Palestine – Over in picturesque Palestine of all places, there’s a pub with some serious sandwiches called the Pint and Barrel Drafthouse. “A lot of people told us we were crazy, but then they can’t imagine the town without us, now,” stated owner Chris Keller.

Chris is the crazy man behind the Pint and Barrel Drafthouse in the old town part of Palestine and his place is pretty unique. “It was built as a garage for the Palestine Electric Company, so it’s a garage, it was a barn, and we’ve managed to de-barn it a little bit, but it’s still pretty barn-y,” joked Chris.

Chris moved to Palestine to pour his soul into this watering hole found by his father-in-law a few years back. “He sent me a text of this building, for the picture of this building, and said, ‘Hey, you want to put a pub here?’ Why is this not a pub,” explained Chris. After years of searching for the perfect place, this nearly 100-year-old building turned out to be the perfect place for a plethora of pints.

Chris has had a fondness for frothy beer his whole life and has worked from the sales side to even brewing beer at St. Arnold’s in Houston. “Still, after running the business for almost seven years. Yeah, brewing was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s a lot of physical labor and I mean, imagine doing a triathlon and having to stop in the middle of it and do math, right,” said Chris.

Now he gets to enjoy a cold beer amongst the trees of east Texas while surrounded by at least half a dozen churches within half a mile of his place. “There are a lot of churches in this town.” That church right there, actually, I had to measure my front door to, and we had an extra 20 feet.” Just to make sure. But, come to find out, the pastor, I met him actually at the bar, he was sitting with his wife up there at the bar,” explained Chris. Fortunately, the faithful and found a place of fellowship at their friendly neighborhood pub.“We went to the Church, and all throughout the pews were our regulars, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I know you people. That’s great.’ I didn’t have to meet very many people for the first time going over there because I already know them,” joked Chris.

Now it seems Chris knows just about everybody in town. “We’ve become the living room of the town, really this is exactly what a pub needs to be, a place for the public to come up here and meet and talk,” stated Chris.

But then there’s the food and that’s what takes the Pint and Barrel to a whole new place. “I’ve never had anything that was bad here,” customer Dollinda Toole.

Now the reason the food is so fine here has to do with head chef Scotty Mick. “Whatever Scott wants to do, I’m like, “Just tell me how much it costs, so I know how much to charge, that’s all I’m going to say,” said Chris. “I love to cook and please people, and feed people, and make peoples’ bellies happy,” stated Scotty.

Scotty wanted to feature two of his famous dishes, the Green Grilled Cheese and Three Little Piggy. “You got to get yourself a three piggy. That’s our pulled pork sandwich, with fried spam and bacon,” stated Chris.

Scotty first cooked up the green grilled cheese by toasting two pieces of sweet sourdough bread, spreading on some mayo while adding muenster cheese, onions and tomatoes.  On top of that is their house made spinach and artichoke dip. That’s covered with provolone and allowed to melt all together. “You just want a real good melt on that cheese, you want it all to ooze out of it,” said Scotty while heating up the sandwich.

Then it’s time for the Three Little Piggy. While toasting the buns, Scotty busts out the pork he’s proud of. “This is my baby right here. I smoke usually every day, except Mondays and Tuesdays. So, what we’re going to do is, basically put a nice, healthy amount of meat on the sandwich.”  That heap of meat ended up being nearly three quarters of a pound!

After warming up a preposterous amount of pork, Scotty starts slamming the sammich together. “We’re going to shoot a little bit of this, this is my world-famous secret barbecue sauce that I make almost daily. Nobody even knows, not even my wife knows the recipe on this,” joked Scotty.

Then comes the fried Spam. And that’s topped with three pieces of bacon. “That’s the three piggy, and that’s what you’ll get when you come here, you will get that sandwich exactly like you see it right there,” said Scotty.

Well, we obviously have a preposterous amount of food here in Palestine, and we’re going to start with a smaller offering, the green grilled cheese. Looking so nice and quaint next to that big old pork sandwich, but this is not lacking in any flavor.  “Something totally different that I’ve never had before, and the soup that goes with it. It’s to die for,” said customer Dollinda Toole

Onto the star of the show, The Three Piggy. Well, I’ve got the perfect escape hatch, my mouth. So many different textures when you bite into that sandwich, the pulled pork, nice and soft, the spam, a little grilled, and then that crunchy bacon. That is the most ridiculous pulled pork sandwich I’ve ever seen or eaten. “I can’t do the three piggy, that would take me like a week to eat,” said Dollinda. “I like their sauce, and it’s just really slow cooked, it’s tender and juicy and melts in your mouth,” said customer Sheila Staples.

