Round Rock – In the middle of downtown Round Rock, just a stone’s throw away from the town’s namesake, you’ll find the Palermo Pasta House. An elegant, yet down home Italian restaurant that has Argentinian roots.

“We’re really aiming at the pasta side of Argentine culture,” said owner Tony Giner. Tony grew up way south of here, in the South American country known for their Italian lineage. “In Argentina, half the people are of Italian descent. Even if I don’t have an Italian surname, there was always an Italian in the family. We grew up with Italian food as not Italian food, we just call it food. For us it’s normal. Doesn’t everyone’s grandma make ravioli on Sunday? That’s what’s expected,” explained Tony.

While he’s not a grandma, Tony does make all his own pastas and sauces by hand. “I do not describe myself as an Italian American eatery because it’s not exactly what I propose and what I aim for. I try to keep it more Italian with some of the influences of Argentina too,” stated Tony.

Tony has also mastered the art of making his own pasta. “It’s a different flavor and texture than dried pasta. There’s perfectly good, dried pasta, but making it fresh, it’s a different flavor, different texture. This is part of the Argentine thing that I imbue into what I do,” explained Tony.

Once you’ve picked your pasta, the next task is trying to figure out which of the 28 different types of sauces you want to try. “Kind of mind boggling because you read on through and then I got to go back to the beginning and see what I missed,” said customer Sue Gleisner.

“We start with red and white. Basically, you start with tomato basil and cream sauce. Cream, Parmesan, and butter. Then we start adding things. It’s like music. This is a chord and you add different layers to it,” explained Tony.

“It’s fascinating, even to see them and the distinction between all the sauces as well, the distinct flavors, the distinct looks, we’ve tried multiple different flavors of the sauces they’re all good,” said customer David Steward.

One does not simply order pasta here without a plethora of questions, so we let Tony put together his own tour of Italy.   Ramon the kitchen manager got things started.

“Now he’s going to be making the mushroom Marsala. That’s our mushroom base. It’s already been cooked with garlic and butter and seasonings. Now he’s going to caramelize them,” explained Tony. After that, cream and parmesan cheese complete the assemble while linguine warmed up and put in for pasta.

Next up in the pink mushroom sauce. Mushrooms are added once again but this time the tomato basil and cream sauce gets blended together while fusilli pasta is added.

Last but not least is the Puttanesca. The Puttanesca starts with capers, chopped kalamata olives and not butter, but garlic. Tomato basil sauce is added with a spicy topper.

With three distant dishes to try, I got my gaucho on and saddled up for wild ride of Argentinian/Italian cuisine. I dig into the mushroom Marsala with a fettuccine pasta first. The sauce smells buttery, and garlicky, and delicious. I must be telepathic because I knew that before I even tasted it!

“The food is fantastic,” said Sue.

“I love this place. It’s my favorite Italian place. It really is,” said customer Emilee Garner.

Next I moved on to the pink mushroom sauce with a fusilli pasta, kind of like a spiral pasta with a nice little mixture of tomato basil and cream. The tomato basil really comes out in that pasta, but it’s not super heavy. It’s very delicious. The fusilli pasta definitely gives this dish a little more oomph, a little more heaviness, but the sauce is amazing.

“It’s thicker. It’s better. It’s buttery. You can tell it’s fresh and it’s not frozen. That’s just the difference. You can really taste it,” said Emilee.

“Authentic, the flavor, everything is fresh, everything is great,” stated David.

Onto the Puttanesca. This has got a tomato basil with those capers and of course the Kalamata olives. Big bold flavors with a fancy tagliarini pasta.  This is just a big bowl of deliciousness!

“It’s so much better than anywhere else. I just can’t get anything else like I get here,” said Emilee.

“It’s pretty close. I’ve been to Italy,” stated Sue.

Well, if you’re looking for the perfect pasta dish or if calzones and pizza are more your speed come into the Palermo Pasta House in Round Rock, Texas. It is truly well worth the stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“You can’t go wrong. That’s what’s crazy. It’s like oh maybe this one won’t taste so good. You get it. You’re like, no, that tastes pretty good,” said David.

