Cypress – The suburbs of the Space City continue to reach for the stars, and the city of Cypress is right there skyrocketing in population with the rest of Houston. If you’re looking for a stop that provides some serene scenery away from the hustle and bustle, Murdoch’s Backyard Pub is a peaceful pit stop.
“It is hands down my favorite restaurant,” said Trammell Stewart. “I love this place.”
Rick Franke helped get Murdoch’s get off the ground, but the driving force behind this easygoing eatery is his daughter Sarah.
“There hasn’t been anything she’s made that I haven’t liked and that’s kind of a phenomenal thing,” Rick said.
This family effort includes his wife Gwen, and the namesake of this special place is their loveable lab named Murdoch.
“Excuse me just a second,” Rick said. “He just bit through his collar.”
Murdoch simply wanted to frolic among the flowers because that’s what brings out all sorts of smaller things.
“The fact that the dog can come out here and run with all the kids and the other dogs,” Karen Monroe said. “We love that.”
There’s a lot of four-legged friends around here.
“We do have a lot of four-legged friends, lizards, frogs, toads and cats,” Rick said.
The food is a big draw too because everything is made from scratch.
“She makes everything here,” Rick said. “So the mustard, the ketchup, the pickles, mayo, Kimchi, a Sauerkraut, all made here. Sarah makes all the sausages here in house. I think if you find the right ingredients, which she seems to have that talent to do, you can make just about anything.”
Since I had no idea which way to steer our sausage soiree, Sarah did our selecting. She got the grind and got us three different links.
“This one is the two Gs,” Sarah said. “Which stands for garlic and green onion. This one’s the Constantine named after an old friend of mine and it’s a Greek style sausage. It’s got lots of citrus flavors and we put some Pheta and some Kalamata olives in it.”
While the big ol’ bangers boiled up, we got our extras underway starting with Love Bites.
“It’s a big clove of garlic wrapped in bacon and then roasted in the oven,” Sarah said.
The sausages get scored and sit on a flat top while we find some toppings.
“There’s two things I loved,” Jon Gant said. “Bacon and garlic and it was a match made in heaven.”
Apparently, some of those four legged friends also think the food is fantastic.
“Sarah is just not your short order of a cook or somebody that can do fries and things,” Jerry Mutchler said. “She’s an absolute chef.”
It’s easy to see why the sausages are the fixtures of Murdoch’s Backyard Pub along with an incredible assortment of unique flavors you wouldn’t expect to find in a backyard. These flavors are well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List.
“We’re beyond normal,” Sarah said. “We’re not like anywhere else. It’s an interesting adventure.”