Well, after you have The Three Little Piggy, you’ll definitely huff and puff, you’re not going to blow any houses down either.

“It’s in Palestine, it’s a small community, you just have to come, you have to experience it,” said Kay.

Beaumont – When it comes to BBQ in Beaumont, the oldest name in these parts is Patillo’s. “My grandfather had this place built in 1950. Prior to that, we were in downtown Beaumont,” said owner Robert Patillo. Mr. Patillo is the 4^th generation caretaker of this old school southeast Texas BBQ joint that has all sorts of soul.  The first thing that hits you when you walk into the Patillo’s in the smell of BBQ smoke soaked into the walls. “You walk out smelling like barbecue,” stated customer Gabby Cavazos.

While Patillo’s may have a pit that’s been blowing smoke since the 50’s, the tradition of Robert’s restaurant goes all the way back to 1912 when his grandfather Jackson Patillo started the family business in BBQ. “Very few people, they have to be newcomers but the old families here in Beaumont know the Patillo’s.  And with that name, we are about the only black family in Beaumont with that name. Some people say it was Portuguese. Somebody wanted to say it was Spain. Then some say Italian. And then I really haven’t gotten with ancestry to find that out,” explained Robert.

The lineage that matters here is the line of BBQ men that the Patillo’s have put out for over 100 years.  “Commitment. That’s what it is all about. Being committed to your business in order to make it successful in order to survive in it,” stated Robert.

Patillo’s is the oldest family-owned BBQ joint in the state and Robert started working here with his grandfather Frank in the late 50’s. “He believed that hard work makes a good guy. I worked for $3 a day. You got here every day at eight o’clock. I didn’t get here at eight o’clock. He hit that door at 10 after he would tell me, to go home. Only once that happened,” said Robert.

While there may be one way to describe the BBQ here. “Old school.  Very much so. We have the old brick pit we’ve been doing that way since we’ve been in business,” stated Robert. Robert is being modest.  There’s so much more going on here thanks to an incredible combination of soul food, Cajun cuisine, Tex-Mex flair, and Texas BBQ coming together to have an influence on everything from the sides to the sought-after sausage links. “The links have been our, I’m going to be honest with you, I think that’s really our salvation through the years, because they’ve been the same. We make them the same as we did years ago,” expressed Robert. But it’s not simply the sausage that has kept up the stamina of Patillo’s.

“A person wants to live in this world. They got to have, you got to have to believe in that, man. That’s all I can tell you. You know, so many down days, it’s just rough. I can attribute that to my success. And good employees too,” explained Robert. Pitmaster Quincy Akers has been here since 2007.  “I was looking for a job and my cousin, his nephew, told me about it. He was like, ‘Hey man, you want to come here and get a job.’ And I came and talked to Mr. Rob and I’ve been here ever since,” explained Quincy.

“I was like, it’s a privilege and I’m blessed just to be working for him, he teaches me a lot of stuff, man. I, everything I know about it and hear it from this man right here. Everything,” stated Quincy.

Quincy didn’t waste any time putting together a plate with two of the most popular meats at Patillo’s for me, sausage and ribs, sort of the specialties here at Patillo’s.  The ribs have a nice sturdy bark with tender pork in the middle. It didn’t take long to taste the old school flavor that’s been carefully crafted. “They’re tender, but they don’t fall off the bone tender, but it’s kind of a happy medium to where it’s not messy everywhere,” said Gabby. The bark on the rib holds all that pork together and then you get to the meat and it is smoky.

The sauce is definitely not your typical barbecue sauce. It’s almost like a spicy Cajun flavor and more of a beef broth that really coats the meat and just adds a whole different flavor profile to ribs here in Southeast Texas. “I don’t know how long they cook it for, but it’s good,” stated Hector.