“It is a little bit different than what people are used to, but that’s what we’ve carved our niche, making fresh pasta and fresh sauces. Everything’s made in the house. Not everyone does that,” expressed Tony.

Houston – On the Northwest side of H-town, you’ll get a whiff of Gatlin’s coming out of the Oak Forest neighborhood. That smell of smokey, seasoned to perfection BBQ is so good that even all the gold in California couldn’t keep you away. “Out of body experience, that’s the best way I can put it,” said customer Anthony Lafleur.

“We do enough stuff to keep you on your toes,” said owner Greg Gatlin. Gatlin got things started at his namesake restaurant in 2010 and in case you’re wondering, he’s not related to the infamous singing Gatlin Brothers.

He is related to his parents Henry and Mary though. They’re on hand every day and when you arrive, you immediately feel like family. “When it started, it was me, my dad, my mom. Dad and I used to come on separate shifts in the middle of the night. He would come in the middle of the night, then I would get here probably… Over there probably about 4:30. And then he would come in right about 5:30, right after he took his nap, and then we were doing that every single day. Right now, I think it’s crazy, but then it was just the norm,” explained Greg.

Greg wasn’t always a BBQ man, he majored in economics and management and leading up to opening his Gatlin’s he was in commercial real estate. “We were going out and we were eating, you’re entertaining people, you’re traveling and whatnot, and I’m like, ‘I can cook better than some of the stuff that I’m eating.’,” said Greg. That’s when Greg got to work on Gatlin’s. “We used to barbecue all the time, it was just this thing. So my dad, my uncle, my great uncles and stuff. All the family reunions, church functions, they would all barbecue. So it was one thing we kind of knew how to do already. It was just, ‘Hey, how do you put your stamp on what you do?’,” said Greg.

So Greg crafted his BBQ to combine flavors from all over the region and was one of the first craft BBQ companies in the state. “The more things change, the more they stay the same, so the principles and the basics are always the same, but you know, you’re always looking to put your spin on or trying to see kind of what’s different out there. Is there a different taste? Is there a different way for us to do this,” said Greg.

Here you’ll find eight smoked meats and over a dozen sides to choose from. “There’s 14 different sides,” stated Greg. “I’m from Louisiana, so when I can see collard greens, barbecue, and Dirty Rice all on the same menu, it’s got to be a good place,” stated customer Mike Benjamin. “It’s a unique taste, I really can’t explain it, but it’s just a very unique taste, man, and it’s something that I love from the beginning,” said Anthony.

Surprisingly Greg wanted to feature a sandwich, actually two of them. So who am I to turn him down?  We start with breakfast. “The Brisket Biscuit is a staple, which is going to be your Cathead biscuit right there. You got your smoked brisket, grilled onions and jalapenos, and on top that with some cheese, it’ll be…It’s good stuff,” said Greg.

Executive Chef Michelle Wallace got the big ol’ biscuit toasted on the flattop while pickled jalapenos and onions also got grilled. Throw in an egg and some brisket and we’re cooking. Greg stirs up things up with a condiment that compliments the sandwich completely, bacon jam. Throw on cheese and slap it together and you’ve got The Brisket Biscuit.

We’re not done yet, Greg also got things started on a smoked pastrami sandwich. “We brine and smoke our own pastrami. It’s about a nine-day process depending on the size of the brisket. Yeah, all the spices we toast off, get them in the brine, set them in the walk-in for about a good nine days,” explained Greg.

The thinly sliced beef gets warmed up with marble rye bread and a creole mustard made in house mixed in with sauerkraut is spread on. Swiss cheese is melted on top while a slice of BBQ turkey is added for good measure.

It’s time to sit down with some sizable sandwiches, and you got to start with breakfast. Time to gracefully go in for a bite.  It’s safe to say breakfast sandwiches are not supposed to be this good. Every single thing that’s in this sandwich, it smacks you in the face. You don’t even taste jalapenos, that brisket is so good, it just goes with everything.

As for the pastrami, it too is a certified hit. The brisket and turkey has amazing flavor, but that Creole mustard with the sauerkraut in it, wow! “There’s a number of barbecue places throughout the city, but in my opinion, this is THE barbecue spot,” said Anthony.

