make sure the place is still open. These listings have NOT been updated. The BBQ Joint by Edward Southerland BBQ: It’s a Matter of Taste by Edward Southerland PO Sam’s Brown […]
Learned men may differ on the reasons, but one school of opinion holds that the best barbecue comes from joints.