And then what Patillo’s is known for, sausage. Cooked in-house and coarsely ground with an extremely unique spicy flavor and texture like chorizo.  Very unique and extremely flavorful, truly like nothing I’ve ever had anywhere in the Lone Star State! “It ends up going fast because it’s just so good,” stated Gabby.

Well, if you’re ever looking for some bodacious barbecue in Beaumont or some sausage that will seriously spice up your life, coming to Patillo’s in Beaumont as well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“I’m very proud of it. I mean that we have continuously been here, you know? I thank God for the blessings. You know. Thank God. It’s been a smooth ride and hey, if the good Lord calls me home tomorrow, I have no complaints,” expressed Robert.

Wichita Falls – Downtown Wichita Falls has been bustling with business since 1882. One of the hubs for business here is over on the corner of 8^th and Lamar.  There you’ll find the old Hamilton Building, a cornerstone for companies in this corner of Texas since 1927.  But if you can make your way past the entrance to the ornate lobby and take the side door to a mysterious ordinary hall, you’ll find a latent location with lots of really good food.

Kyle Dalka is the crazy man of Hungarian descent that decided to open his eatery with interesting offerings in this literal hole in the wall. “When we opened, we really only expected to get a lot of the building traffic, but we’ve grown such a clientele from across town even,” explained Kyle.

Kyle grew up in an Indiana town but then he grew up tall and he grew up right, and he left for Texas where the stars are big and bright. His first stop was the Capitol City.  Unfortunately, Austin was just not the place for Kyle. “I loved it. It’s great. It’s expensive. Me and my wife were having a kid. I was 21, so it was just not possible at the time, sadly,” said Kyle.

So why Wichita Falls? “So at that time, an article had come out about (Wichita Falls) being the cheapest place to live for a big city. This was supposed to be a stopping point. In 2 years, we were going to get our bearings straight and move to a bigger city again. And we got stuck here,” said Kyle lovingly.

Kyle kicked off his own culinary creation in a food truck but then moved to the Hamilton building in 2018. “This had been a great restaurant space for two other restaurants that are still locally owned here. It’s been an incubator for some restaurants to be able to go on and do bigger things,” said Kyle.

Kyle is on track to do the same thing thanks to his creative culinary twists on totally terrific dishes. “We’re trying to do things that everyone can have some knowledge about, but then flip it on its head,” said Kyle.

Today, we’re trying two of those marvelous mishmashes. The Korean chicken sandwich and the Waldorf Salad. “People will just go crazy over the salad. It’s nuts,” stated Kyle.

Considering our sizable stature, it was comical to see together in Kyle’s itty-bitty kitchen but that didn’t stop Kyle from getting things started with the sandwich. “Everyone eats a fried chicken sandwich. We just dip ours in a Korean style barbecue sauce with a jalapeno lime aioli, lettuce, quick pickle, cucumbers, and cilantro,” explained Kyle.

Kyle dips breaded non-GMO chicken into a secret combination of Korean urbs and spices. “This is one recipe that we hold near and dear to our heart. Everyone who comes in here has to work here a little while before they’re actually able to make it,” said Kyle.

Once fried up, it gets placed on a toasted brioche bun with aioli, hydroponically grown lettuce, locally grown cilantro, and quick pickled cucumbers.

Next up, the chicken for the Waldorf salad.“We marinade it in a ton of lemon juice, garlic, oregano and olive oil,” said Kyle. While that cooks, the salad is sorted with a variety of ingredients, from local lettuce, Granny Smith apples, fresh red grapes, aged white cheddar that comes from Waco, and candied pecans. “So this is where it changes. We also add avocado and it just comes with a side of our white balsamic.”  Considering the dressing was green, I had a few questions. “We use a bunch of herbs in it, so chive, basil, thyme, white balsamic, shallot, honey, salt and pepper. And then we emulsify it with some of that Texas olive oil,” explained Kyle.

“I pretty much know where the good salads are and this is one,” said customer Tara Rice.

You got that chicken marinated and cooked to perfection on top of that incredible bed of lettuce, and all the flavors coming out of that dressing. All those fresh herbs just make an incredible difference. “The best salad you’re going to get in town,” said customer Martin Kipp.

Easy to say, the Waldorf is worth checking into.  As for the Korean fried chicken sandwich.  “It’s very different. I’ve never had it anywhere else,” said Tara.