To say the brisket is tender would be an understatement. “The only downside is having to go back to work afterwards,” joked customer Matt Duca.

Next time we’re heading to Houston, I’ll definitely be singing one day closer to you because coming to Gatlin’s for the Brisket Biscuit and the pastrami sandwich, now that’s well worth the stop on The Texas Bucket List.

Odessa – When it comes to finding unique food stops in the Petroplex, I’ve been looking far and wide to strike it rich. But as soon as I stepped foot into the Curbside Bistro, I could tell this stop is something special. “It’s like a best kept secret,” said customer Kim Stewart. “It’s crazy. It really is crazy. People love to eat here,” said owner Alejandro Barrientos.

Alejandro and his wife Stephanie are the foodies that founded the Curbside Bistro back in 2014 but this business is a far cry from working in the oil field. Alejandro knows firsthand. “Being in the oil field, you kind of have some downtime and start seeing what you want to do, your passion for it. And I’ve always had a passion for barbecue, and it wasn’t until I started researching, you could make your own barbecue sauce. You could make your own barbecue rubs. So I started experimenting and I started cooking,’ explained Alejandro.

After attending culinary school, Alajandro took a leap of faith and started out in a food truck but it wasn’t any run of the mill food truck. “I saved up money. Me and her [Stephanie], we bought a box truck. I used an oil field box truck. Completely gutted, there was nothing in it. And then, one paycheck I would save up and then we’d buy the fryer and then, okay, we scratched that off our list. And then what do we need now? We need a hot water heater. How much is it? This much. All right, let’s start saving. So me and her, we would save, we’d put our money together and we bought it slowly, but little by little,” explained Alejandro.

Those closest to Alajandro were somewhat encouraging. “You know, we tell family and friends, hey, we’re opening a food truck. They’re like, ‘Oh, that’s awesome. What kind of tacos are you going to sell?’,” joked Alejandro.

Taco wasn’t what was on his mind, instead he wanted to create crazy concoctions of serious sliders and freaky fries full of flavor. It wasn’t long before folks were fond of his food truck but the next step would be even bigger for Alajandro and his wife. ‘You want to take this leap of faith with me?’ She goes, ‘Yeah let’s do it.’ So we both kind of quit both our jobs and dove head first into this. And haven’t looked back,” said Alejandro.

That courageous leap of faith was pretty daunting to Alejandro and Stephanie. “Oh yeah. It’s very scary. You go from knowing you’re going to get a paycheck every Friday benefits, stable job, to hey, we don’t sell these burgers we don’t eat. But you know, no risk, no reward. We knew something was calling us into us. God was moving us and opening doors for us, and we knew this is what we had to do,” expressed Alejandro.

His most sought-after slider, the Tejano Borracho. “It’s a blended mushroom patty topped with pulled pork, kickin’ bourbon sauce. We add a little alcohol in there, a fried jalapeno corn fritter, cilantro ranch, queso and all sandwiched in a brioche bun,” said Alejandro.

 Holy moly! This slider is so sensational, it’s made it all the way to New York City! “That one actually won us the James Beard Foundation competition, where we went to James Beard House in New York city. We had to represent West Texas,’ stated Alejandro.

Let’s go cook a Drunk Texan! Alejandro starts off with a patty that’s 70 percent beef and 30 percent mushrooms and while the sliders sizzle up, Alajandro gets started on my side. “Wait til you see the Buffalo fries. You’ll be like, oh this is awesome,” joked Alejandro.

Fresh marinated chicken is battered and fried while fries are topped with cheese, the chicken, cilantro ranch and buffalo sauce. The small sized burger is topped with pulled pork, bourbon BBQ sauce, fresh jalapenos, pickles, some cilantro ranch, the jalapeno corn fritter and a bit of jalapeno queso.

As soon as I sat down to enjoy the meal, I knew Alejandro had hooked us up with one insane plate. The Buffalo fries are over stacked. The sliders are trying to hold things together and somehow we’re going to devour this. “I come for this and I don’t deviate,” said Kim.

The marinated chicken with that house made ranch and Buffalo sauce just takes things to a whole other level. “We always get the full order, cause go big go home,” joked customer John Stewart.