The chicken has an amazing flavor with a little spicy and then you get into those cucumbers and that jalapeno lime aioli, and it just puts a whole other twist on that Korean chicken. Sort of like a little bon mi me flare with a Texan kiss.

“This adds a twist on the spices, so it’s fantastic to try something new with a different spin on it,” said customer Karen Bivonn.

You might remember the great fast food Chicken Sandwich Wars of 2019. This blows it out of the water. “Good food, it’s original, it has its own spin on things,” stated Martin.

Well, if you’re looking for some unique food in Wichita Falls, just find the Hamilton building and come on in the side entrance to Progress and Provisions, a perfect stop on The Texas Bucket List! “You’re going to get food here that’s local, fresh and something you probably never had before,” stated Kyle.

Freeport – Before you find yourself on the sunny shores of Surfside Beach in southeast Texas, you have to intersect through a few industrial areas going through Freeport.  Sitting smack dab in between those plants is a place you’d never expect to find here.  La Sirenita Seafood N Grill.

“It’s a great experience to come here and eat,” stated customer John Boridy. “It’s just a great hidden place,” said customer Milan Miller.

Ivan Alvarez and his wife Herminia are the fine folks who have a fondness for fresh seafood and owners of La Sirenita which is housed at a location that used to be the place to go to for fresh bait. “Even to this day, people think this is a bait shop. They stop by, they come out of their car with their buckets. They’re looking for bait,” joked Ivan.

Ivan has spent the better part of his life at this little restaurant since his stepfather bought the place in 2000 and opened a restaurant called Willie Joe’s.  “When I was a kid, I didn’t see myself back over here doing what I grew up doing when I was a kid. It’s crazy, but it’s a blessing, most of all, to be able to do it again,” stated Ivan.

Cooking wasn’t the chosen career choice for Ivan, his first path in the labor pool took him down the pipefitter path. “The plants are usually where everybody goes. That’s where the money’s at. So I was working in the plants for a lot of years,” explained Ivan.

But Ivan decided to take the leap into the restaurant business.

“Exactly. Yeah, it was scary at first. The first year was the toughest. I even told my wife, ‘You know what, maybe it’s not for me. Maybe I should just keep doing what I’ve been doing forever.’ And like I said, she’s my backbone, she’s always supported me. She told me, ‘No, Ivan, you got a gift. You keep pushing and keep grinding it out. You’re going to get somewhere.’ She was right, you know,” said Ivan.

Well we had to see what Herminia had so much faith in, so Ivan gave us all he got with the Big Daddy basket. “Let me go ahead and throw in the crawfish in there,” stated Ivan. As the bountiful selection of seafood, including snow crab, shrimp, and king crab boiled, Ivan added a few other goodies. Mushrooms and boiled eggs. “They’re a big hit, actually. People love them boiled eggs in there,” said Ivan.

Once the seafood crustacean collection was cooked, we headed in the kitchen to kick things up a notch. “So this is my own seasoning that I make. And right here, we got a little bit of cayenne. Some people love it real spicy, so we throw a little cayenne in there,” explained Ivan as he doused the seafood in spice.

“And this right here, oh man, this is what people go crazy for. It’s our signature house butter. And we put this on everything,” explained Ivan as he heaped on two big globs of butter and shook up the mixture till it was ready to go.

After having a hard time figuring out what to try first, I went with a mushroom. It’s easy, you can pop it and my first reaction, that butter sauce is ridiculous.

“Oh, all that butter and garlic, it just amazes. The flavor is amazing,” said customer Milan Miller.

I can’t even call it garlic-butter sauce. There’s so much stuff going on inside that butter. You got some spice, you got garlic, you got the parsley, just bringing flavor in all sorts of places.

“I’ve been all over south Louisiana, I’ve been all over Texas, and this is really a special crawfish place,” said customer John Boridy.

“I mean, if you really want to sit down and get messy, and greasy, and buttery, that’s what you need to do. That one time,” said Milan.

Well, whether you’re craving crawfish, king crab, snow crab, sausage, mushrooms, corn, covered in butter, come in to La Sireneta in Freeport, TX. It’s well worth a stop, on The Texas Bucket List!

“I feel like I had a lot of doubters that didn’t think I was going to get the restaurant going. Especially like you said, the location we’re at. There’s a lot of challenges. For you to even be here right now, it’s a true blessing. And we work really hard to be where we are right now, so it means a lot,” said  Ivan.

Fredericksburg – Fredericksburg is synonymous with Texas wine and just southwest of town, you’ll find a restaurant that relishes in recommending reds from all over the Lone Star State.  “We have the nation’s largest all Texas wine lists. In fact, that’s all we do is Texas wines,” said owner Ross Burtwell.

Burtwell created Cabernet Grill, a hearty hill country restaurant that happens to have a few fine places to stay just a few steps from the front door.  “It’s a bed and breakfast style lodging. We have two different styles. We have eighteen hundreds log cabins, which actually came out of Kentucky and Tennessee that are transported down here and built back together, log by log. And then just here in the past two years, we decided to expand the property. We’ve added a bunch of rock style cottages, real resemblant of what you find all around the Hill Country,” explained Ross.

If you’re really into Texas wine, this is a great feature for you. “We’re pulling them from every corner of the state. We have over 150 different wines available right now. And here in just the past couple of years, we’ve been honored twice by wine enthusiast magazine as being one of their top wine restaurants for the United States,” explained Ross.

Elizabeth Rodriguez is the wine sommelier and she’s put together this incredible collection of nothing but Texas wines. Why only Texas wines? “I strongly believe in supporting local and you know what Texas wine industry for the longest time just did not have a lot of people who are championing the cause. And the wines had really come along here in the past 15 years or so. I mean, they are producing some outstanding wines that are winning awards all over the country,” explained Ross.

But you need to have some good grub to go with good wine and trust me, you won’t be disappointed. Burt has a crazy concoction on his menu that I had to check off the list, a chicken fried ribeye. “The more time I can spend in that kitchen, getting creative, the happier guy I am,” joked Ross.

It doesn’t stop there, the ribeye is topped with a cream sauce that has lobster, bacon and green chilis in it. “You may never want to have a chicken fried steak on the menu, but our customers kept asking for it, asking for it, asking for it. So I decided, well, if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do the upgraded version of it. So out came the rib eye and out came the lobster and poof,” explained Ross.

“You take some lobster and add it to the top of a chicken fried ribeye is a pretty good idea,” said customer Janice Estill. “I don’t like to do anything that’s the same as anyone else. So we’re always looking at a different angle to do things,” stated Ross.

Ross takes a certified angus beef ribeye and breads it up with a combination of flour and saltine crackers.  That’s topped off with some homemade cajun seasoning.  On to the sauce. “I’ve got some fresh Maine lobster tails right here. We went ahead and we pulled these out of the shell and then we actually poached them in butter. So, we got this great texture going on to a very silky buttery taste. We’ll go ahead and slice that up a little bit,” explained Ross.

Once the gravy is good to go, Ross heads to the fryer. And come together it does. Now it’s time to pair this peculiar dish with a fine wine.

The lobster top chicken fried rib eye with green chili gravy. Of course it wouldn’t be complete without a nice Tempranillo. So we’ve got a little bit of that here to enjoy with our chicken fried steak. Cause we are fine dining this week on The Texas Bucket List.

My list of fine chicken fried steaks in the Lone Star State just got a new addition. It is amazing.

“Oh my gosh. It was amazing. The ribeye was super tender. You could cut it with a fork. It was full of flavor,” said customer Natasha Odom.

Can’t even classify it as chicken fried steak. You have to say rib eye. You can’t just say chicken fried steak. You have to say chicken fried rib eye. “So we got two entrees and then we figured out later that the rib eye, the fried rib eye is the thing to do. So we ordered a third one,” stated customer Spencer Odom.

Even down to the crunchiness that the saltines provide. Every little piece of this amazing dish has been thought out. “The lobster, just that makes it more rich,” said Janice.

Well, if you’re looking for a rare find when it comes to chicken fried steaks come to Fredericksburg to get your lips around a chicken fried ribeye topped with lobster and green chiles right here at the Cabernet Grill. “It’s a blessing. You know, I love living in the Hill Country. I love living in Fredericksburg and being somewhere that has so much focus on good quality wines and such. It’s great,” expressed Ross.