Now I understand why the Buffalo fries are so popular! “I don’t share. I get the full order and it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. And I do this once or twice a week with my husband and without,” joked Kim.

I guess we should go ahead and slide on into the sliders. Never has one bite provided so much fantastic flavor. “You can’t get it anywhere else. This is the only one here in West Texas or in existence,” said John.

Well, if you’re a fan of rich flavors that bring out the biggest and boldest taste that we love here in Texas, coming here to the Curbside Bistro in Odessa is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “I cut my teeth in the restaurant business here in Odessa, and for a lot of young culinarians, they want to go to Austin, Houston, go to big name chefs. And I said, no, I want to make this my home, this is where I was born and raised, I got my family and friends. I want to represent Odessa and show them that, ‘Hey, we can be just as good as those guys or not better.’ And I wanted to show young culinarians that are getting their start in culinary school that, ‘Hey, you can make it here too.’ You don’t have to go to these big cities,” expressed Alejandro.

Marathon – Brewster County is the biggest county in our state, covering over 6,000 square miles! It’s home to Big Bend, Terlingua, Alpine and Marathon. The whole county has three BBQ joints and the Brick Vault is one of them.

“There wasn’t much. I don’t really know of any other place other than us. There’s a good spot there in Marfa, Convenience West is good, but other than that, there wasn’t any barbecue out here,” said owner Phillip Moellering.

Moellering didn’t mull over the idea of opening a BBQ joint in this desolate destination because it seemed like the perfect fit in the eclectic destination that is Marathon. “Yeah, it sounds crazy. It’s not like the hill country where you can get the barbecue in every town.  It’s so quiet. The mountains, it slows down out here. I mean, there’s not much traffic, it’s peaceful and it’s a place where you can just lose yourself and get away,” expressed Phillip.

Just steps from the Gage Hotel and the White Buffalo Bar, some of my favorite stops in the whole state, the Brick Vault gets its name from a brick vault in the back that was part of the original building built in 1886. In 1927 the building burnt down but the brick vault survived and it’s still smoking today. ‘It is a smoker. It’s a cold smoke, it doesn’t put off a whole lot of heat, which we don’t want. We’re just trying to get the smoke on there for the bacon,” said Phillip.

The rest of the BBQ is cooked in an offset 1000-gallon smoker and that includes the inhouse made sausage. “We try to do a different sausage every week. We try to do our play on a Queso Flameado, which is Asadero cheese, and we, kind of like a chorizo, and we just stuff it all in there,” explained Phillip.

Souped-up sausage isn’t the craft offering you can cash in on at the Brick Vault, there’s also craft beer. “For me, it like checks all the boxes. It’s physically demanding. It’s creatively demanding, and it’s mentally demanding,” said brew master Amy Oxenham.

Oxenham attended the prestigious Siebel Institute of Technology, has a degree in Biology, and previously worked at Big Bend Brewing. “All of that together. I like to think I’m a pretty well-rounded brewer,” joked Amy.

Her beer recipes resonate with the region.  From a crisp Mexican Lager to a sweet pecan porter and her beers pair perfectly with Phillip’s BBQ. “She has the ability to do whatever she wants in regards to her beer profiles, and that’s what I think attracts people here,” said Phillip. “There is just so much craftsmanship and passion and design that went in to that one meal,” stated Amy.

Phillip got started pulling things off the pit for my plate and that’s about the time I noticed, there are not very many cows or wood in these parts. Pretty much anything you need in this neck of the woods has to make the journey to get here. “We get our wood from our family spot there in Fredericksburg. We get a delivery from my cousin every six weeks. He brings about four cords every six weeks,” said Phillip.

Brisket, turkey, ribs and three different styles of sausage took up our entire tray.  I decided to start with the house made specialty sausage.  It looks amazingly coarse and once you taste it, it’s beautifully spiced. “I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a big sausage fan. I’m a fan of this sausage,” said customer Janis Jobe.

From there we’ll do the Jalapeno Cheddar which is stuffed with cheese and it’s just as tasty as the original, just spicier and cheesier. And finally, the Queso Flameado Sausage. A good spicy sausage, not as coarse, but just as cheesy and delicious!

We went to Phil’s ribs and they had a nice vinegary finish and were delicious. “The ribs are huge and full of meat,” said customer Eloise Haynes

Finding barbecue turkey that moist in the Chihuahuan Desert. That’s a find! “Goldmine. I mean, it really is. It’s just a gold mine,” said customer Tony Currer.

And finally the brisket, smokey, sensational with that salt and pepper finish! “Super yummy food,” said Eloise.

You shouldn’t be able to find barbecue this good in West Texas. “It’s really that good. It really is. And I mean it seriously. You can’t really explain it until it just hits your mouth. And then once it hits your mouth, you’re just like, wow. That’s good barbecue. That’s great stuff,” said Tony.

Well, if the love of your life is looking for that romantic trip out to Marathon, we’ve got some good news for you. There’s a place for beer and barbecue and it’s called the Brick Vault. And it’s well worth the stop on The Texas Bucket List! “Like nothing you’ll ever taste,” said Eloise. “It’s fun. It’s a lot of hard work though. I mean, it’s long hours. It’s hard work, but at the end of the day seeing someone enjoy their meal is what it’s all about,” expressed Phillip. “There is a lot of incredible work that goes into curating this experience. And I think we do a good job, honestly,” said Amy.

Cedar Creek – If you’ve even traveled between San Marcos and Bastrop, you know how crazy Highway 21 can be. Sometimes you just want to pull off the highway to take a break from the ever-growing amount of traffic on this two-lane road.

The Texas Roadstand is the perfect place to do just that, just be sure you don’t accidently pass up this little place on this precarious road. “I actually passed it on the way and I’ve been here before,” joked customer Rebecca Birdwell.

“The sound of traffic is the sound of money. But the sound of traffic is also… I live here. So the sound of traffic is really, it’s very loud,” said owner Marian Barrett. Marian is a Jersey girl that had enough of the Garden State and got to Texas as quickly as she could. “Even though I’m not perfectly Texas, I try to be,” joked Marian.

After getting a culinary degree and Walnut Hill College, she worked in restaurants from France to Philly but wanted her own place. So in 2016, she found 7 acres with a small building on the side of the road in Cedar Creek and opened The Texas Roadstand. “It was an old vegetable stand. Just sitting on the side of the road and everybody knew it as the vegetable building because it said “Vegetables” on the front. And when we painted it over, people were mad. They were like, ‘Why would you do that? It’s a landmark?’ I’m like, ‘It’s something new now,” explained Marian.

Being from New Jersey, Marian wasn’t ready for the reception she received when she turned on the grill and started making food for the traveling masses. “People were very, very excited about helping. They were just like ‘What can we do to make you succeed?’ I was like, that restored my faith in humanity. I was like, ‘Wow. You know, they really are. They really want to help people out here. They really want to see you succeed. That whole independence thing is like awesome,” expressed Marian.

In order to continue that success Marian had to have good food and we don’t just show up for anything. First and foremost are her famed pickles. “People really like pickles out here. I learned that,” stated Marian. “She makes her own pickles too. The pickles are really good,” said customer David Rice. “I added this kind of as an afterthought. And this was the best afterthought I ever came up with,” joked Marian.

Cut up cucumbers, dill, rosemary, proprietary pickle seasoning and jalapenos are added to her brine mixture and allowed to ferment over a week. “I grew up eating east coast pickles, kosher dills. And it is based on an east coast kosher dill pickle. It’s just something different,” explained Marian. While these cured cucumbers tickled my pickle, I was here for something a little more hearty, her hamburgers.

“Make sure you get me the one with the crunchy onions,” said Rebecca. Known as the Podcast Burger, this crunchy creation might have a new name once we’re done featuring it.

As the fatty meat and cheese cooks, Marian gets the onion strings fried up and the bacon jam heated up to perfection! “I have a vegan that comes once a year. And this is the only burger that she’ll eat,” said Marian.

Marian takes her house made rolls and creates this monstrously sized burger with a massive amount of onions on it. The Podcast Burger, which is like a bacon jam burger, just on steroids and with one bite you can definitely tell that burger is a ride through texture town. “Instead of mustard and ketchup and stuff, it just is a whole different taste,” said David. “It’s just so juicy. And I mean, it’s a good hamburger,” said Rebecca.

Well, if you’re looking for a really good burger that happens to be on the side of the road, come into the Texas Roadstand in Cedar Creek. It’s well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List! “This has been an absolutely life-changing experience for me, getting to know the people and my customers and how beautiful and how pure souls these people are. I’ve never experienced that before. I’ve never had people who want to see me succeed just to see me succeed,” expressed Marian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Del Rio – Whenever we’re on the road, we always look for unique places to feature.  When it came to driving around Del Rio, it didn’t take long to find Meme’s. Carolina Gonzalez is the senior sibling that helps run this little chicken shack that happens to be across the street from a really big grocery store. “I’ve had people say, ‘Oh, you can smell Meme’s. Forget the groceries. We’re going to have to go order Meme’s.’,” joked Carolina.

Meme’s Kleen Kitchen takes two things very seriously, cleanliness of course and family. “I’m here with my sister, so we’ve raised our kids together. I have three and she has one and we’ve been pregnant at the same time. We’ve raised them together, and Del Rio is home,” said Carolina.

“I am completely honored to be able to run the business and manage it along with my family,” said Azalea Gonzalez.

Azalea Gonzalez has been here since her father Joey Gonzalez bought Meme’s. Owning Meme’s was a dream of Azalea’s and Carolina’s dad for a long time and after a long career on the railroad, Joey got to purchase the place that’s been a part of Del Rio since the 50’s. “Meme’s is something that he had always wanted, and he says, ‘ Meme’s is a family business, so I won’t be doing it alone. Everybody’s going to do it.’ And literally, that’s exactly what has happened,” said Carolina.  “We all do a little bit of everything here to continue the legacy that my father started,” expressed Azalea.

When Azalea says “we all”, she means we all. Turns out the Gonzales’ already have the next generation filling orders and helping around the family business. “When we say that Meme’s Kleen Kitchen is a family-owned business and we’re all in it together, we are literally all in it together. He’d be very proud of them. He’s proud of them that they’re all in here doing a little bit and learning the business. That’s what he wanted,’ expressed Carolina.

Joey passed away in 2013 but the family keeps the clean kitchen ticking. “It’s pretty awesome to be able to share the experience that my dad shared with us, with them and our kids,” said Azalea. “We always remind the kids that their grandfather was a man of his word. He lived by his word. It was integrity. And that’s the kind of man he was, so here we are,” said Carolina.

Now the clean part of this equation is taken very seriously because customers can see everything going on in the cleansed kitchen from all sorts of crazy angles thanks to windows on just about every side of the kitchen. “People have come to the window and said, oh my God, y’all are busy, but it’s always so clean. And we’re like, well, we take pride in that as well,” stated Carolina.

With their history, their reputation, and their food.  Meme’s Kleen Kitchen truly is close-knit to this community and surrounding communities as well. “I love this spot. I’ve been coming here since probably before I was born. So I was in mama’s womb eating at Meme’s, so now that I’m out of it and driving it myself, I get here as much as I can,” said Frenchy.

Azalea got us geared up for an assortment of their goodies.“We have our own batter. We have our own secret little ingredients that go in there. The ladies who make the chicken, it’s a gift. It really is,” said Carolina.

Chicken wasn’t the only thing on the menu at Meme’s. The battered fries are a big thing here. And jalapenos come with every order. Azalea made sure we got a little bit of everything here, so we have a few things to go through and I’m going to start with those incredible battered fries. I’ve seen a lot of fries across the Lone Star State, but I’ve never seen anything like it, and they are delicious!  “The greasiness, you bite it in your mouth. I just love it,” said Josie.

As for the chicken, it is good a greasy and full of flavor.  Just be sure to add a jalapeno slice to each and every bite to get the full authentic experience!  “Crunchiness, juiciness, delicious,” stated customer Chelo Luna. “I can’t even describe it, man. I just get emotional thinking about it. It’s awesome,” joked Frenchy.

Well, if you’re looking for a rare bird in Southwest Texas, coming into Meme’s for some fried chicken at this Kleen Kitchen is well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List!